I am a big believer in if you can't do the little things right it's pretty hard to do the big things right. As a new volunteer I have been lucky to work with some cool people who care but I get the general sense that there is a leadership vacuum and new volunteers are almost on their own. It would be nice to have some sort of orientation document on how things work for new volunteers so they have some level of comfort.

I just got access to the webmaster account and nobody had answered email for four months. I know the position was vacant for a while but someone should have been checking the account (a certain 9D pro wanted some information undated, I don't think waiting months for a reply made us look good). It also appears that some of the email addresses listed on the web site are not being checked at all, again this is the little stuff that drives people crazy when dealing with the AGA. Maybe the short term focus should be on "thick moves" like making our organization base stronger before we attempt grand plans with weak shape. The day it doesn't take 3 months and 10 emails to get chapter listing information updated will be a day of progress.

Summary so far, categorized in importance according to my whim:

Urgent problems:
* Improve "user experience"; leave people with a good feeling when they interact with the AGA (yertle).
* Fix interaction with volunteers (pwaldron: the volunteers I have spoken to after they left have had the universal feeling of being used. It's not a way to build an organization.)
* My interpretation: there's a perception that the AGA is incompetent/scatterbrained, which is quite possibly based in reality. My ideas for possible resolutions: don't overload volunteers. Redundant volunteers (don't have just a single person doing an important task). Public commitments/goals (so everyone knows who is trying to do what). Some form of rapid public recognition/feedback for completing tasks for the organization (e.g., karma on reddit). Place on the website for rapidly updating the status of the various AGA goals (so, say, you could look at the rating certificate project and find that it needs a volunteer). Please suggest more, I think the AGA needs to try and fix this right away.

Important:
* Go promotion/education (jts). (specific goals: tournament w/ prizes? --oren)

* Analyze (important because it affects future decisions):
** historical analysis of membership -- how long do people stay AGA members? Why do they leave? How long does their membership have to be expired before we're unlikely to see them renew? (pwaldron)
** analysis of whether online games should be included in the same ratings pool as face-to-face games (pwaldron)
** demographic analysis of AGA members -- to help attract sponsors interested in targetting a particular audience. (pwaldron)
** historical analysis of whether youth players remain AGA members after losing their youth subsidies -- with that information the board can decide whether the current youth efforts are working to provide long-term members to the AGA (pwaldron)

Useful and low-hanging fruit:
* Provide simple templates for less tech-savvy chapters to create their own webpages. The standard AGA chapter webpage would have a page for club information, a Google Maps link to the club meeting place, an announcement page and an online photo gallery. (pwaldron)
* TD training manual to allow an inexperienced but motivated player to run their own event. (pwaldron)
* Provide guidance/mentorship to new chapters. (hilltopgo, me)
* Create repository of teaching and publicity material on usgo.org to help chapters and teachers. (pwaldron)
* Put some money in a diplomacy slush fund. (Helel)
* Whatever the board decides, publicly announce it and let the membership hold us accountable. (me)

People who feel strongly should volunteer and take charge (i.e., not bad ideas but not organization-wide goals either):
* Hard-copy of e-journal stuff (Kirby, locoron).


Did I miss anything? Is there anything you want to add? I don't think all of this can be a goal at the same time; what do you think is the most important?


Other great pwaldron suggestions that aren't above and weren't mentioned in the board meeting. maybe for next year:

_________________
That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
--
My (sadly neglected, but not forgotten) project: http://dailyjoseki.com

Publicizing the places where volunteers are needed is definitely important.

There are at least a few resources for a new TD available on the website. And there are teaching and publicity materials available as well. So people complaining about that should probably try and point out some of the ways we need to go beyond what's already available.

I am continually surprised by what's on the AGA website. Perhaps that's just me but perhaps there are ways to make finding things easier.

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Occupy Babel!

Don't take this the wrong way...

Copulate. That. Detritus.

[edited due to TOS violations, wouldn't you miss my shining thoughts into aga's past insanity?"

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Decisions are made by those who show up.
and possibly those willing to attend secret meetings in ancient basements

This is just a quick reply, but I thought I had something to add. In terms of the website, we are currently in the process of a major migration and updating a lot of the content, so I think that this is the perfect time to make suggestions about how the content might be organized differently and additional types of content that might be included.

That said, the migration project will take some time and is largely being done in a way that does not disrupt the use of the current website, so even the changes that we do make may not be instantly visible. (People who know more than I do should please correct me.)

Anyone who has any urgent issues should also feel free to send me a PM here or to email me (my email address is available from the AGA website, or you can use lisa.scott@usgo.org). I will try to keep up with this thread, but I trust that Daniel will do a better job of that than I.

Lisa

There has been talk about making at least the Yearbook (now that it is only electronic) printable, through print-on-demand-type websites and at an extra cost. As far as I know, we decided that this was possible but did not actually set anything up. That said, if this is a popular idea we could probably get something set up in the relatively near future.

Lisa

Does this imply that the topic was discussed at the Sept. board meeting? If so, what were the results?

my (likely flawed) interpretation: kindly use the wiki for that.

So, profanity is allowed on L19 now?

That's probably the right place for it, but we'd also need to make sure that people can find it, which they can't right now.

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Occupy Babel!

With no one posting, I suspect the admins are not being as vigilant - and Joaz - who tends to be on top of things during this time period, appears to be having a life at the moment, judging by his envy producing thread.

Let me explain: that stupid crap was going on for 6-7 years with no progress. pwaldron asked for help and got diddly squat from higher up in aga. since then also nothing has happened. just let it DIE DIE DIE. in a fire would be awesome.

_________________
Decisions are made by those who show up.
and possibly those willing to attend secret meetings in ancient basements

[admin]

Contrary to the opinions of some of my detractors, I do not go about looking for things to censor. The most I do is to regularly glance at the list of reports. If it doesn't get reported, I and other admins may not see it.

There is an icon for reporting posts that are in violation of the TOS. It is the red exclaimation mark in the lower right of every post. Please use it in circumstances like this.


The posts that are clearly in violation of the TOS will be changed. If you wish to continue a discussion on the subject, please PM me or start a new thread in the 'Bugs and suggestions' forum. I'd like to keep this thread on topic.

EDIT: A few discrete gentlemanly coughs have been inserted in the appropriate places in posts #29 and #31.

[/admin]

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

Getting back on topic...


IMHO, the AGA's presentation in this thread is a bit too hopey-changey. I'd like to see some leadership. Sure, you need to know what the membership wants, but I think that they have offered enough suggestions so that action is possible.

I suggest:
1) Pick one thing that you think needs to be done.
2) Announce that you are going to do it.
3) Make sure that it is clearly defined so that there is no uncertainty about when it is complete. ( Think Karl Popper here )
4) Do it.
5) Tell the members that you have done it.

I think that this would help build the members' confidence tremendously.


BTW, the particular thing that you choose does not have to be the members' number one priority, nor does it have to be anything big. You just need public evidence of concrete progress. Once we see that, we'll cut you a lot of slack on the details.

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

I'd like to see the AGA President take on a more Dictatorial role. At the moment the president and board spend their time listening to people, and starting to do things, then changing their mind after somebody tells them they're wrong. Well lets face it, this isn't going to solve anything at all. I think the President should start ignoring everyone and just do whatever suits him. That's what the community wants and its what the community deserves.

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North Lecale

I'm out of town on my phone, so no long responses right now. But I am still reading. Java, that would require a rewrite of the bylaws. Joaz, don't worry, I'll form my own agenda. I'd like it to be based in reality as much as possible, though.

_________________
That which can be destroyed by the truth should be.
--
My (sadly neglected, but not forgotten) project: http://dailyjoseki.com

Depending on the leader, this can be super good or it can be a complete disaster. This is now common sense, from human history.Not exactly.

True. But 90% of that range of outcomes would be better than the uncertainties and ambiguities that we have now. And we can always vote for a new leader if the worst 10% does occur.

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Help make L19 more organized. Make an index: https://lifein19x19.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5207

Dictators can be indecisive and decisive people don't have to be dictatorial.

_________________
Occupy Babel!

Yes, and Yes. You cannot solve all problems at once, progress is made in little steps. Success breeds success. So create a successful little step, and start building momentum, by completing 1 action quickly and moving on to the next action item.

A couple of things to remember while selecting the Action items:
1) Avoid NIH (Not Invented Here) but support external initiatives that meet a need and try to integrate them into your references pages and request features that will help our members. Here are established volunteers that you don't have to recruit, manage, etc. Don't ignore them, or duplicate their effort, or marginalize them in any way. They have already proven systems. Some that come to mind, forums (integrate with Lifein19x19, it looks like that is happening nicely so don't divert it with a sure to fail AGA initiative) and player location service (IgoLocal), Go servers (KGS can set up private AGA only room if you want, and many others like DGS, IGS and OGS.) Leverage, leverage, leverage, drop the ego desire to invent your own.

2) Look for what the AGA can uniquely bring to the Go Playing community. What is missing, where are the gaps, how can the AGA serve as an integrating agent for all the external initiatives that help the membership. This is the sweet spot for the AGA. Trying to own the all the Go action in the US is one reason the AGA has failed so miserably in getting anything done, trying to do everything you end up doing nothing. Learn from playing the game we are supporting, Go is a game of market share, so act like you are trying to share the market and find out what part you can handle.

3) Listen more than you talk. There are about 2 orders of magnitude between the leadership and the membership, so for any problem it is more likely you will find the answer in a member than a leader. What is unique for the leader is being in a position to integrate all that comes from the membership.

so lets get back to the topic...

_________________
Michael Dobbins; Dragon: mdobbins, KGS: mgd, AGA#: 4253,
My Website