AGA priorities

rubin427 · **#81**

pwaldron wrote:

The AGA in its current state is dysfunctional--it is incapable of taking an idea (good, bad or the best) and pushing it forward to completion.

Let me provide evidence to the contrary.
1) About 20 months ago, I suggested a fundraising idea for the AGA.

2) When I went to congress in 2010, the idea had already been picked up by the board, and was slowly moving forward.

3)That idea has now been implemented.

I would like to emphasize that I didn't do jack. I just had the idea and it worked it's way up through the system and became reality.

vash3g · **#82**

rubin427 wrote:

pwaldron wrote:

The AGA in its current state is dysfunctional--it is incapable of taking an idea (good, bad or the best) and pushing it forward to completion.

Let me provide evidence to the contrary.

While this is a one-off score, it was picked up by a desperate development committee (headed by a board member) and they ran with it. I can honestly not remember a successful goal that came from the top. I only remember successes that came from the bottom and were forced/begged to the top.

rubin427 · **#83**

vash3g wrote:

I can honestly not remember a successful goal that came from the top.

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that.

vash3g wrote:

I only remember successes that came from the bottom and were forced/begged to the top.

You and I have very different expectations from a non-profit, volunteer based organization. I would assume that success being fostered from the bottom up would be considered natural and positive.

daniel_the_smith · **#84**

The original source of a goal/priority/task/etc is inconsequential. The important thing is that the organization as a whole is capable of (1) identifying useful things to do, and then (2) actually doing them. IMO, we haven't seen a great deal of either step from the AGA over and above the minimum.

You should expect some visionary thinking from those in charge. But it's totally OK if they didn't come up with the ANY of the elements of their grand plan on their own. Criticize us for the net deficiency in visionary thinking and subsequent accomplishments; that would be totally fair, but it doesn't sound like the criticism you're making.

pwaldron · **#85**

daniel_the_smith wrote:

You should expect some visionary thinking from those in charge. But it's totally OK if they didn't come up with the ANY of the elements of their grand plan on their own. Criticize us for the net deficiency in visionary thinking and subsequent accomplishments; that would be totally fair, but it doesn't sound like the criticism you're making.

Agreed. Delivery is what matters, although the topic of visionary leadership brings this to mind...

daniel_the_smith · **#86**

The board voted to try and accomplish 5 things before the next congress, including (one of) my suggestions of improving the member experience. Allen, Lisa, and I are supposed to have a discussion about which of the sub-points I listed would be best to focus on. I'll keep you posted.

(The other four were fundraising, finding new methods to market go and increase membership, rank certification, and the hopefully-upcoming American pro system.)

pwaldron · **#87**

It's an ambitious list, but it's good to aim high. I (and I'm sure others) will watch closely for updates.

Joaz Banbeck · **#88**

Nice goals. :clap:

Can you define them a bit more? ( I mean "improving the member experience" sounds great, but what does it involve? Beer and hookers? )

jts · **#89**

Joaz Banbeck wrote:

( I mean "improving the member experience" sounds great, but what does it involve? Beer and hookers? )

Please. Go is one of the highest blossomings of mankind's aesthetic yearnings. We need to conduct ourselves with a dignity appropriate to the rich cultural traditions of the game. Crude behavior and crude moves go hand in hand.

So we shouldn't settle for anything less than sake and geisha.

daniel_the_smith · **#90**

Joaz Banbeck wrote:

Nice goals. :clap:

Can you define them a bit more? ( I mean "improving the member experience" sounds great, but what does it involve? Beer and hookers? )

Well, for that one, I can repeat the list I gave. Lisa, Allen, and I are supposed to discuss it in more detail and pick a few.

me wrote:

1. Fix the AGA "user experience."
* Make interacting with the AGA as easy as possible (example: no one had been looking at the email to the webmaster while the position was vacant; lots of requests had gone unnoticed for months).
* Don't overload/overwork volunteers; make sure volunteers get public recognition.
* Improve/fix/change whatever the AGA does now to make a system which: a) notices when a volunteer goes AWOL and recovers, b) doesn't make volunteers feel like we don't trust them, and c) reduces the chance that volunteers will go AWOL.
* Create a "How to run an AGA chapter" document. Send it to new chapters. (method: task someone with soliciting feedback from current chapter reps and compiling it. Have someone else edit it.)
* Create a chapter mentorship system. Obtain and publish a list of chapter reps who are willing and able to help new chapters get started. Make sure everyone knows who to contact when they have a question they don't know the answer to.
* Announce our goals in the ejournal so members can hold us accountable. Inform the membership about what the board is doing; I think there ought to be a position, held by one of the board members, with a job description of keeping members informed. This person would do things like write press releases for the ejournal, etc. Posting the minutes to the website is not enough; people don't read them and they're a month behind anyway. If you all agree, I'll volunteer.

For the other goals, no list like the above was behind them. You'll have to judge from the minutes how well defined you think they are. IMO one of them has an under-specified success condition.

The board meeting was quite long, we spent a lot of time discussing this, and perhaps even more discussing some policies Gordon has recommended we implement. (We voted to send the policies to the policy and governance committee for review. HKA, if you're lurking-- hide, they're coming for you. ;-)

)

vash3g · **#91**

daniel_the_smith wrote:

Well, for that one, I can repeat the list I gave. Lisa, Allen, and I are supposed to discuss it in more detail and pick a few.

I like that only two board members (the new ones) and the president are on that list [/sarcasm]

daniel_the_smith wrote:

The board meeting was quite long, we spent a lot of time discussing this, and perhaps even more discussing some policies Gordon has recommended we implement. (We voted to send the policies to the policy and governance committee for review. HKA, if you're lurking-- hide, they're coming for you. ;-)

)

I do believe HKA resigned from that committee, you'll have to find some other old aga volunteer to contact from that committee.

daniel_the_smith · **#92**

vash3g wrote:

daniel_the_smith wrote:

Well, for that one, I can repeat the list I gave. Lisa, Allan, and I are supposed to discuss it in more detail and pick a few.

I like that only two board members (the new ones) and the president are on that list [/sarcasm]

Well, to be fair, it was my list, and Lisa had spoke up about it also. And honestly, the fewer people in such discussions the more productive they tend to be, so I'm not complaining. Also: Andy has his hands full with the developing pro system. Gordon wanted to turn the list we voted on into a strategic plan and will be putting together some sort of proposal along those lines for the next board meeting. To be fair the other way, Andy, myself, Lisa and Allan were the only ones to suggest priorities.

vash3g wrote:

daniel_the_smith wrote:

The board meeting was quite long, we spent a lot of time discussing this, and perhaps even more discussing some policies Gordon has recommended we implement. (We voted to send the policies to the policy and governance committee for review. HKA, if you're lurking-- hide, they're coming for you. ;-)

)

I do believe HKA resigned from that committee, you'll have to find some other old aga volunteer to contact from that committee.

Yes, they're aware of that. Some on the board seem to think it works like the voting register in Chicago (for those of you who haven't lived around here: even dying doesn't always get your name off the list).

Yertle · **#93**

daniel_the_smith wrote:

I do believe HKA resigned from that committee, you'll have to find some other old aga volunteer to contact from that committee.

Yes, they're aware of that. Some on the board seem to think it works like the voting register in Chicago (for those of you who haven't lived around here: even dying doesn't always get your name off the list).

After 2 months as webmaster something I would really appreciate is an org chart of some type that a) is relatively current so we know if the post has a warm body or someone on the dead list and b) gives some idea who is responsible for what. I get quite a few inquiries and it's pretty sad that I have no clue where to send people where I know someone will answer. I get the strong sense that nobody really knows who is responsible for what which leads to frustration and a lack of accountability. It seems sometimes that a person is supposed to be in charge of something but they are absent and some random person picked up the flag but nobody outside a small group knows it.

pwaldron · **#94**

Yertle wrote:

After 2 months as webmaster something I would really appreciate is an org chart of some type <snip>

That seems like a job that the volunteer coordinator can help with.

xed_over · **#95**

pwaldron wrote:

Yertle wrote:

After 2 months as webmaster something I would really appreciate is an org chart of some type <snip>

That seems like a job that the volunteer coordinator can help with.

I'd bet he has the same issue

daniel_the_smith · **#96**

Yertle wrote:

... I would really appreciate is an org chart of some type ...

I would like that, too. I don't know if the volunteer coordinator is the best person to do that, or not. I will mention this to the appropriate people when I get a chance.

Oh, this is probably a good time to say we learned at the board meeting that the AGA is looking for a new volunteer coordinator. Allan reported that the current (former?) one was stepping down.

tapir · **#97**

I have no business with the AGA but an up to date list of go meetings / clubs / chapters should take priority over a professional system or whatever fancy stuff. Small things matter.

Best, Tapir.

hyperpape · **#98**

Can anyone comment on how good/bad the current chapter/club list is? It was in awful shape the last time I had to use it, but that was three or four years ago and a lot could have changed. I skimmed through the rest of the thread, and I didn't see anyone addressing that.

Either way, setting up an easy way to keep it up to date is a good idea to prevent it from ever getting really bad again.

LocoRon · **#99**

hyperpape wrote:

Can anyone comment on how good/bad the current chapter/club list is?

Well, a quick check reveals that, for my town, there is still a club being listed that has not actually met in at least 6 years.

msgreg · **#100**

New AGA chapters are listed immediately and automatically during chapter sign up. The difficulty I think is that chapters or clubs that disappear are very difficult and time consuming to determine. There was a nearby club that wasn't responding to email and their phone was unlisted. And a volunteer was needed to find out if they still met at the location listed on their website.

There may be automated ways to determine club health. But that system would need to be thought out, developed, and programmed. The hysteresis and the false negatives of any proposed system would need to be evaluated and determined acceptable. If a club leader resigned suddenly, how long do you give the successor to re-establish contact before declaring them dead (or "on probation" or whatever)? Perhaps volunteer clubs from the same state or area can call and email yearly the other clubs and identify "no answers" to the database coordinator.

AGA priorities

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