Life In 19x19

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:

Membership services
ii) 'dating website' type interface to allow isolated players to find each other and start chapters

Chapter services
i) simplify method of updating chapter contact information (a common complaint) (might be done already, I need to check)

Tournaments
ii) annual online tournament open to all AGA members
iii) The results of all major AGA tournaments should be posted to usgo.org as a matter of course -- when I left the tournament coordinator position everything was done, but updates are much less common now.

Volunteers
i) a volunteer job board to help recruit and retain talent -- 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.

Communications
i) create repository of teaching and publicity material on usgo.org to help chapters and teachers
ii) create an asian studies curriculum for elementary school students with go as part of the program -- the Europeans have already done this; the AGA just needs to get the material from them.

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.

daniel_the_smith wrote: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).

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?"

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

Kirby wrote:I know it probably won't happen, but I would still like hard-copy material (eg. a go magazine or newsletter in paper format).

It's more expensive than doing it electronically, so it probably isn't feasible. I would still like it, though.

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

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

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

vash3g wrote:

daniel_the_smith wrote: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).

Don't take this the wrong way...

*cough*. That. *cough*.

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

So, profanity is allowed on L19 now?

rubin427 wrote:

vash3g wrote:

daniel_the_smith wrote: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).

Don't take this the wrong way...

*cough*. That. *cough*.

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

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.

imabuddha wrote:So, profanity is allowed on L19 now?

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.

hyperpape wrote:

rubin427 wrote:

daniel_the_smith wrote: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).

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

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.

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.

Horibe wrote:

imabuddha wrote:So, profanity is allowed on L19 now?

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.

[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]

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.

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.