Life In 19x19

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Perhaps requiring a yearly (or at least regular) update from a representative of the club would instill a closer relationship between the two groups. I could see this prompting all kinds of more formal actions and interactions on both sides, as opposed to the loose acquaintances that exist now in some clubs.

Email clubs every six months to prompt for updates. If they don't respond within one month, send a second email and if they don't respond to that, post "cannot contact, club may be defunct" on the website. Leave it like that for a while, and then drop the listing.

There may be ways to tweak that and make it better, but it isn't a bad plan, and it isn't hard to make a decision about it. The public doesn't even have to know what the exact plan is! This is an administrative/technical decision.

As for the programming necessary to automate the process, I don't want to underestimate the unforeseen complications, but I can't imagine that this is more complicated than some of the major technical efforts that are underway.

And I really agree with Tapir that this is a big issue.

It is funny that the request for mere maintenance of a list produces "automation fantasy" replies. Mind you, there was a time people ran bigger organisations manually. For me it was just running some hours in circles in New York to find one of the listed clubs, you didn't lose a member with me. But I can tell you that, when the same happened to me in my home town, I didn't frequent go clubs for about two years (this includes not becoming a member of the association etc.) and just started doing so when I moved to another city.

It's true that it can be done, but once you're used to things working a certain way, the old way grates. Tracking down 500 (or 200 or whatever) email addresses and making sure that each one of them returns an email is frustrating and error prone. Most people will do it badly on their first try, and the AGA has frequent turnover in volunteers.

A nice stopgap might be to send something out in the ejournal requesting that members check their club's information and/or send in a contact email.

tapir wrote:Mind you, there was a time people ran bigger organisations manually.

Sounds like a volunteer!!

Honestly, the choice of how or if to automate would be made during the determination of the options available. I don't believe anyone suggested automation was the only solution. (e.g. msgreg: "There may be automated ways to determine club health"). But it can be a solution that provides stable and consistent results.

Automation seems to work great on the chapter creation side. Try changing your chapter information online and see the AGA list update immediately. No fantasy required.