Well, it seems that each summer something in my life has happened that has taken me away from the site enough to make me wonder what happens to the site, if I'm not available as much as I would like. The summer before last, it was a series of headaches and the resulting medical care. The result was a more formal definition of the various roles of the staff and trying to make sure that if I was away for a few weeks or a month the site would continue to run smoothly. I think we achieved those goals.
This summer, it was the terminal illness and resulting death of two of my close family members, my cousin in Winston-Salem and my Mother in FL. With too much time on my hands, I did a lot of thinking about a lot of things. One of which is, what happens, if I am gone for an extended period of time. My mother's situation was one that was supposed last for up to a year. If that had happened, I would be down in FL more than I would be in NC.
Another scenario is what if my wife and I decide to move back to the left coast. The primary thing that made us choose NC over Portland, OR was being closer to my mother in her last years. (No, I am not currently planning to move:lol:, but my the LOML is making noises:-()
So how does the site continue in the way I envision it, without me. (Forget the financial aspect for now.) It is not enough for the site to just continue operating the way it is. Some of you my not agree with the following assumptions that I am going make. But I ask you you to trust me a bit on this. Over the last 2 years, I have been right more often than I have been wrong about some of my weird ideas:lol:
Second I must broach a subject that is sensitive, because some of you may feel that I am explicitly talking about them, or I am trivializing there contributions, or that I am insulting them, in some other way. That is not intended. I just feel that a few things and attitudes must change.
When I first started the idea of staff positions and started recruiting for them, I tried to make it clear that you were volunteering and that you should feel that whatever you could do was enough and don't worry about it. Now I feel that must change. Whatever job you have, will require a degree of commitment and you will have an assumed obligation to make your staff duties a very high priority. This is even more important with the technical duties associated with your position. You must master them and then use them.
There is an assumption that I am some great web site guru and that is why I can do some of the technical things that I have done. This is not true. I had never run a website. I never even heard of vbulletin, or programmed in PHP or ever used MySQL. I learned what I have by doing. When something needed doing, I went and learned how to do it by doing it. Everyday that I fix a bug or add an enhancement, I learn something new. This is what all of you must do too, in your position's technical aspects.
Now before everyone decides that they should resign, please don't do that. I will be posting a proposed new staff organization and Job Descriptions. Help me modify that document into something that will actually work:eusa_danc and then we will go from there to a much more robust site.
After we discussed this subject and after we have ripped apart my proposal document, if the consensus here is that I am asking too much, then I'll drop the matter.
This summer, it was the terminal illness and resulting death of two of my close family members, my cousin in Winston-Salem and my Mother in FL. With too much time on my hands, I did a lot of thinking about a lot of things. One of which is, what happens, if I am gone for an extended period of time. My mother's situation was one that was supposed last for up to a year. If that had happened, I would be down in FL more than I would be in NC.
Another scenario is what if my wife and I decide to move back to the left coast. The primary thing that made us choose NC over Portland, OR was being closer to my mother in her last years. (No, I am not currently planning to move:lol:, but my the LOML is making noises:-()
So how does the site continue in the way I envision it, without me. (Forget the financial aspect for now.) It is not enough for the site to just continue operating the way it is. Some of you my not agree with the following assumptions that I am going make. But I ask you you to trust me a bit on this. Over the last 2 years, I have been right more often than I have been wrong about some of my weird ideas:lol:
- The site most always have a growing membership. People will always come and go.
- The site must always change, in appearance, in features, in activities, etc.
- The site must keep reasonably up to date, on a technical basis, vbulletin, PhotoPost, etc.
- Where new and/or modified functionality is required and is not available, then site staff must be able to make the necessary changes themselves.
Second I must broach a subject that is sensitive, because some of you may feel that I am explicitly talking about them, or I am trivializing there contributions, or that I am insulting them, in some other way. That is not intended. I just feel that a few things and attitudes must change.
When I first started the idea of staff positions and started recruiting for them, I tried to make it clear that you were volunteering and that you should feel that whatever you could do was enough and don't worry about it. Now I feel that must change. Whatever job you have, will require a degree of commitment and you will have an assumed obligation to make your staff duties a very high priority. This is even more important with the technical duties associated with your position. You must master them and then use them.
There is an assumption that I am some great web site guru and that is why I can do some of the technical things that I have done. This is not true. I had never run a website. I never even heard of vbulletin, or programmed in PHP or ever used MySQL. I learned what I have by doing. When something needed doing, I went and learned how to do it by doing it. Everyday that I fix a bug or add an enhancement, I learn something new. This is what all of you must do too, in your position's technical aspects.
Now before everyone decides that they should resign, please don't do that. I will be posting a proposed new staff organization and Job Descriptions. Help me modify that document into something that will actually work:eusa_danc and then we will go from there to a much more robust site.
After we discussed this subject and after we have ripped apart my proposal document, if the consensus here is that I am asking too much, then I'll drop the matter.
