When I saw this question, I opened up my response page on the laptop before anyone else had posted, so I wouldn’t feel that I was influenced by any of the other candidates responses.  I wanted to answer this question with honesty and not feel like I was copying anyone’s answers, or dissing the other candidates.  I didn’t want to say, “Oh, I will be better than so and so at doing that.”  I want to say straight up, that I cannot tell you why I would be the best candidate in just this answer.  I’ll be as dedicated as time and outside forces, i.e. work, will allow.  I’ll give ideas and listen to others during discussions.  As people who already know me will tell you, I will be passionate about things that really matter to me.  All in all, I will work diligently to improve the WGA.

This being said, the reason I don’t think its possible for me to tell you that I am the best candidate in this response alone, is that all of my answers to all of the questions put before me should be used to decided if I am the best candidate.  Every question posted is about something that concerns that member.  The answers I give should be looked at to see if that is the best way to address that concern.  Something like electing a person to represent our organization for two years is not something that should be taken lightly.  Gathering all the facts on the candidates, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, in order to assemble the best team to lead should be the primary goal of this election.

Don’t look to my opinions of why I should be the best candidate.  Read my answers, and determine for yourself if I would be addressing the needs of the WGA in a way that would benefit the entire membership.

If elected to the board I will bring fresh ideas and fresh  energy. I have a lot of experience working on teams and feel that experience will help me fit in. As the administrator of the Fox Valley Geocachers  Facebook page I have met a lot of people and have heard a lot of feed back and ideas for the board and would love to bring these to the board to try and make sure that member’s voices are heard. I am very outgoing and LOVE to talk to people, I feel I can get the voice of the members heard and their ideas and concerns addressed.

I have the time and energy to give a lot of myself to the board. I have one child that is 21, and work a standard business work week which will allow me a lot of time to focus on the WGA and what would be asked of me.

I also have a good “relationship” with technology that I could use to help bring the WGA further in the social media world and make our geographic locations feel closer.

Honestly, when I first saw the question, my initial thought was I think we’re all great candidates in our own ways, otherwise I don’t believe we would have been nominated.  That said, when I do something, I’m all in.  I’m committed to the tasks on hand, and will do whatever it takes to get the job done.  I’m the person that will be asking what else can I do to help.  Not all jobs or tasks will be fun, but someone has to do it.  I’m dedicated, and I bring positive attitude to the table.  Many times there will be difference in opinions, I view myself as open minded, and willing to hear other individuals thoughts, without placing judgement.  I also view myself as social and active, which I think are very good qualities for a BOD member to have.

AuntieNae Take Two – At the Waukesha Winter JanBoree Event last Saturday, I was asked to further elaborate on my earlier answer so here goes.

At the time I became a BOD member, the WGA was a bit different than it is today.  A few things I would like to mention, not to stir up controversy but rather to explain how my role as Treasurer has changed and even grown.  The WGA website hosting now represents a huge financial outlay each year for the organization but it is essential to our functioning.  It formerly was hosted on a donated server and the yearly costs were also donated in the earlier years.  We only had t-shirts or sweatshirts/hoodies sold at the yearly campout, typically themed and dated sole for the purpose of promoting the event.  All sales were pre-ordered and as such there were only a limited number of extra’s ordered and then sold at check in.  Fast forward to now, and I lost count of the number of apparel items we have sold each year.  We went from a single event item to currently what I call the WGA Branded items sold year round for the purpose of generating operational funding and getting our name and logo out in the geocaching world.  My first campout as Treasurer, I spent at most 2 hours handing out the pre-ordered shirts, selling the few extras and the geocoins we had at the time.  My current campouts are typically spent selling a variety of items all day.  It represents a huge shift.  I started with a piece of paper where we recorded the items we sold and the amount of money collected. It grew into an excel chart so we could better tally.  All sales were strictly cash or check.  I now have it that we are a PayPal Store so we have somewhat of a cash register set up where we can also process credit cards that represent a majority of our sales.  I have only scratched the surface of the reporting now possible in PayPal. In my earlier short answer I said I bring a level of experience and this is what I mean.  I have grown my position and have a handle on what people are asking for.  Sure it sounds great to place an order to have a full range of products but there is also a balancing of how much merchandise to order as it represents our funds being tied up in stock.  We also only have so much room to store things as well.  We have had shirts with multiple color ink that are best purchased in a larger quantity to take advantage of quantity discounts to make them affordable.  WGA events also featured temporary caches – I now can appreciate the level of work our earlier BOD members spent prior to an event setting these all up and following taking these all down.  Times have changed there as well because our whole temp caches had fallen out of favor with the geocaching world.  I am hoping that this helps give a better understanding of the role that I have played for the organization.