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First question, WOOT!
Thanks for your willingness to serve on the Board of Directors! As a BOD member, do you feel that the board should be doing all, most, or only some of the work behind the scenes to plan and carry out events and initiatives for the WGA? Any thoughts on how you would increase member involvement, if any, beyond just attendance?
Hi Hack1of2,
Historically I believe it’s been mostly the BOD behind the scenes whereas you get a couple volunteers for events. I would have to look back through the years, to see if any member involvement happened beyond that. To get membership involved in some areas where the BOD can direct vs do, can be extremely challenging. Unless retired, people have lives (not saying retired people don’t have lives as they do as well) where it can be family, employment, other things, etc., and most are unable or unwilling to invest time into something. To serve on a committee as a member, there needs to be commitment from that individual. I will continue to try to get membership involved if elected.
I have always been a fan of getting everyone who is affected by any decisions concerning planning events and initiatives involved in making the decisions. I believe that getting people to buy in to any process, has them commit to a group decision. For this, I think that as often as we can open up a discussion on any topic and get member feedback, it’s a win situation for the group.
jodibee
Views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA Board of Directors.
Hello Hack1of2!
My personal belief is that the BOD should be doing at minimum most of the work, however they should also allow the opportunity for community members to be involved if desired. My thinking that some people may feel passionate about a particular event, or initiative and want to help out with the planning process, but are unable to make a full commitment to a BOD position. In addition, this would allow for more direct input about particular events from the community members.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA Board of Directors
Congratulations on your First to Ask Hack1of2.
The Board should lead by example, making geocaching events and initiatives a priority. Communications is the key to growing involvement. Making the Geocaching community aware of activities is only the first step. People like to be invited to participate. I believe both of these things can be accomplished through the creation of a subscription-based newsletter delivered to subscriber inboxes. While not the only solution, it would be a good start.
In my experience, the board did a fair amount of the work. However, I always liked reaching out to the local geocachers of the chosen areas to see if there is another location that maybe we didn’t know about. It helps that the board is well versed with locations usually across the state so the option to ask local cachers is pretty easy.
Realistically the board members will do (and I am guessing have done) most of the heavy lifting. One way to build more participation is to encourage active cachers including those who attend events to help with the next activity. I think outreach by board members at these events is key. Talk to those present to gage interest.
I know the number of in-person events have been limited the last two years but as I mentioned in another post that encouraging local groups of cachers to plan their own informal gatherings or caching outings. We had a group in Rochester NY that got together once a month on a Sunday morning and then went out caching together . Sometimes it was four people and sometimes as many as ten…
From my experience serving on a board with another organization a few years ago, the biggest challenge is getting membership more involved and requires on-going outreach to the membership by the board. Board members will need to do a majority work but should provide opportunities for the membership to be involved such as encouraging local cachers to do hides for WGA events, getting involved in committees, or even just providing input on the direction the board should go. We must keep the membership informed using a variety of communication methods since not everyone is on social media. Every geocacher has a different level of involvement with geocaching, and that must be respected. Where geocachers have an interest in being more involved we need to invite and encourage that participation.
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The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA boardIn my opinion, the board of directors should be the ones doing most of the work, especially any behind the scenes work. But I would find it perfectly acceptable to solicit assistance from any member who is able to offer any type of assistance. This encourages member participation.
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