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graphicsgirl19 4 years, 7 months ago.
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Article IV: Board of Directors The management and administration of the affairs of the WGA shall be governed by a Board of Directors consisting of nine (9) members: four (4) officers and five (5) Members-at-Large.
I really hope that no one takes this post and any related questions the wrong way. It’s purpose is to garner thoughts and viewpoints from our nominees for the improvements in the affairs and business of the organization.
As I review the WGA website this morning, I notice many areas in the tabs that need vast improvements. Maintaining the website and what it holds for the membership is just a small slice of the pie in the business of the WGA. Please give your thoughts and ideas on how any aspect of WGA business can show improvements. Should the board seek more help from volunteer members? Should the bylaws be amended to allow for more BOD members?
The responsibilities of the BOD are far reaching. They probably are most noticeable to the membership in the maintenance of the WGA website. But, there is are so many more and not having served on the BOD it is very likely that I may not understand every last one of those responsibilities. I do know that they include attendance at meetings, working at certain events throughout the year, and building and maintaining relations with local and state agencies.
As I stated in my question above, I noticed many areas in the tabs of our website that need improvements. I believe that this maintenance can be shared amongst the members of the BOD as to not overload just a few of the members in this responsibility.
Here is an example of some of the things I found just within one tab and its drop down menu items. In the “WGA Awesome Games” tab, 3 out of 6 of the options here seemed to be maintained well. The LCG, Cache Rescue, and Oldest Cache by County options seemed to be maintained well when I look further into those areas for information. The State Park Series, COTM, and Travel Bug Race are areas that seem to need improvements. For instance, in the SPS, the wife and I have found 24 of the WGA caches but it only shows that we have found 2. In the cache of the month, there are 407 caches on the WGA book mark list, but 199 of those caches are archived. Also, I do not believe that the book mark list and related map are current. Reason being; one of our caches had been awarded this honor back in 2017, but it does not show up on the bookmark list or the map. In the Travel Bug Race tab, it shows that the “race is still in progress” for the 2019-2020 race. It also shows that the race page has not been updated since 2/24/2020. This race had once been administered with a third party website, but now is left to a WGA member volunteer to administer through Facebook.
As you can see, the need for improvements in just one minute piece of the puzzle are extensive. I believe member volunteer opportunities are essential in maintaining some aspects of the WGA affairs, but I believe that the greater load should be carried by those that are elected. I also believe that if we can better maintain and keep up-to-date the fun opportunities and information most easily accessible through the website to the membership, there would be higher member traffic.
My thoughts are that the WGA should be seeking more voluntary membership involvement, but only in things like Facebook page administrative roles or hosting some WGA sponsored events during the year. The other items need to be tackled by the BOD and increasing the numbers of members elected to the board to share responsibilities hopefully would help address many issues that need improvements.
I think the key to the success of the WGA as a whole and also for growth is reflected in the sentence that you copied and pasted from the bylaws. It is the responsibility of the Board to “manage” and “administer” the affairs of the WGA.
In order for the Board to manage and administer well, we need to get more involvement from the WGA membership – so that the Board is indeed managing and administering the “affairs” of the WGA. If elected to the board, it is no longer about what I want or what I think primarily, but rather what the membership desires and is thinking. I would like there to be more committies made up of members who would have discussions, do research, come up with a plan that could then be presented to the Board. Ultimately, it will be the Board who makes the decisions – for this is the role of any Board, but a successful Board will base its’ decisions on what the general membership wants. I am about empowering people whenever possible; giving them a task and then stepping back to allow them to do the task, while at the same time keeping them accountable to what they agreed to.
I tend to be a goal setter. I think it is healthy to have goals.I like to have different types of goals; short-term goals (3-6 months); mid-term goals (6-12 months); long-term goals (1-2 years). I have geocaching goals, personal goals, work goals, etc. I would love to see the WGA Board be more specific in goal setting. I believe in doing so the “affairs” of the WGA members can be more well represented.
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
As far as the website goes, as a current BOD, I can assure this issue is a hot topic and is being discussed frequently. I agree that goals would be nice however in the current times, flexibility and adapting is going to be key. To build off of Lacknothing, it is what the membership wants and it is also what is going to be safe for everyone. Do we want the idea of someone getting sick at our events on our minds in a legality sense? Could we live with that? In an age of sueing, could we afford that…Not saying anyone would but we have to consider the What Ifs.
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