committees

[kansas64Member]

Cheetos thread about the Website and other thread recently have indicated that there have been (and still maybe) sub committees that have been created to assist the BOD. In two of the threads there has been an indication by a BOD member that this committees have gone dormant and are no longer doing what they were created to do, and little to nothing seems to be being done to fix these problems.
We have seen how the logo issue has exploded and at least myself I would be rather annoyed of sudden major changes to our site if they were handled like the logo was.
If those members that are on the subcommittees are not fulfilling there obligation why not phase those members out and find replacements to move the projects forward in a timely fashion?
I have been a WGA member roughly 15 months and have until just recently never seen anything regarding subcommittees, are they a secret society (kidding).
I also have stated several times to WGA BOD members that if there is anything I can do to help let me know, the only thing I have ever seen the BOD ask for is help is regarding events (which I have set temp caches at). I would think that someone like myself who is willing to help would be a way to get these ineffective subcommittees to become effective again. Why are we letting this happen?

Can we get a list of subcommittees in current existence that need some help? How about a open posting of those and finding out who would like to help?

Please I don’t want to see this become an attack like the Logo thread has become. Rather I would like us to address the issue and try to resolve it in a friendly fashion.

Thanks
Dean

[zumaParticipant]

I agree, Dean, that we need to revitilize the committee structure, and this should be a top priority of the Board of Directors over the coming months.

I could not find the motion that passed 2 years ago regarding this, but will attempt to share with you, and everyone, the history of this.

Two years ago, GeoPink while still president, made the following motion:

“Standing Committees
I am calling for several standing committees to be formed. The purpose is to give the board a hand with event planning by including membership in the planning process. The committees would be made up of both board members and WGA members. The goal is to give us each a focus area and not have everybody handle everything. Major decisions would still need to be approved by the board but all minor issues should be taken up on the committee level. What I’m trying to avoid is serious discussion about the type of sausage to buy for the pancacke breakfast taking place at our annual meeting when other matters can and should be taken up.

Campout Committee

Purpose: Planninng our Annual Spring Campout

Membership: 4 or 5 Board members on a rotating basis, 4 or 5 General members (Volunteer, approved by board, per event)

Conducting business: A specific Campout Committee Forum will be set up for all members to use in the planning of current and future campouts.

Goals: The committee’s first order of business will be to set a general timeline to follow in planning the campout.

Picnic Committee

Purpose: Planninng our Annual Fall Picnic

Membership: 4 or 5 Board members on a rotating basis, 4 or 5 General members (Volunteer, approved by board, per event)

Conducting business: A specific Picnic Committee Forum will be set up for all members to use in the planning of current and future picnics.

Goals: The committee’s first order of business will be to set a general timeline to follow in planning the yearly picnic.

Community Education

Purpose: To fulfil our purpoose as listed in the bylaws “Educate Wisconsin geocachers about the responsible use of natural resources and educate non-geocachers about the sport of geocaching.”

Membership: 5 non-officer board members, 4 General Members (Volunteer, approved by board, renewable one year term)

Conducting business: A specific Community Education Committee Forum will be set up for all members to use in the planning of initiatives and lesser events.

Goals: Set up a program to accomodate the numerous requests we recieve for assistance in speaking with groups and putting on presentations. Create some official WGA Literature (pamphlet{s}) for use throughout the state to unify the information we are presenting.”

STOP Quote.

This motion passed with substantial alteration. (I cannot locate a copy of the motion that did pass, and when I do, I will post it.) Basically the intent of the motion was left intact, but the numbers he used were modified for greater flexibility.

So, in the spring of 2007 we had a call for volunteers for the new committees, and started 4 committees:

Picnic Committee
Campout Committee
Web Committee
Community Education Committee

We did have a reasonable number of volunteers for each, and got off to a good start. However, over time the committees have grown dormant. The website committee has not had a post since March of 08 and the Community Education committee has not had a post since November of 07. We did have an active Picnic committee last fall, but even so the majority of the activity was by board members, and not by non board members as hoped for when the committee structure was created.

My feeling at this point is that growth of the WGA will be best facilitated by revitilizing our committee structure. We need to ask people on the committees who have not participated for a given amout of time, say 6 months, if they still want to serve, and if they do not still have interest, replace them with folks who do want to serve.

The original proposal for the committee structure was by Geopink, but it is the first thing that I actively supported when I got onto the Board 2 years ago because when I was on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin EMS Association, I found that the creation of committees was the best way to “get stuff done.” Basically, the idea is to identify what needs doing, find folks interested in doing it, then cut em loose, and with adequate oversight, and it will generally get done, costing the organization very little other than oversight and passing out kudos when the task is accomplished.

I also believe that a secondary advantage of committees, is that future leadership comes from within these groups. It is better to be able to vote for someone for a postion on the BOD once they have proved themselves doing something worthwhile.

I also believe that we should have a few more committees than the ones already in existance. For example, we should have a membership committee working on outreach to new members and helping them along, and looking for ways to create membership growth.

Currently, we have set up a folder in the forums here visible only by the members of those committees, and communication by each committee is done in tht forum, so all work can be done online, without generally needing face to face meetings.

I hope that answers your question.

zuma

[Lostby7Participant]

Please also keep in mind that if there are no pressing issues that requires a committees attention then none is given. Also most business which would fall under the scope of one of these committees has been hashed out on the boards publicly negating the need for special committee involvement.

In other words someone posts a website idea in the suggestion box and it is normally discussed there and usually handled by Jeremy and the board without debate or discussion in a private committee. For the most part unless there are substantial issues the committees would only serve to slow down the process.

Now if there is a special project which is raised, that should go on to a committee for development.

[cheezeheadMember]

So what does on have to do to get on the Web Site Committee? Not that I know nothin’ , but it might be interesting to work on.

[zumaParticipant]

@cheezehead wrote:

So what does on have to do to get on the Web Site Committee? Not that I know nothin’ , but it might be interesting to work on.

We are currently at work revitilizing the web committee. I posted to the web committee to see who is still alive and there are still 4 people there: abcdmCachers, TyeDyeSkyGuy, Averith, and Lostby7, in addition to the BOD members.

We also just added Cheeto to the web committee as the fifth member.

We also gave the web committee something to do: Decide what to do about the “places to eat” suggestion, so it is a working committee.

Others interested in being on the committee can volunteer here for consideration.

zuma

[Lostby7Participant]

[zumaParticipant]

[fitbobcatParticipant]

Inwould volunteee in the webmaster comittiee.

[WalkingadventureParticipant]

I was looking through the Forum titles to see if I have overlooked anything and saw this Topic.

This is a *bump* to get it back in front of people. Looks like a good resource to share ideas.

Give it a go and through out some ideas you’d like to see discussed.

Following the signals from space.

[Author]

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