Questions for candidates – BOD Activity in the Forums

[Ray]

Members of the Board of Directors are elected for a two year term. One of their responsibilities is to communicate with the members through the use of our forums. Do you feel it is reasonable for members of the board to take a month or two off; not visiting our forums at all?

[K0rpl]

I feel that it is important to visit the forums on a regular basis. It doesn’t take long to type a few replies, and some people may take not responding for a few months, as you really don’t care about your position, or your constituents. Neither are good. Yes, I do think the BOD members should be accessible in the forums. I would say, at least be able to respond within a short amount of time.

Jusitn

[Team Deejay]

In a word, no. A board member cannot effectively serve if he is out of communication with his electors. The forums are the most effective channel we have for communication.

[rogheff]

Watch the forums – absolutely. Hover over the forums and voice our opinion on many, many subjects just to prove that we exist – no.

It’s important to make appropriate statements and give opinions and direction as needed.

[Cheesehead Dave]

Of course not. The forums should be visited at least weekly, if not more often.

Posting is a different story. Many times, by the time I read a thread, several people have already posted and either a question has been answered, or someone has already made a point that I agree with, so posting would just be a “me too!”, so I don’t think there should be a requirement to have any kind of a “post quota”.

[zuma]

[GrouseTales]

“Yes” and “no”.

The Bylaws spell out what is required by the board members:

Board Member Activity: Board Members are required to attend 75% of the meetings and participate in Board discussions and decision making on a regular basis, including accessing the Board of Directors’ Forum a minimum of twice weekly. Any Board Member who will be unavailable for Board business for an extended period must notify the President before his or her absence from Board business.

So yes, board members need to visit the “BOD forum” at least twice a week. Since most of the Boards work is done via the forum, BOD’s need to be present to voice their opinions.

Personally speaking, I probably check the forums about 5 times a day.

BOD’s are not required to post in the forums, and I don’t think they should be. I do think the BOD’s should be skimming the forums to stay in tune with what our members are talking about.

[Cache_boppin_BunnyFuFu]

I give a “YES & A “NO” also, not to just follow suit of a current BOD member, but it depends on the situation.

Bylaws state you must visit and participate in discussion, but it does pay to sit back and watch at times. Sometimes we need to just absorb what others are stating, If there is an even flow to discussion within a forum, just becasue a BOD member is not SEEN on there within that discussion, does not mean they have not visited. A silent eye can be watching and moderating. Is that a good thing??? All depends on the situation. If a forum is getting “Ugly” and no BOD memeber is stepping in.. then there is an issue.

Another issue may be that of illness, though GOD forbid any one of us, BOD or not, be ill that long. Communication to others, whether via forums or private needs to timely, so there is no wonder on where that BOD member is and are they slacking in ther position.

For me…..as a WGA member, I normally check on here numerous times a day, even at work (They haven’t blocked me even though this is a forum.. go figure). My weekends on at work, I often times have the WGA opened all day and observe between patient visits (YES.. my patients still come first). I have had some lag in time on forums, but that was by choice. As a member of the WGA BOD, I would make it part of my daily routine, if no computer issues arise or being pulled out of town with no access (though I am working on getting a laptop soon).

[LightningBugs Mum]

Not visiting for month or two? There is no way someone can hope to keep up with what is going on that way. If board members are required to participate in the BOD forum twice weekly, then they should be checking the entire forum that often as well. It doesn’t take that long – even with my hamster-driven dial-up modem. This forum is the WGA’s main channel of communication. I have no problem with an expectation by the membership that board members should visit it frequently.

But as was mentioned before, reading the forums and posting in the forums are two seperate things. I guess nobody should be forced to post, but it is a good idea to contribute once in a while as a way of letting people know “Yes, I’m here and paying attention.”

[Ray]

FYI…..

The last time someone has VISITED the forums is posted in members profile. Profiles look much better today than they did during the last week of December. ~tb

[GeoPink]

Members of the Board of Directors are elected for a two year term. One of their responsibilities is to communicate with the members through the use of our forums. Do you feel it is reasonable for members of the board to take a month or two off; not visiting our forums at all?

The forums are not the WGA, much like geocaching is not geocaching.com. Despite our best intentions, life can often get in the way of our duties. Just recently my son broke his leg. Much of my attention was devoted to that. Would that mean that one can not fulfill his or her responsibilities to the WGA and the BoD? Not at all. I used that time to tackle other WGA business that can not be done on the forums. I personally do not post and frequent the forums as much as I had in the past, for many reasons. But an absense from them would not be a reliable measure of activity or devotion.

[The Tapps]

A month would be to long for checking the forums. The Question wasn’t response on the forums. I agree response is needed when a answer is there. If a member of the Board of Directors missed too much time they would miss out on many things going on. They should be there for the members to help the best they can. Is not that the idea of the BOD? Not just make the decisions on other matters.

Brian / The Tapps

[AuntieNae]

Do you feel it is reasonable for members of the board to take a month or two off; not visiting our forums at all?

A two year term = 24 months. Is it reasonable to take 2 of those months off? Really, I think not. Even if they are busy, how difficult is it to carve out perhaps one block of time each week to read the current postings to get a feel for what is going on and being planned? Sure situations come up but how hard is it to keep in contact?

[Whats Next]

I would agree that the forums are NOT the WGA. I would wager that it’s actually a minority of members that regularly read the forums and an even smaller minority that do the majority of posting.

I don’t think an absence of a month is appropriate, but I would argue that a BoD member could maintain communication through other means such as events, caching with others, or private communications.

[Author]

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