For not much going on it’s been very busy since my last post mostly centered on cleaning up the website.
Events calendar The new system of adding events to the homepage using Membership works instead of WordPress is working. I’ve written a detailed instruction set for how to add events which is being tested. With luck by next week directors will be able to post events like section meetings without home office help. I’ll do an in-service training at an upcoming board meeting to get folks up to speed. Part of what goes with this is the charge that directors talk with each other before scheduling a section meeting and do their best to avoid piling meetings onto the same day. It’s a shame that I can’t attend all three on Oct 11th: Pacific Northwest which will be at Litton, the Midwest which will have hands on workshops, and the Northeast which I’ve wanted to get to for a long time. We need to find a way to be more respectful of each other. We need to find a way to collaborate and allow for greater participation by members outside your home section.
Board pages I changed the location of the board of directors page link to make it more obvious to find. Hopefully it will be.
Bylaws changes I uploaded the three bylaws changes voted on by the BOD at the June meeting. These need a second vote sometime after Oct 25th to become law. The only substantial (IMJ) change is that all membership categories will be able to vote on national issues including BOD elections. You can find the proposed motions on the board records page. If you have an opinion about them contact your director and let them know how you feel. This is a representative democracy. Contact your elected official.
Section pages Many section pages are out of date. To avoid confusion about what’s happening I added a notice to the top of pages with outdated info pointing people at the homepage calendar for up to date info. Once directors feel comfortable adding events to the calendar (or sending their update to the home office or myself) the next step is to teach directors how to update their section page without help… one step at a time. The goal is to make it easy to keep information on the website current and relevant.
Section News page I gave the section map a more obvious menu location so it can be found a bit easier. I also updated the description of sections and how you can participate in them.
Website backend cleanup I’m working with Steve the webmaster to find a way to delete a lot of no longer used webpages dating as far back as 2016. I also hope to review and delete some of the many unused WP plug-ins. If we can accomplish this it means the site will load faster and respond more quickly.
Membership Committee I’m on the tail end of getting access to Membership works for the membership committee. As soon as they are in they can start processing memberships on their own instead of asking the home office to do it for them.
Secretary’s Minutes I’ve had some good conversations with Andy Gibbs our current secretary on how to make minutes quickly and easily available after a board meeting. Since we moved to offering the Zoom recording and transcript to all members there is no need for the highly detailed multi page minutes of the past, it would be a duplication of the transcript. It looks as though we should be able to have official minutes available within a week of the meeting on the board records page.
Book of Motions I’m working to locate it and get it uploaded for all members to see. The book of motions is the official record of all board motions made, the date of the vote, the language of the motion, and the results of the vote. When we get this onto the website I hope it will put an end to the confusion of the past years where there were differing opinions about whether something was voted on or not, passed or not, and the actual content of the motion. Folks got quite upset, understandably so, when there were differences of opinion as to what happened at a board meeting. The hope is that everyone will know exactly what was discussed, if it was voted on, and the results of said vote. Storing this in plain sight will make it easier to remember “Hey there’s been a change.”
Erich Moraine
ASGS President
