[Businessmtg] Web Site Report

Thu Jan 18 19:42:07 PST 2018

Hi folks,

This report is going to be as brief and concise as possible so that I don't
nauseate everyone with the myriad of details. The Business Meeting server
doesn't like fonts or attachments, so I'll be using CAPS and extra line
spacing to try to improve the format and make it easier to understand.
Because that is still likely to be challenging to read and follow, I am
going to send a second copy of this email directly to each member of the
Business Meeting with a PDF attached. Hopefully one of these will be more
readable. 

As most of you know, we don't have a Web Master currently. Additionally, the
motion to approve the 2015-2017 WordPress website "as is" failed. The
Steering Committee discussed our alternatives at length, and in the end
asked me to carry out the project revert the website to our last approved
version (circa 2014) but using the WordPress design created by our previous
Web Master.  I'll repeat: the website will contain the CONTENT that existed
prior to the many alterations made during 2015-2017 while using the
WordPress DESIGN created by Jane. 

Please understand that is a work in progress until the Business Meeting
accepts and/or approves this latest version of the website. I am looking
forward to working with the members of the Business Meeting to make our
website OUR website using the KBDM process. If something doesn't make sense,
it could be that it doesn't make sense to me either. So ask, OK?

Moving on to the meat of the subject . . .

A. Motion to approve the WordPress site & content created by Jane and Sandie
failed in the last Business Meeting.

1. The Steering Committee discussed this situation for a month and reached a
unanimous consensus that:

2.  The original website content on my server was approved by the ASP
membership in May 1996.

3.  The ASP membership decided in 2006 to continue the original website when
ASP transitioned from my ownership to ASP ownership.

4.  The last iteration of an ASP-approved website content was circa 2014.

5.  I was asked to convert the ASP-approved website CONTENT into the
WordPress DESIGN created by Jane. 

B.  Archived previous ASP websites

The first part of the project was to archive the previous versions of the
website. 

Locations of Archived ASP Members Only Web Sites.  The links below are
included in the new website home page so that members can find them easily,
now and in the future.

*	ASP's original website
<http://www.serenitysys.com/A_Serenity_Place/Business/>  created by the
Founder of ASP, Steve R.
This site is still active and how many members find ASP today.
>From May 1996 to May 2006.
*	ASP's HTML website <http://www.asp-afg.org/ASP/Business/>  after
becoming being fully self-supporting.
>From May 2006 to February 2015.
*	ASP's initial WordPress website <http://asp-afg.org/members_2017/> .
The content of this site is different from the content of prior ASP websites
and was never approved by the membership.
>From February 2015 to December 2017.
*	ASP's current WordPress website
<http://asp-afg.org/members/home-page/> . Currently under consideration for
approval by the Steering Committee and then the membership of ASP.
>From January 2018 to present.

C. Create New Website Using Old Content and New Design.

1.  This part of the process was simple. Create a new page in WordPress to
correspond to a page on the 2014 site. Then copy & paste the old content
into the blank WordPress page. Pages containing nothing more than simple
text work out well. Pages containing structured text, various fonts, tables,
etc sometimes are not very pretty afterwards. 

2.  The next step was to update pages as appropriate and needed. Examples of
pages that needed to be updated include: the Group Conscience page, Trusted
Servants page, Daily Chairs page. 

3.  Next was fixing many hyperlinks so they worked. Sometimes hyperlinks
referred to old HTML pages that were destroyed, so I had to recreate a new
HTML page and post it to the original location. For instance, when I found a
motion that linked to an HTML that had been destroyed, I recreated/reposted
the HTML page to the original location. No doubt that some hyperlinks are
still broken; if you find one, please let me know.

4.  Next was adding the graphics. At that point I discovered that Jane had
removed her personal images (bay scenes) from the website. I knew from
personal discussion with her in 2014 that they were from a personal vacation
she'd taken. That is why you won't find her photos in the new website.

5.  Next was troubleshooting and fixing things that didn't work properly. 

6.  Update logging. I have turned on a feature called Revisions that logs
the date, time and maker of revisions to the website. It's a great tool for
the Web Master, but invisible to the membership, so I have also
re-instituted the practice of posting the date and time a web page is
updated or revised. 

7.  Discrepancies. Several discrepancies were discovered in the process. The
issue of discrepancies deserves a major bullet point - next.

D. Discrepancies.  

Several discrepancies were discovered. I suggest that we flag the pages
involved as "Provisional" and consider those pages as "works in progress"
until the membership is ready to approve those pages. 

     a. Business Meeting description page(s) need wordsmithing to be
accurate and up to date. 

     b. The Group Conscience page was missing at least 1 group conscience,
plus 1 group conscience record stated it had past when it had failed, plus
the group conscience records of the last 2 years were incomplete (no date,
maker, incomplete tally, etc). All of those issues have been corrected.
Anne, our Archivist, and I will be searching our Business Meeting archives
to make certain that nothing else is missing. 

     c. The Financial Reports page may not be complete. I believe that we
have recovered all of the missing financial reports, but not everything is
correctly hyperlinked yet. Still more work to do here.

     d. The Trusted Servants page is problematic. This page dates back to
the original ASP website group conscience in May 1996. The problem is that
the job descriptions are not in sync with the job descriptions created by
Motion #4 in February 2006. This has been a problem because members
frequently use this page as a reference for our trusted servant's job
descriptions, but it is no longer accurate. I suggest that we delete the
column "Description" from this page, and add a hyperlink to Motion #4 for
those looking for job descriptions.

     e. Greeter Instructions were not only out of date and needed serious
updating.  I'm going to address this in a separate paragraph - next.

D.  The Greeter Instruction pages

1.  I discovered 4 versions of Greeter Instructions; 3 on the website, plus
a form that was provided to me by one of our greeters. 

.       1999: http://asp-afg.org/members/greeter-instructions/ 

Found on ASP old HTML site. 

The details on this page describe the process way back when ASP resided on
my server and used different mailing list software.

.       2003:
http://www.serenitysys.com/A_Serenity_Place/Business/Greeter_Instructions.ht
m

 Found on my website. It's more generic than the 1999 version. Doesn't
include the nitty gritty key stroke details. 

.       2015: http://asp-afg.org/members_2017/greeter-instructions-2015/ 

The  <http://asp-afg.org/members_2017/greeter-instructions-2015/> WordPress
web page on Jane's site. It is dated 1/29/2015.

This page was brought up to date by Jane and in harmony with the process at
the Esosoft server.

.       2017: A 14-page
<http://asp-afg.org/ASP/documents/ASP-GreeterResponseUse.pdf> "Greeter
Training Document" The Steering Committee had no knowledge of this documents
existence prior to one of the greeters sending me a copy. It was published
by our previous List Administrator in May 2017. 

2.  From personal experience and my years as the List Owner of ASP and
service on the Steering Committee, I know that the Greeter Instruction page
is crucial to the greeters. 

Combine that with the fact that we are in the process of electing a new
Greeter Chair and appointing new greeters, it is imperative that the process
on the Greeter Instruction page is accurate, current, and easily understood
by new greeters. It goes without saying that our greeter process also needs
to address the needs of prospective members as much as possible. 

3.  I reached out to Adrienne as probably our most experienced and dedicated
greeter. Adrienne, along with Arlene & Donna, were quite helpful and
extremely cooperative:

     a. Provided a PDF of a new 14-page Greeter Instruction Manual written
by Sandie in May 2017. 

     b. Described the common issues that many newcomers had

     c. Described the process as onerous. Did I mention the instruction
manual is 14 pages long?  J

     d. Suggested we have web pages or a form that would (a) explain some
things clearly that get lost in the verbiage of our current greeter letters,
and (b) collect the info the greeters need to process new member.

     e. I took Adrienne & Arlene's ideas and drafted a few new web pages and
a simple form for prospective members. 

     f. The new web pages and form are "live" on the web site for testing
and review, but not accessible by newcomers yet. 

     g.  You can see the pages yourself and try it out.
http://asp-afg.org/join-asp-1/

E.  If the web-based new member form is accepted by ASP, then the Greeters
will need new instructions. I've drafted a new Greeter
<http://asp-afg.org/members/greeter-instructions-2018-v2/> 's Instruction
2018 for review and approval. For those looking for simple answers, the new
instructions are only 512 words vs. the 912 words for the 2015 version - 44%
shorter and much simpler. 

F.  Amendments, Corrections, Improvements, Suggestions????

Obviously, we'd like to avoid a frenzied attempt at wordsmithing the
website. However, I also don't want to discourage the members from making
suggestions. So, here is my suggestion on how to deal with this in a way
that might make it easier for everyone to follow and understand:

1. If you have a suggestion, please send me a PRIVATE email with your
suggestion.  

2. I will create a new webpage that will include a description of EVERY
suggestion, and a link to where that suggestion has been implemented or
could be implemented. Rather than a flurry of emails, I'll post the ideas in
a bullet list that everyone can follow and understand. 

3. Suggestions that strike me as "Why didn't I think of that?" will be
implemented directly. Implementation will be done so that everyone can see
what changed, and it will be easy to go back if the members of the BM think
otherwise.

4. Suggestions that strike me as inappropriate, unworkable, or ?? will not
be implemented directly. However, if the members of the BM make it clear
that they want it, then that's what the Business Meeting want. 

G. ASP REVIEW and APPROVAL

1.  Now that you know the gist of what has been done with the website, I'm
asking you to review the new site and compare it to the old sites to your
heart's content. 

Please feel free to ask questions; in the Business Meeting or privately if
you prefer.

2.  The goal is to reach a consensus, preferably a unanimous consensus that
this latest version of the website is approved by the membership of ASP. I
anticipate that a few specific pages will be excepted from approval until a
later date. 

 <http://asp-afg.org/members/home-page/>
http://asp-afg.org/members/home-page/

Hugs,

Steve