[Businessmtg] Next Agenda Item - Redefining the List Administrator & Founder Roles

[Anne O.]

Hi Business Meeting Friends,

Good Morning and my apologies for the delay!  I have chosen to copy and
paste my thoughts from September to jump start the discussion.    I am
requesting that this month we focus on the List Administrator's role.

Once again, I want to preface the opening of this topic with the following
disclaimer.   I don't have anything  more to share with you than my
observations and my thoughts.  I am not a founder and although I have worn
many hats at ASP, LA is not one of them.  

First some background for those that missed the July meeting  I have been a
member of ASP since 1999.  I was a mostly silent member early on, spent
about two years reading and then dropped off for a while.  I joined again in
2003 and haven't left since.
Please note, all dates are approx. and strictly from memory.  When Steve,
our founder, transitioned ASP operations to the membership, it was a process
that took some time to take shape.  As the roles in the Steering Committee
took shape, resumes were submitted to the business meeting for the newly
formed steering committee positions and elections took place.  I was part of
that initial SC group.  and became the ASP Webmaster.  Since that time
(2006?) I have also been Treasurer, Archivist and now Greeter Chair.   Other
than approximately 2+ years  since 2006, I have been a member of the
Steering Committee covering a variety of roles.

My observations: our ASP principles and policies are sound, our meetings are
healthy and thriving, however, our steering committee roles and
responsibilities may be unbalanced and lacking some consistency, remember
with each rotation we start over and expectations are high for the new
person.  I think the role of the List Administrator is too big for one
person, and past behavior has shown that after each 3 yr. period of LA
service, our list administrator not only passes the baton to the next
volunteer, but most have also left ASP.  I can only assume it is due to
burnout, please understand these are just my observations.

So now as I stated in September and am adjusting again to my November input,
the LA reports do provide you with information about list management and
volumes, whether you are a whiz at file management or a novice, the fact
still remains that you are it, you are alone in the tasks 
with no day off.   

And, now that I am in my third year as
greeter chair, knowing that I never get a day off has been wearing me out a
bit.  I can't even imagine the toll being LA would take without a team
supporting the work. A team like the greeters I have that support the work I
am responsible for as Greeter Chair.   Spending my time in support of the
terrific greeters I have worked with has been great.  We are a team and
watch out for each other with a series of checks and balances and extra
coverage when needed.  And I am copied on all correspondence the greeters
have with prospective new members so I am always in the loop but I am not
always the one taking action.

So with the additional info that Steve shared in his LA report and my
experience as Greeter Chair.   I did outline my suggestions in September,
today I am modifying them and asking that we take them one at a time -  in
our current state, Steve is wearing 3 hats!  Founder, List Administrator and
Secretary.   let's tackle List administrator first and back burner the
founders role.  I am suggesting that we limit the discussion to the first
two bullets below.

List Administrator: The List Administrator gets a barrage of emails from
members.  As Steve shared, there were 3900+ in August, despite not having to
read them all or respond to them all there is file management required and a
decision tree to decide how to respond to each.

o	Why can't some of those emails go into a shared mailbox for the SC -
The LA is of course the point person, but not all responses need to come
from the LA.    
o	Why can't other members of the steering committee take a day of the
week to respond to some of those emails, to give the LA a break.  NEW: In
order to partition emails we might want to set up a new email address that
can be accessed by the SC for some of these share  The email responses would
include a CC: to the SC s   
o	Founder: To better promote consistency and assign permanent
leadership, have our Founder chair the SC

I can tell you that as Archivist, Webmaster and Treasurer, my SC
responsibilities ebbed and flowed and I did not "work" every day, I suspect
the same is true of the Secretary when it isn't a business meeting month.  I
think the Steering committee can add some balance to this work.
	

Okay.. Opening the discussion.