We had a quite good discussion on the officer roles last night at the
meeting, with a few changes and clarifications being added to
http://mhvlug.org/content/officer-roles, which I'll include at the end
of this email for further discussion.
To reiterate a few things that I said last night for folks on the list.
Over the past 7 years things have been going great, but as some of the
initial additional leadership team that helped get us off the ground
moved away, more of the responsibility landed on my shoulders, and was
never really replaced with others. That makes me both a single voice
and single point of failure in shaping the future of the group. We are
a healthier group with more voices and more hands shaping our program
content, our outreach, and really recording what it is that we do, so
that people that find us on google understand what a vibrant community
we've got here, and how much fun the meetings are.
Some questions that came up:
Q: I'm sort of interested, but I can't make it to all the meetings, how
does that affect being an officer?
A: The bulk of the responsibilities for most of these roles (excepting
Historian) really happen outside the meetings. Lining up speakers,
announcing events, doing logistics for meeting location are all things
that go on behind the scenes, and can be done on flexible time.
Q: If I'm interested in taking on one of these roles, what do I do next?
A: Email me ([email protected]) with your self nomination. Also, if you
think someone else would be good in one of these roles, email me with
their nomination and contact info and I'll coordinate getting a slate of
nominees.
Q: Am I going to have to figure out how to do this role all on my own?
/ I'm not sure I know how to do Role X, what then?
A: Running this organization for almost 8 years, I've learned a lot
about group dynamics, running an organization, and made a lot of
contacts (personally and professionally). I'm planning on providing
mentoring about all these things, as well as specific ways to get
started on the tasks needed for each role. I expect this first set of
officers is going to really define the roles, and help determine if
other roles really should be carved off as well for the future.
Consider it a learning experience for all involved, one that will grow
you both personally and professionally.
Q: What's the time frame for pulling this together?
A: I'd like to get the slate of Nominees by the November meeting, and
announce them then. The election / affirmation (for uncontested
positions) will be at the December meeting, with terms starting at that
meeting.
Any other questions are welcomed. I think we had a really great
discussion last night and am quite energized about all this.
Here is the included text for the officer roles page to see the
additions there:
Here are some proposed roles for MHVLUG officers:
President
* Ensure that MHVLUG exists next year
* Ensure facilities and schedule for the regular meetings
* Facilitiate regular meetings of MHVLUG
Program Director
* Responsible for booking and coordinating speakers for MHVLUG
lecture series, and updating the website with speaker content (abstract
and slides) before and after the talk
* While the position becomes effective in December, the
responsibility is to manage the talks April -> March in the following
year, as we're assuming a model where we try to stay at least 3 months
ahead on the schedule.
Publicity
* Responsible for publicity of MHVLUG events
* Sending announcements to local papers
* Creating / maintaining MHVLUG flyers and getting them out in
public areas
* Posting events to appropriate social networks
Historian
* Writing up brief synopsis of MHVLUG events to post to the website
/ mailing list
* Take pictures at MHVLUG events to record history of our activies
Additional Role(s)
Webmaster / Listmaster - currently owned by Sean unless anyone else wants it
Nomination, Election and Term Duration
Between the October and November MHVLUG meetings nominations will be
taken by the President. People interested in the roles should self
nominate.
The December meeting will be the election of officers, all members in
attendance will have the right to vote. In the event of multiple people
running for a particular possition, there will be an in meeting write in
ballot for those possitions.
The term duration for each of these positions is 1 year (give or take),
spanning between December MHVLUG meetings.
-Sean
--
__________________________________________________________________
Sean Dague Learn about the Universe with the
sean at dague dot net Mid-Hudson Astronomical Association
http://dague.net http://midhudsonastro.org
There is no silver bullet. Plus, werewolves make better neighbors
than zombies, and they tend to keep the vampire population down.
__________________________________________________________________
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