I haven't checked in for a while and thought maybe I should to see how everything was going and if there was anything happening.

Are you guys at the point were the season is starting and the community should start the process for CO's?

Have you determined how many CO's might be required?

 

Things are going good, no major hiccups IMO

Yes I think its time we start the new process for the CO's

My vote is 2 for Illinois 1 for Wisconsin & Minnesota and 1 for Michigan and Indiana

 

anyone and everyone is partially a CO for the UMW in my opinion. we all represent the community and all our actions shows who/what we are. the only thing an official CO can do in the comunnity is moderate the forum.
everything else from organizing meets to recruiting non-s2ki members to join the site is, im my opinion, the duty of ALL UMW members.
just today i carded ( thanks to previous COs for comming up the UMW buisness cards) two ap2s in china town that i did not reconize from meets.

if my post makes no sense, thats because i been drinking for the past few hours.

 

Makes perfect sense Jeggy and I agree.

 

 

quite litterally

That being said, I think Chris (Zgradis) has a pretty good breakdown of numbers for future COs, ideally.

 

Really, only 2 CO's are needed for the forum. The UMW is quite self-sufficient in CO'ing itself.

So many non-CO's put together meets, and as far as 'tone' being set at those meets, it's typically the more mature folks that set it, not so much the CO's.

The CO's (moreso, UMW moderators), should really be in-tune with the membership and the members and the ever-changing dynamic of the owners to draw them to and keep them on the forum (and becoming paid members). I don't think much has changed since the last time this was talked about back in '04 or '05, when deciding on number of CO's needed for the forum (this was before Sam, Pete, and me)...it was the discussion that got WestsideBilly appointed as a CO.

Just as a side, the UMW really didn't decide anything. 4 or 5 very vocal members does not make a community, nor represent it, regardless the assumption of it.

There was a thread that had a lot of great ideas...what happened to it and them?

 

I hope I don't get flamed for this, but is it possible to just not have any COs?????

 

That's not totally off the wall. The UMW went for a long while without CO's after Dave bit before WSB.

Even when WSB did become CO, he played more UMW forum mod than a CO. The last year I played more forum mod than CO. The members of UMW have always been good at CO'ing themselves as a collective.

 

[sorry, I meant to keep it short. turned into my CO dissertation]

I think it would be good to still have a CO or 2. I like how our past few weeks without a CO have shown that it's definitely something that isn't necessary. But there are aspects of the CO position that I think would really be helpful for the community. While most of these can be done voluntarily by active members, I think it should be a responsibility for the CO.

1) Site Moderation - keeping threads civil and on topic, keeping rules in check especially in regards to FS, assigning UMW badges, etc.

2) Small event planning - while many individuals have stepped up and planned events in the past month, there are times when we have our lulls in activity - (ie winter). It would be good to have a CO to make sure the momentum is kept up when necessary. For example, I (and I'm sure others) post up meets when I can make it and there's something I want to do. A CO would post up a meet even if they couldn't make it, to make sure the community stays active. Of course a CO should be active in the community as well.

3) Big event planning - The UMW used to have big events that took major planning. Having a CO would ensure that we have at least one of these every year. Right now aqautic, Scrapdog, and I are planning a Fresh Water Tour. If our schedules are swamped next year, it would be good to know that someone would be in charge of planning another one (or something similar) or at least delegating that responsibility.

4) New member greeter - As much as we all try to be friendly to new members, it's hard to meet every new face when you're trying to catch up with old friends at a meet. A CO should attend meets and make sure that he/she introduces himself/herself to any new members and introduces those new members to other regular members. While we all should do this, it should be a responsibility of a CO (and a meet organizer). It's a pretty small job for the CO, but can go a long way for new individuals and the community. Also should be the welcoming face for new individuals online.

5) Organization - there's a certain level of organization that I think is healthy for a group of our size. The UMW intro thread was a great idea. I use the UMW calendars all the time. Ideas like that which keep us all organized should be created and maintained by CO's (when the community doesn't).

6) Cross community interaction - Organizes interaction between different areas of the UMW (cross Milwaukee-Chicago meets for example) or even interaction between different areas of the country (UMW-Ohio meets for example) or different car clubs (UMW-nsxprime meets for example).

IMO, a CO should not be the definitive leader of the community - that is to say there are many leaders in the community who have not held the CO title. It is not his or her job or responsibility to organize all meets, determine if things are official or unofficial, or have a grand vision of what the UMW should be and direct it in that way. I don't think that works - regardless of who is CO. The community is organic and has changed in many respects in the 6 years I've been a member. IMO a CO should be there to make things happen when they aren't happening by itself.

I think we should have at least 2 CO's. One, because of the large georgraphic size of the UMW. Secondly for checks and balances. And thirdly, I don't think any one member has the time to cover all the responsibity 24/7/365 on their own.