Both of these points are incredibly important, although there don't seem to be many within the AGA who appreciate it.

In my experience reliability is important--there are few things more difficult to deal with than having someone commit to a major undertaking and then falling down. On the other hand, if that happens you have to ask why. Entrusting someone who appears out of nowhere with a significant task is just asking for trouble.

Volunteers need to be eased in to an organization like the AGA. I try to start them off with something easy--a one-shot job consisting of a couple of hours. Something that I could do myself without much trouble if things fall apart. That kind of job lets me figure out whether a person's time estimates are realistic, whether their schedule really allows for volunteering and determine how much support they need. The best job also allows you to introduce them to other volunteers in the organization.

While "unreliable" volunteers certainly exist, I will assert that in the majority of cases it's a case of a volunteer being asked to do too much, too soon, without meaningful support or guidance. When I have a volunteer getting burned out, I feel it reflects poorly on me for selecting an overwhelming task. Usually keeping the volunteer is as simple as giving them a few months off and finding a job more suited to their abilities.

On the second point I have asserted for many years that the AGA does a terrible job of thanking the volunteers who do step forward. Expressing gratitude costs nothing, and yet the AGA seems to be incapable of it. There is no mention in the yearbook nor on the webpage. Even the volunteering page on the usgo.org site has vanished, which is probably just as well since it was unrealistic and out of date. On the positive side, however, the AGA has finally started soliciting nominations for volunteer awards. I've already submitted a nomination.

Violence, I strongly agree with you on the mail thing and the continuous membership. Both need to be dropped as soon as possible. Both of these conditions are losing AGA money.

I do disagree on paying for TDs to fly to congresses though. I believe you can find people locally willing to do the job and can be trained.

I also think it's important to get foreign pros to attend, but this coming congress is already too expensive as it is. I would be curious to see the budget and what would have to happen to support more pros.

There are three levels of payment, and it's important to understand what's being discussed.

• Paying for a TD's accommodations at the congress
• Paying for a TD's airfare
• Paying a salary to the TD

As I understand it, the TD's accommodations have been paid for quite some time (Keith, care to correct me). I think the board discussion in question is the relatively recent question of picking up the TD's airfare. For the record, I think picking up the tab to fly a top-notch TD (or two) to the US Open is a bargain. It's a tough job, and I don't think a person should be out of pocket for doing it. They have to take a week of vacation time to run the event, after all.

I'd be a little unhappier about anything more than a token honourarium for the TD, though. Plenty of other people put in a lot of time to the AGA and aren't paid a dime. That is part of volunteering.

I don't see where Roy Laird has made a contribution to the discussion. Can you give a citation?

All this complaining about what the AGA board is doing is fine, but is anyone willing to step up and do anything about it? The AGA board nominations end on June 15. I personally do not have the time or inclination to sit on the AGA board, but I am willing to nominate anyone from L19 who is willing to stand for election. Any takers?

My apologies.



In earlier transcriptions of the minutes, I recall Mr. Laird was in favor of the AGA board spending a large amount of money so that the mailbox location would not move, and would be checked regularly.

I'll see if I can find the minutes.

Do you have info on the open seats? I'm trying to find it, but I'm not seeing it immediately.

http://www.usgo.org/board/elections.html
Its linked off of the board page: http://www.usgo.org/board and the right side of the home page.

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and possibly those willing to attend secret meetings in ancient basements

http://www.usgo.org/board/election.html

I would be wiling to give it a shot. I live in the Chicago area and have been running a club here for a number of years.

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Thanks, a lot.

I nominate Redbeard for west!

Actually, I just read this specification: "Any member affiliated with an AGA Chapter may nominate any full AGA member to be a director to represent the region in which that chapter is located."

I can nominate someone for the Western region position or the At Large position, but I can not nominate you for the Central region. If you want to be nominated for the At Large position PM me your contact info, but it would be better to get one of your chapter members to nominate you for the Central region position which is currently open.

Thanks, but as I said above:

I'm sure I could arrange for that, unless there's someone else here from the central region (which oddly includes states such as AZ) who wants to nominate me.

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I would volunteer, but I'm not a very political person

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be immersed

Forgive me if I sound a little mysterious, but I know several volunteers who are thinking about tenuki-ing from AGA because of lack of leadership and communication. I'll leave it there as I do not want to wade into this much further.

We need volunteers, yes, but we also need leader who can work well with volunteers. Without a leader who understands importance of working with volunteers, we cannot sustain level of reliable volunteers who will serve in and out, and behind the scenes.

Hello!


This is a very interesting conversation! For myself, i have more than a few horses in the race:

1) I'm one of the co-directors of Go Congress 2011, and a relatively "new volunteer" who, other than starting a (moderately successful) college club, has had very few interactions with AGA leadership over the years. This means that I want, and more importantly, need the AGA to have a strong volunteer corps that can be called on to help make 2011 the best damn congress ever. As an east-coasty who is volunteering to co-direct the LA congress, that gives me an interesting perspective on the "Congress as a traveling training circus" vs. "create national specialists" discussion. Suffice to say that i do *not* think the second is universally better, nor do i think that the first is necessarily virtuous either -- there's a lot to be said for the last two opens starting on time.

2) As for the AGA's discussion to not pay TDs, the discussion is fairly moot -- to my understanding, the budget at this years congress has been stretched to the breaking point, and the option of paying US Open TD's was not really feasible. Since I'm not involved, I'm not gonna comment on that except to point out that pwaldron's point on the three different issues of "compensation" create very different situations.

However, the troubling aspect is the comments in the board's minutes suggesting that this was the board stepping in to Congress director's relationship with their volunteers. Congress directors can't do their jobs with the board second guessing their decisions (and again, i have a vested stake in this argument

More importantly, this isn't really something they can prevent: If I want to compensate our TD's in 2011, I'll find a way to do so if i have to do it out of my own pocket or otherwise put it "on the side". If the board is using this to make an official stance on the "train national operators" vs. "encourage local development" issue, well, it seems like the wrong way to do it. Saying you can't do something nice for someone is about as effective as stamping your foot and telling someone not to say thank you...just doesn't make sense.

3) I'm also -- much like KA the HKA -- fairly disappointed in the state of face to face go in the 'states. As a result, I've put my hat in the ring for election to the AGA's Board, as of this past weekend. I'd encourage people with similar disappointment in the AGA to redouble their efforts to improve it, beginning with encouraging a sense of accountability & urgency in the Board. HKA's point is really quite important -- if this community is important to us, we're going to have to step up to keep it and make it grow, and there ain't no one but us who can do it.

(since typing this up, it looks like a few others are thinking of volunteering to run! Hooray!)



Lastly, i'd like to tip my hat to Chris Sira, Jeff Shaevel, & Phil Waldron, who've done an exemplary job in performing all of their duties, and i look forward to seeing them do all they can. The tournaments they have run have all been an absolute joy to play in.

http://www.usgo.org/board/ApprovedMinutes/minutes-09-05.pdf
http://www.usgo.org/resources/downloads/rpt2009.pdf
So I make it $320 on a post office box.
S'not that bad, but...
Why not just send the mail to the president?

I hereby endorse Andrew Jackeson for board member.

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With all this talk of nominations and such, can someone outline the voting process for me? I read the AGA page, but I'm not sure if I need to go to the "regional office" or if I can just email my local representative or if I get a ballot snail-mail or what. The deadlines appear to be coming up, so I'd like to get this figured out (and hopefully with a clear guide that will help other L19ers vote easily too).

AGA chapters do the voting IIRC, with a number of votes proportional to the number of members in the chapter.

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