Tr Ploy
Out of interest, why can CA not afford a revamp/recode? Surely if it's a background project it would be possible?
On another note, congratulations on your promotion! Hope I get to speak to ye on IRC again soon :)
On 2007-10-20 23:48:21, icklenewt wrote
>Firstly a big thank you to DigitalDemon for all the work, input and direction he has given us during his time as CinC and his many years as part of CA. All the best for the future!
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>Now I am sure many of you are wondering what the future holds for CA and what changes we imminently face. I will do my best to lead this community forward - but the direction we take and the work we carry out are a decision we all face, not one person. As I hope has been more apparent over the past ~6months, the membership are being involved in more discussions and decisions about activities and choices within CA. This will continue - you, the active membership, are this community, and you will make it whatever it chooses to become. We need to pull together and not only talk about what we want to achieve but also get stuck in and be productive! Also, if you aren't happy with decisions made (or lack of decisions) then please stand up and be heard.
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>However, I don't think you'd be happy for me to leave it at that. I do of course have a few areas where my concerns lie and I intend to improve/concentrate on. These will be discussed further with staff and are open for comment here as well - though they are just general observations/concerns at this point in time.
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> Promote a pro-active mentality within CA - throughout. We need to encourage people to not only have input through ideas and suggestions, but also through their own actions - and where necessary bugging the people who can make it happen. We have seen some great suggestions coming in over the past year, but we have struggled to implement many due to a lack of people wishing to get involved for the actual work.>
> We need to review the site itself. We can't afford a full revamp or recode, but we can improve the navigation, the imagery, and most importantly how and where we display information. This is what PR will be primarily tasked with in the foreseeable future. After reviewing what is already here, we'll be able to look at what is missing - widgets that add interest to the community, stats, more RSS, etc.>
> A focus on a staff that takes more responsibility for the whole of CA - that is what they're here for. They need to realise they are the leaders here, and any problems in CA need to fall on all of us. Ideally, every staff member should have an area of CA they are directly responsible for - as well as keeping some overview and being involved in the general running and direction of CA. Staff are currently doing well with the areas they are responsible for, but need to be encouraged to be responsible for CA as a whole - and this is through being more willing to speak up about their concerns to exec and the CinC.>
> Obviously a core goal is the improvement of CA - and this will only occur through its membership. As well as encouraging a more pro-active involvement, (as much as that is possible to promote), communication is also key. Members need to be encouraged to give their suggestions, and we need to give them more opportunities to be involved by using polling and other means.>
> Review and improve the use of the promotion system. We don't see many promotions these days, and while this will be partially due to having a less active community than in the past, I am also concerned promotions are being overlooked. Promotions are our way of acknowledging the work someone has put into the community; it does help motivate people and is an important part of CA still. I haven't forgotten the points based system - but as a coding activity this does take time and ideally I wouldn't be coding at all if we had anyone else to, so it will progress slowly.>
> We need to improve recruitment. I've often had someone approach me and ask where they could help, and on a few occasions I had little or no suggestions. Why? Although we lack manpower, we tend to setup projects/groups that then run off the numbers they have. This can mean there isn't much room for another person, until a C/O makes room and new work. What we need to consider is some way of queuing up projects that we'd like to run if manpower is available. It shouldn't be a massive list, and ideally make it viewable by all. This will also help for those members who do not find anything that interests them among the existing work.>
> As I've expressed many times, and members have also, learning is key to CyberArmy. We need to concentrate on that as a core ongoing objective - to teach others, and to endeavour to advance ourselves. This means not only do we wish to help teach visitors, but we should also be learning - each individual member and the community as a whole. >
> Improve our ability to adapt. CA has suffered because we didn't adapt to changing circumstances. Membership numbers dropped while we continued with many spread out projects - yet we needed to reduce the number and concentrate on a few using the members we had. We also failed to update the site for a very long time. If we keep our ear to the ground and react to the changes occurring around and within the community, we will be much more successful!>
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>This isn't an action plan, but hopefully will relay a few of my thoughts on what we need to improve. Most importantly we need to keep moving forward. Discussion is necessary but when we make decisions or start projects then we all need to get stuck in and do our bit!
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>I hope that together we can turn CA into the place we all want it to be,
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>~ickz~
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Cheers,
~ Ploy
Replies:
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2007-10-20 23:48:21
2008-01-21 00:26:25
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2008-01-01 02:33:18
2007-11-06 06:33:15
2007-10-30 11:20:26