FSGW Board Feb 7, 2012

Publications and Web Report Follow-up

The following is a recap, rearranged and with some clarifying bits added, of part of the combined Publications and Web verbal report.

Jackie Hoglund has joined the web design project.

We are fortunate, indeed. She is a very busy, and competent professional. She will actively conduct the requirements-gathering and testing activities needed to create the design for the new web site. Her work will be translated by others into the wire-frames and model pages needed for testing and finalizing the designs, then sent on to the software and styling teams.

The Web Administration Program has been formed.

It is a sub-program of Publications. Its mission is to resolve a number of current and long-standing issues. It addresses the absence of the explicit assignment of responsibilities, to any officer or committee of FSGW, for our internet presence. An orderly transfer of assets (the fsgw.org domain name and internet hosting service contracts) to FSGW by name requires such a program, as does the assumption of fiscal responsibility for those assets. The orderly transfer of responsibility to an officer or committee of FSGW for operations, policies, and presentation of the web site requires such a program. Removal of those responsibilities from the webmaster requires such a program.

Web Administration will function as liaison between the board, program chairs, coordinators, and staff on one hand, and the webmaster and software support on the other.

No action or resolution by the Board is required. According to Bylaws § IX, A,
"All activities of the Society must be carried out either by an Officer or by a Committee.",
and Bylaws § IX, B,
"The organization and operation of any committee shall be determined by the Chair of the committee."

In this case, Web Administration is an element of the organization and operations of Publications. The Board's overall responsibilities and prerogatives remain intact, of course.

The Publications chair must rely on Web Administration to handle it's own technical details in the same way the details of the Newsletter pre-press activities are delegated. Sandy Aubin has offered to the Publications Chair, both as person and as position, for a period of at least one year, to provide that support, institutionalize it, and do, help, or begin the following, as he is able:

1. Solicit additional members to staff the program to provide expertise and perspective and distribute the work load.
2. Transfer the responsibilities of the program to it with the help of those already holding them.
3. Establish or publish the location of web pages documenting those and other responsibilities, policies, and procedures as they are developed.
4. In coordination with Dennis, Will, and Jerry, assist and document the transfer of "title" for the fsgw.org domain name and the current hosting services for the email accounts, software, and database employed on behalf of the FSGW presence on the internet.
5. With their help, develop and document the related technical policies and procedures needed for reliable, orderly support and operations. Publish them in web page format for easy access on the web site.
6. Assume responsibility to edit, update, and propose changes for pages that don't belong to any specific chair i.e., the home page, "About Us" and "Links".
7. With the Publications chair, develop and document policies and procedures needed to ensure a visitor to the public site encounters content, site architecture, and "navigability" that satisfies the goals of the visitor as well as the branding and promotional goals of FSGW. Publish them in web page format for easy access on the web site.
8. Begin procedural documentation in a "How To" style user manual, to document each staff-level procedure required for their programs, for the chairs or their delegates. Start with the online Help files found with the "Help" tool button when logged in. Continue in cooperation with the requirements-gathering process. Publish them in web page format for easy access on the web site. Update the information by addition as the new V7 software and features are brought up, and by deletion as V6 procedures are abandoned. Note, the tasks are not likely to change from V6 to V7, only the user interface.
9. Cooperate with or coordinate the creation of "New Board Member Info" packets so new, and returning, Board members can "hit the deck running", or nearly so. This product will result from combining the "How To" documents with their "job description" and list of support resources provided by other individuals and the Web Administration program.
10. Solicit individuals willing to provide on-call technical or procedural support for program chairs and coordinators.
11. Create a categorized list of support people in web page format and publish them for easy access on the web site.

Not mentioned at the board meeting, this is all very ambitious and optimistic. One person can not possibly do it all. But the longest journey begins with but a single step, in this case, the first five steps, and realistically, the sixth. Steps 4 and 5, the transfer of FSGW assets and of responsibilities that don't belong with the webmaster are required in a short time frame and have been identified as required many times for over a decade. These are necessary, over-due and justify the creation of a mechanism to accomplish them.

Finally, the Steering Committee is ad hoc, continues to play a role in the design project, and is unaffected by the existence of the Web Administration program, intended to be a standing, not ad hoc group. There is likely to be some overlap of personell in the two groups, and they can materially assist in each other's efforts. As the design project nears its end, Web Administration would be the reasonable choice to receive assets and documents of the Steering Committee for disposition.

Sandy Aubin, Feb. 10, 2011 in re presentation on Feb 7.