Cambridge
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Post by Cambridge on Apr 8, 2005 14:15:53 GMT -5
Seriously, has Georgetown gotten so staid and dreary over the years that we can not laugh at ourselves...
I mean honestly, this is the funniest thread I've read in a while...and the best or worst part, depending on how you look at it, is that I don't think the people participating in it are laughing as much as they need to be.
Of course, I'm doing more than my share of laughing. I've already done, not one but two spit takes in the last 30 minutes...which has drawn quite a few glances of disgust from those in the office who didn't expect a Gallagher-like afternoon.
Let's just say that they didn't have that in mind with this damn open office plan. Who knew that I would actually wish a cube upon myself.
I know that sounds strange, but honestly, you zone into your work or an email or just surfing around and then suddenly you find something that makes you angry or laugh out loud.
You try to hold it in: cheeks bulged, eyes watering, looking like you're trying to pass a hamster, but you totally forgot that Karla, Chris and Jon are all sitting within 3 feet and are watching you, completely perplexed by your behavior...and you have to say something like..."cough, went down the wrong pipe, sorry" as you point to the cup of coffee you haven't touched since the 9AM meeting and try to swallow the laughter.
Ah, the joys of the working world.
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Apr 8, 2005 14:19:40 GMT -5
FL, appreciate your perspective as always. I think all of us (Joe, 007, myself, all of us) is intent on increasing interest across the board. I view disagreements as sometimes more productive than agreements in the sense that I view "Yes Men" as utterly useless in private and professional circles. So, I appreciate some debates with Joe as much as anything else on the site. It keeps the blood flowing to my head, as he is a fierce debater. If we're talking politics, Dick Cheney is my favorite person in the Bush Admin right now with RUmmy as a close second. Why? Well, I disagree with them more than anyone, but that is often how learning takes place. I view Joe in the same context, although I don't always tip my cap in Thread A or Thread B. I also know that Joe is a loyal servant of GU BB, so I also tip my cap there and appreciate him for it.
At this point, I'm going to end the JH34-Joe sidebar and turn it over to more macro-HB discussions. That's what will be productive for us moving forward.
I'll start it off with discussing board organization. I've batted the idea around for a while and believe firmly that the board should have specialized positions. Everyone is a board member, but we need (i) President, (ii) someone in charge of campus relations, (iii) liason to McD, (iv) grassroots organizer, (v) ombudsman and other such things. Seems to me that I hit this idea around in an e-mail with FL and may try and track it down.
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Apr 8, 2005 14:22:41 GMT -5
Is it just me, or is 007 extending an olive branch to Joe Hoya here? This is monumental!!! There will be Peace in our Time!!! I don't even know what to do. It's like watching the Israelis and Palestinians make peace at Camp David We are seeing history unfold before us. I hope everyone appreciates this. Let's hope it doesn't meet the same fate as the infamous WH Lawn handshake. I smell a HoyaTalk photo-op.
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TBird41
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
"Roy! I Love All 7'2" of you Roy!"
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Post by TBird41 on Apr 8, 2005 14:26:39 GMT -5
SAC requires there be a treasurer. Aside from that, you would need a President, a McD liason, someone in charge of the dorm capts, someone in charge of events and someone in charge of promotions.
That would give you a board with 6 members, with the dorm capts being the next level (one for each dorm and apt complex).
And, I should probably know this, since I'm a gov't major, but what exactly is an ombudsman (and what would they do in HB)?
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Joe Hoya
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Post by Joe Hoya on Apr 8, 2005 14:30:48 GMT -5
I don't think people need to go make a post to indicate that they were laughing at a comment. I agree ( ) that the thread got hijacked. But like I've said before, I don't take kindly to being called out, so when I am, if I'm gonna go down it's going to be in a fierce firefight. Call me a curmudgeon if you want, but dammit I don't give up easily. Or at all. As for the HB board, I would add a webmaster position. The internet is so important these days, and especially considering the popularity of this site and board, having a constantly-updated website would help alums and fans alike to keep an eye on the happenings. I know people have mentioned a website already, but I think it's best to have an actual position, and a person that can be held accountable for the site, whether it is updated or not. And that's something I could have done in the old days. But now with all this fancy-schmansy stuff out there, my HTML "expertise" is so lame in comparison. I agree with 007 ( ) that we don't disagree much with regards to the ultimate goals. It's just the process that causes disagreements, and that process, the way HB goes about reaching these goals, is the most important thing.
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Apr 8, 2005 14:30:52 GMT -5
SAC requires there be a treasurer. Aside from that, you would need a President, a McD liason, someone in charge of the dorm capts, someone in charge of events and someone in charge of promotions. That would give you a board with 6 members, with the dorm capts being the next level (one for each dorm and apt complex). And, I should probably know this, since I'm a gov't major, but what exactly is an ombudsman (and what would they do in HB)? The ombudsman would be someone who investigates complaints or criticisms of the organization. Given the muck-ups of the past, I view this as a worthy reform for the long term and short term. It would increase legitimacy and improve transparency to some degree. While I have confidence in the HoyaTalkers, there have to be checks and balances in any successful organization. I'll look for some of the e-mails that I hit around with FL over last summer. They contributed, to a small degree, to some of his thoughts with regard to his Burton columns. The dorm captain idea is one of my pets, and I appreciate you giving it some run/credibility.
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SFHoya99
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
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Post by SFHoya99 on Apr 8, 2005 14:31:20 GMT -5
Seriously, has Georgetown gotten so staid and dreary over the years that we can not laugh at ourselves... I mean honestly, this is the funniest thread I've read in a while...and the best or worst part, depending on how you look at it, is that I don't think the people participating in it are laughing as much as they need to be. Of course, I'm doing more than my share of laughing. I've already done, not one but two spit takes in the last 30 minutes...which has drawn quite a few glances of disgust from those in the office who didn't expect a Gallagher-like afternoon. Let's just say that they didn't have that in mind with this damn open office plan. Who knew that I would actually wish a cube upon myself. I know that sounds strange, but honestly, you zone into your work or an email or just surfing around and then suddenly you find something that makes you angry or laugh out loud. You try to hold it in: cheeks bulged, eyes watering, looking like you're trying to pass a hamster, but you totally forgot that Karla, Chris and Jon are all sitting within 3 feet and are watching you, completely perplexed by your behavior...and you have to say something like..."cough, went down the wrong pipe, sorry" as you point to the cup of coffee you haven't touched since the 9AM meeting and try to swallow the laughter. Ah, the joys of the working world. And then there's me, who apparently has no goal of moving up... "Oh, there was just this really funny line on a message board I spend all...er, I check once in a while."
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ShimmyJr
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Post by ShimmyJr on Apr 8, 2005 14:32:25 GMT -5
You guys are all geeks.
JoeHoya is still King of [EDITED] though, but JerseyHoya is fastly approaching his rarefied air...giving Dirty Jerz a bad name.
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Apr 8, 2005 14:33:25 GMT -5
As for the HB board, I would add a webmaster position. The internet is so important these days, and especially considering the popularity of this site and board, having a constantly-updated website would help alums and fans alike to keep an eye on the happenings. I know people have mentioned a website already, but I think it's best to have an actual position, and a person that can be held accountable for the site, whether it is updated or not. Bingo! One of the positions would be a communications director who would deal with this grassrootsy stuff with GUHoyas (hopefully) and learn how to make use of the Internet and e-mail to accomplish certain goals. This person would help to develop a "weekly message" (LOL) to throw at the campus publications so the Voice et al. don't hijack publicity on HB. Obviously, cooperation with SID is needed.
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TBird41
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"Roy! I Love All 7'2" of you Roy!"
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Post by TBird41 on Apr 8, 2005 14:34:44 GMT -5
The other thing that needs to be done is better plan out the year ahead of time. Figure out what's going to be done for each of the major sports (football, bball and lacrosse) at the beginning of the season, including road trips and events (obviously, you'd be able to tweak it during the course of the year) as well as when the events for each of the lesser sports would happen for maximum effectiveness ( and maybe those events could be used to try out new ideas).
Also, Hoya Blue needs a website. A lot could be done with that--promoting events, links to important websites/articles (turn it into a place that people will go), possibly get a player to write an online journal during their season about the team and games. I think that would be interesting, draw people to the site (so they would see the upcoming events) and give people someone to relate to. How many people would read a journal by Roy? Or it could be used to promote a player like Kim Sarin (giving people someone to root for) during the fall. Just a thought there, but Hoya Blue needs a website.
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Joe Hoya
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Post by Joe Hoya on Apr 8, 2005 14:35:12 GMT -5
You guys are all geeks. JoeHoya is still King of [EDITED] though, but JerseyHoya is fastly approaching his rarefied air...giving Dirty Jerz a bad name. The "PLD" is a democracy. I was elected the first President. I believe various other members have been selected to the cabinet. I would like to nominate you, Shimmy, to be my VP. Of course, I require the advice and consent of the HoyaTalk Congress. But somehow I think they will overwhelmingly approve this nomination.
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Cambridge
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Post by Cambridge on Apr 8, 2005 14:35:38 GMT -5
You guys are all geeks. JoeHoya is still King of [EDITED] though, but JerseyHoya is fastly approaching his rarefied air...giving Dirty Jerz a bad name. I've been trying to figure out the last part of your statement for the last 10 minutes...it seems like some sort of paradox or a riddle or a redundancy, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
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TBird41
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"Roy! I Love All 7'2" of you Roy!"
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Post by TBird41 on Apr 8, 2005 14:50:45 GMT -5
The key to the board is making sure all the important jobs are covered while keeping it small enough that it can be effective.
The jobs that need to be done (as I see them) are:
1. President 2. Running personnel (whether it's dorm capts or however HB is organized) 3. Events Coordinator (handles BBQs, roadtrips, pep rallies, parties, etc.) 4. Promotions (emails, flyers, banners, etc) 5. Website 6. Treasury 7. Ombudsman (lack of accountability being why HB got so messed up) 8. Recruiting Volunteers 9. McD liason 10. Improving In Game atmosphere (coordinating student sections and such)
Thats all I can think of right now for board member duties. I think 10 people on the board would be too many though--I think either 5 or 6 would be best, possibly combined like so:
1. President (McD liason, being supreme high chief) 2. Treasury (I think this has to be it's own position per SAC rules) 3. Events (planning events, in game atmosphere) 4. Promotions (emails, flyers, banners, etc.) 5. Webmaster (possibly combined w/ promotions) 6. Personell (recruiting, supervising, ombudsman)
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Post by jerseyhoya34 on Apr 8, 2005 14:56:10 GMT -5
The key to the board is making sure all the important jobs are covered while keeping it small enough that it can be effective. The jobs that need to be done (as I see them) are: 1. President 2. Running personnel (whether it's dorm capts or however HB is organized) 3. Events Coordinator (handles BBQs, roadtrips, pep rallies, parties, etc.) 4. Promotions (emails, flyers, banners, etc) 5. Website 6. Treasury 7. Ombudsman (lack of accountability being why HB got so messed up) 8. Recruiting Volunteers 9. McD liason 10. Improving In Game atmosphere (coordinating student sections and such) Thats all I can think of right now for board member duties. I think 10 people on the board would be too many though--I think either 5 or 6 would be best, possibly combined like so: 1. President (McD liason, being supreme high chief) 2. Treasury (I think this has to be it's own position per SAC rules) 3. Events (planning events, in game atmosphere) 4. Promotions (emails, flyers, banners, etc.) 5. Webmaster (possibly combined w/ promotions) 6. Personell (recruiting, supervising, ombudsman) Still looking for my old treatises... I like the list, although I'd change #5 to "communications." Somewhere along the line the Dorm Captain General was left off the map... Combine #4 and #5 in list above and add a board member as Supreme Allied Commander of Jack's Army (SACJA).
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Joe Hoya
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Post by Joe Hoya on Apr 8, 2005 14:56:39 GMT -5
Ideally, the duties of webmaster would be enough work to be its own position. Obviously I have a grander vision for the HB website than actually needs to be implemented, but I still think it should be its own position.
And about that grand vision, I lied. I don't have any specific things in mind, simply an idea that it would be a site that changes a lot, mostly after every game/event. To me, it would be a site that every student on campus goes to at least once, and many would frequent it more than once a week, maybe even every day.
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hoopsmccan
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Post by hoopsmccan on Apr 8, 2005 15:10:37 GMT -5
It really wouldn't be a proper Joe Hoya dominated thread without Shimmy calling him a Edited. Always entertaining...
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GUHoya07
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Post by GUHoya07 on Apr 8, 2005 15:36:36 GMT -5
TBird, I like your list and I dont know that 10 would be too many. I think 6 people may be too few for the board. You dont want the actual board to be enormous, but I think you want a pretty good number for as much input as possible.
I would also like to increase involvement dramatically and have a ton more people really be involved in HB's workings even if they arent on the board. We need to get as many people as possible involved so that when we want to get stuff done we have an army of people to help us really accomplish our goals. This is basically going along with the dorm captains idea.
Also, currently many people have said that they dont know how to get involved with HB even if they want to, that has to change.
I think there should definitely be a webmaster, and that should probably be its own position since its a very specific thing that requires a good deal of knowledge and attention.
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Cambridge
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Post by Cambridge on Apr 8, 2005 15:58:49 GMT -5
Here are some thoughts. I used to work for MassPIRG, a student run non-profit that worked on democracy, environmental and consumer advocacy issues. I was a campus organizer for a year after graduation. Horrible pay, but interesting work. Basically, I advised the student leadership of various small liberal arts schools in W. Mass (Amherst, Hampshire, Williams) on how to build their chapters, run campaigns and create coalitions on and off campus.
Here are some keys to building a basic organization:
1) Get contact information: Sounds easy, right? Well, it is but it's a lot of work. You can never stop doing this. Keep getting info. Create notecards that ask for name, class, oncampus address, phone number, email and have a list of sports interests they can check off (ie mbball, wbball, mlax, wlax, etc.) and what types of activities they would be willing to do (ie signing kids up, making banners, being floor captain, running a phone tree, etc). Now set up tables, go door to door, go table to table, go to classrooms and get kids to fill out the cards. Compile those names in an excel spreadsheet or access or dataease or whatever the hell you want, but keep track of it and keep updating it. At the beginning of the semester, go so far as to ask professors if you can have 5 minutes at the beginning of class and make a pitch for HoyaBlue. At the end of your 5 minute prepared pitch, hand out the cards and collect them. This works amazingly well, especially in freshmen level classes...yes, that means you may have to go to a class you aren't even in.
2) Get people involved ASAP: The best way to get people involved in something over the long term is to get them involved right away. If they fill out a card, call them the next day and invite them to come make banners for the football game, or bake hoya snaxas for a bakesale, or work on the hoyablue website, or to a planning meeting for a roadtrip. The point is, get them doing something right away, even if its just having them sign up more people in the dining hall. The point is, if people get involved and have fun doing it, they will keep doing it. This is especially key with freshmen as it gives them access to a whole social network which they will love.
3) Delegate responsibilities: This is a key to having a healthy, fully functional and active organization. If delegation does not occur and only a few key people do everything, you will not have the same impact or campus energy. Create teams and committees to handle different projects and try not to micromanage them. Meet with the leaders of these committees and discuss manageable goals and help them to plan out the campaign, but allow them to work with their team to get the results.
4) Establish a system of communication: You must establish an effective way to communicate with all members quickly and effectively. Websites are important as are email addresses, but both can be ignored. Call people on their phones. Set up a phone tree for pre-game and pre-rally headcounts. Call people to remind them about meetings and other events. Don't leave messages, but call back later when they are in. People are much more likely to attend something if you show personal effort...Sounds annoying and telemarkety, right? Well, it's the most effective and sure fire way to get people to participate. Besides, these are your peers. More than likely you will know more than 25% of the people you're calling and it's also a great way to meet girls.
Anyways, I've got tons of ideas and a fair amount of experience on how to build grassroots organizations from the ground up. And would be more than happy to discuss long term planning strategies, establishing mission statements, goals, objectives, plans etc. even if it's only over the phone or via email. Feel free to shoot me a PM.
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TBird41
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Post by TBird41 on Apr 8, 2005 16:01:26 GMT -5
I see it being hierarchical in structure
1. President (1) 2. Board (5) 3. Dorm Capts, Board members staff (10 Capts, 1-2 staffers per board guy) 4. Floor Leaders, general volunteers (a lot of people)
Obviously each board member is going to need some help to do their job.
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Cambridge
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Post by Cambridge on Apr 8, 2005 16:06:26 GMT -5
Structure and organization and constitutions are very important for the future of HoyaBlue, but I think it is very Georgetownesque for us to get caught up in those details...
The key to future success in HoyaBlue is rabid recruitment and communication. With just those two things you will have MCI bumping.
This is not to knock the discussion about power structures and post-parliamentary government structures as that's all very interesting, but it smacks of the "state building"...when governments are installed top down without the proper civil society needed for a foundation. Lasting institutions are built from the ground up, don't get caught up in the details of governance.
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