What I Did Oct 23, 2021 – Feb 25, 2022

The official quarterly reports tend be summaries of highlights rather than a full list of all the this and that sorts of things I spent my time on. Here is where I list everything. Partly to give myself a pat on the back and partly for the next Communications Officer.

Communications Officer

• Asked CB to confirm that ACE Awards are no longer and to update the website accordingly.
  
• Asked past Comm Officers what they know about Com3
  
• Some back and forth with Tim V and staff about a couple members not being able to  have access to their regional MC community. Responded to the people who’d been suspended from the Region 8 MC—basically told them it’s not my bailiwick.
  
• Dug into whatever became of Com3, which is still listed in the TOS for MC.
  
• Reviewed Nov/Dec Bulletin
  
• Teleconference with staff and Vogt about MC issues and needs.
  
• Mucked around learning how to be an admin on MC.
  
• Long phone call with CommComm member about ideas and training materials.
  
• Drafted intro post to new MC community for admins. Learned that there is great need for manuals and training.
  
• Two hour zoom call with staff to learn how to be a super admin.
  
• Participated in a Meet the AMC session at HalloweeM.
  
• Consulted with Lead MC Moderator on improved wording for automated moderation messages.
  
• Sent a letter to LG communications people covering return addresses, communication preferences, and using MC for sharing content fodder.
  
• Curated library content of Pubs Officer MC community.
  
• Long productive video conf with IT and Comm staff regarding many topics: Mensa Connect use, training, & promotion; AML’s servers and PHP upgrade plans; Wordpress sites on and off the AML server, LG Editors’ software & content; how the NO can safeguard LGs’ Facebook presence if the member who created it stomps off in a huff; and Website organization.
  
• Checked back and closed out on suggestions made for onboarding email to editors.
  
• Nudged CB again for a few things on the September and October request list.
• Helped several editors find the library section of their MC community.
• Updated the MC TOS, but did not implement it yet.
• Attended AMC meeting in Charlotte & presented an LDW on Communications.
  
• Created graphic explanation of Comm Pref options.
• Asked Writer’s SIG for contributions to the Editors' library.
• Worked with RVC2 to draft a document of members’ rights & responsibilities.
• Responded to more inquiries about Oral History Project communications.
• Filled out form to do a M&G session at the 2022 AG.
• Clarified newsletter indicia information and LG membership directory rules for LG Editors.
• Wrote article about Mensa Connect for Bulletin.
• Began clarifying regulations about Known Office of Publication for LG newsletters using periodicals permits.
• Discussed policy on advertising in the Bulletin with Marketing Officer and Bulletin editor. Upon discovering that there IS no formal policy for advertising in the Bulletin, directed the Editor: "Going forward from any current contractual advertising obligations, limit the Bulletin space sold to any other High IQ society to no more than a half page.” (and then added “Create Bulletin Advertising Policy” to my to-do list.)
• Drafted advertising policy for national publications.
• Attended Webinar on using WordPress.
• Discussed with RVC2 ways to prevent negative behavior in Mensa instead of just punishing after the fact .
• Checked in on pubs officers MC community.
• Worked with Marketing and Membership Officers to resolve and clarify processes for advertising RGs while still respecting members’ communications preferences.
• Call with CB about CAN-SPAM,member directories, process for informing LGs of policy changes, and preparing to review Appendix 10 (Publications Policy)
• Reviewed Jan Bulletin
• Drafted notice of TOS change for MC to be sent to everyone in January but this got postponed.
• Discussed with Marketing Officer logistics of a repository for training videos.
• Conferenced with Membership and Marketing Officers regarding development of a college-outreach program.
  
• Responded to member asking data privacy questions.
• Reviewed and commented on Bulletin Survey formatting. Reviewed Bulletin survey results. 
• Attended AMC virtual meeting in January.
• Reviewed February Bulletin.
• Consulted on a potential PR issue resulting from a LG newsletter article.
• Began revising Publications Policy (Appendix 10). Decided to postpone working on it until next term.
• Prepped and presented housekeeping motions for Appendix 15 (Info Privacy). and ASIE 2006-019. 
• Worked with Membership and Marketing Officers to revise wording of motions from November regarding member privacy preferences and to develop processes for keeping members informed about  how to update their preferences.
• Emailed CB to check in because I haven’t heard from him in a while. Then a long catch-up phone call.
• Shuttled some members’ complains about moderation Region 8 back and forth between relevant parties.
• Presented report to AMC about the Bulletin Survey results.
• Alerted GY Comm chair to a pertinent thread in Community Admins.
• Arranged travel for March AMC meeting.
• Wrote a long detailed email to the new Utah Webmaster about musts and should and resources. 
• Nudged AMC motions along.
• Began working on updating the Editors’ Handbook.
• Facilitated solving a member’s strong request for NO paper ever from Mensa.
• Reviewed March Bulletin.
• Advised an RVC on moderating issues.
• Participated in or at least monitored discussions on many MC communities.
• Dashed off a few ideas and  descriptions for LDWs to give at the AG.
• Participated as a member of the Strategic Planning and SIGs Advisory committees.

Communications Committee

• Added Michael F,
  
• Tweaked draft of Editors Survey
  
• Michael conducted a 4 question PHONE survey of all 124 LocSecs to find out what software is used for newsletters, what SM venues are used, and a bit about LG websites. Results are interesting and generating many items on the growing To-Do list.
  
• Created a training video on the basics of using Mensa Connect.
• Created training videos on the basics of Administrating/Moderating Mensa Connect.
• Reviewed and  updated  Appendix 23: Policy And Guidelines For Administrators Of Internet Communication Services (this was a massive project to update a 17 year old policy). After almost 3 months of work, there was barely enough support from the committee members to send this on to the AMC for consideration.
• Tried one last time to get committee members to contribute edit suggestions.
• Presented draft motion to the AMC for comments before submitting as a formal motion. Received very little discussion.
• Discussed draft illustration of what content can go out via which LG communication venue.

Volunteerism Task Force

• Reviewed an old LDWs on the topic.
  
• Reframed some questions topics and posted to get everyone back on task. Bumped a few times.
  
• Looked at massive data pull staff did to correlate each groups’ geographical square milage and general population density.
  
• Generated and refined a list of volunteer role categories in Mensa.
  
• Reviewed and re-posted questions the TF wants to answer.
  
• Drafted Vol MP ad for a spreadsheet wizard.
  
• Wrote up more reviews of LDWs.
• Drafted scale for RVCs to use to rank their groups’ volunteerism levels. Nudged a few times.
• Wrote up summaries of two more articles.
• Discussed AML’s current “Volunteer management system” with Trevor.
• Asked RVCs to rank their groups volunteerism levels.
• Created second draft of formal report so far.
• Nudged.
• Input RVC rankings so far into the spreadsheet and nudged the rest to get their data to me. Nudged again a month later. Nudged again a few weeks after that. Eventually got them all to respond.
• Drafted a motion for establishment of this TF since apparently that never got formally done.
• Reached out to Gen X and Gen Y SIGs to find a spreadsheet person—was inundated with offers.
• Added two more members to the TF to help with data analysis and began diving deeper into correlations.
• Nudged on several topics to get the group going again.
• Read and summarized more articles.
• Facilitated discussions of topics. Nudged.
• Dug into how the replacement of the old PDQ is used.
• Began brainstorming recommendations.
• Did a quick survey of LocSecs on MC about using the member interests and areas of expertise reports to find volunteers.
• Asked in M-Hospitality for someone with a background in sociology to help me understand the concept of "social capital" (after getting no responses from TF members for over a month).

Strategic Planning Committee

• Participated in discussions about projects and who should “own” them in the next year or two.
  
• Participated in discussions  about a new quarterly report form.
  

Marketing Committee

• Nada- I think they do all their discussions on Facebook and I haven't been added to that group . 

SIGs Advisory Committee

• I voted to approve a couple of new SIGs.

Name & Logo Committee

• I'm supposed to be on this per ASIE, but have not been added yet.

AWOL Committees

I'm flabbergasted and frustrated beyond belief by people who eagerly join committees and then ignore requests for helping  don't participate in discussions. I mean, they just seem to vanish completely without ever telling anyone they've changed their minds about helping out.

Most of the time I just slog on without their help and input. But there are plenty of times when a project or process MUST have others' input in order to move forward. When those people simply don't respond... the project stagnates and goes nowhere. This is happening too often in too many committees.

Damnit, Robin, that's exactly the sort of thing your Volunteerism Task Force should be investigating and solving.

Yeah, well doing that would be much easier if I could get my task force members to... you know, read and respond!

Beasts in the Room

Maybe we should back up and talk about the real elephants in the room— the AMC hierarchy, respect given to each other’s roles, and general trust of each other to do what is best for Mensa.

As Communications Officer, my very job description includes Oversees the AML website; Oversees social media; Provides guidance, training, and policy interpretation for the social media administrators and moderators; and Is authorized to make policy decisions on electronic and written communications.

I was appointed for a reason. It would be nice to be allowed to do my job.

Elephant in the Mud

Well the Elephant got bogged down in committee. Although officially the vote on CommComm was 4 to 3 in favor of it, I decided that with such support, it probably couldn't go to the AMC. The "no" votes were based on criticism of a section implying that the CO could overturn an RVC's moderation decision or based on a vague "it's not ready yet." Despite my repeated requests, there were no concrete wording suggestions offered.

After talking to some AMC ExComm members, I went ahead and presented it to the AMC as a whole as a potential motion to gauge support and get input. After some discussion, I presented an amended section covering rescission of administrator decisions.

I do not like my amended section, but better to compromise on this point in order to get the overall policy update through. I still think it's going to bite the AMC in the ass at some point.

Here are some illustrative scenarios (note- Ralph and Dave are based on actual former RVCs I’ve served with):

Scenario 1
Gilda is a cantankerous member of Region 11, and has a history of being a bit of a troll online, though usually clever enough to stay one millimeter back from crossing the line. Ralph is the RVC for Region 11. He was elected on a platform of “All AMC members are power-hungry idiots who want to squash free speech.” Ralph is close friends with Gilda.

In the Region 11 community, Gilda gets into a conflict with Rosa. At one point, Gilda posts “Oh come on, @Rosa, everyone should know the REAL reason you are such a fan of tacos at events. You’d better lick those juices carefully--one of these times, you may find yourself choking on a razor blade.”

Other members complain to Ralph that Gilda’s post was outing Rosa as a lesbian and making a veiled threat. Ralph decides to let it stay, either because he’s oblivious, because he’s buddies with Gilda, because of that awkward result when he tried to “flirt” with Rosa back in an Asilomar hot tub, or because of his strong belief in being completely hands-off as an administrator.

In this instance, when members shift the complaints upwards to the Comm Officer, it is entirely possible that the CO, after talking to plenty of people, will determine that the Minimum Standards were violated (Gilda revealed confidential personal information about Rosa’s sexual orientation and made an implied threat of violence). The CO goes back to Ralph, who refuses to take the post down or sanction Gilda in any way.

In this scenario, the CO should rescind Ralph’s decision to let Gilda’s taunt to Rosa stand and take action—Gilda’s actions were against the governing documents of AML.


Scenario 2
Gilda and Rosa get into an online tussle. Rosa posts something about Gilda being a member of MidState Mensa, which is widely known as a hotbed of anti-microchip fanatics. Gilda complains that Rosa violated the Minimum Standards by outing her as a member of that particular Local Group. Ralph takes the post down and suspends Rosa from posting for a month because she posted confidential information.

Rosa complains to the CO, who looks into it and determines that which LG a member belongs to is NOT confidential information and Ralph’s decision, based on Rosa violating the Minimum Standards, was incorrect. The CO contacts Ralph, who simply responds with “butt out.” In this scenario, depending on many factors, the CO should consider rescinding Ralph’s decision and reinstate Rosa.

Scenario 3
Region 12’s RVC, Dave, is a nice guy but very quiet. So quiet, in fact, that he doesn’t participate in AMC discussions, has excuses for not attending AMC meetings, never visits his Groups, and hasn’t sent his editors an RVC column all year. Basically, he’s gone AWOL. He never appointed an assistant or moderators for his Mensa Connect community. The whole situation is weird and the AMC has started to look into maybe replacing him, but that process is long and arduous.

In the Region 12 Mensa Connect community, a couple members dust it up pretty obnoxiously. Members complain, but the RVC doesn’t answer, so the concerns get kicked up to the CO. In this scenario, the CO should probably rescind Dave’s “decision” to ignore his responsibility to tend to his community.