Calling "blaming" the website problems a "cop out" is not a true statement, at least in my opinion. Yes, there are "other" ways of exchanging information with the various persons involved with AMSAT. However, those "other" ways are not always apparent nor are those methods readily available to everyone. Then there is the problem of knowing just which person in the organization is responsible for the subject of the correspondence. Contacting the "wrong" person will at least delay the exchange and sometimes result in no exchange at all.
Like it or not, in today's "information age" when a presence on the "web" is established the website becomes "the" focus point for the distribution of up-to-date information and when various reply functions are established on the website those functions become the principle media of information exchange. AMSAT is not the only organization that has been lacking in the maintaining of the website. There are many other groups that are just as guilty (even "more" guilty in many cases) of not keeping their web presence current. Often, when the website is not functioning properly, people will just ignore the website and then "forget" the whole thing. That goes for many things, not just where volunteering is involved. The result is that a lot of potentially beneficial things end up in "Never Never Land" rather than actually helping the situation.
One thing that this discussion has accomplished is to bring some of the problems which have been affecting the organization into "the light of day" and, as such, efforts are being made to correct the problems. Probably, there have been some feelings "hurt" in the case of people who haven't been "doing their jobs" for any variety of reasons. There are all sorts of reasons why and I won't even try to list even a number of those reasons. But, it comes down to finding people who have not only the skills needed to perform certain tasks but who also have the time to accomplish those tasks as well as the desire to accomplish them.
The "gist" of the situation is that one needs to "lead, follow, or get out of the way".
Glen, K9STH AMSAT 239 / LM 463
Website: http://k9sth.com
--- On Thu, 9/10/09, Andrew Glasbrenner glasbrenner@mindspring.com wrote:
As I've been told, the submittal of the survey works now, but who the information goes to may be under revision/addition. If you are reading this and you want to help with something, just call the office, or email the officer responsible for that area, and forget about that survey until we can get it working 100%. Yes, it needs fixed, but a serious volunteer doesn't let such a silly thing get in their way. Mike is 100% correct in my opinion, blaming a faulty website is a cop-out.