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UltraMarathon Cycling Association, Inc.
Communications in the Ultracycling Community
by John Hughes, for the Executive Committee of the Board
February 12, 2007
Like many UMCA members and other ultracyclists, the UMCA officers are also frustrated about communications on the ultracycling@topica chat list. We see three kinds of frustrations:
- chat list participants who are posting specific questions to the ultracycling@topica and not getting answers, and
- chat list participants who are making more general statements about the UMCA organization, to which the UMCA officers are not responding, and
- chat list participants who wish to discuss the sport of ultracycling.
Good communications are essential to any organization. We are restructuring the communication channels in an attempt to solve all three of these problems and we'll continue to problem-solve and refine the communications processes. Our approach is best explained by analogy:
The village of UMCAville has about 1,750 citizens. The citizens pay a very low property tax assessment of $35 / year, for which they receive a set of services: a newsletter, website updates, the Year-Rounder and Ultracycling Cup Competition, the Records program, qualifying for RAAM, etc.
The citizens moved to UMCAville because what they love is riding their bikes. So, they established a representative democracy typical of almost every town. The citizens elected a Board to take care of business, so the citizens could ride their bikes. The Board elected officers and the Board hired a town manager. All are accountable to the citizens who elect the Board.
The citizens have long enjoyed gathering in the town square to talk about ultracycling. From time to time citizens also gather to discuss politics. Of late several dozen citizens are gathering daily to make political speeches and to call out questions to the officers who are at work inside the town hall. This tradition of free speech in the town square goes back hundreds of years in the US and the town's officers want to preserve this tradition on the chat list at ultracycling@topica.com
However, the town also should serve the many citizens who are interested in ultracycling, not politics. So, the officers build a rec center behind the town hall where these citizens can gather and talk about sports: ultracyclists@googlegroups.com
The town will invite all of the people in the town square to also join the rec center. From time to time one of the UMCA officers may post cycling-related messages in the rec center and the town invites event-organizers, etc. to post cycling-related announcements.
Because the purpose of the rec center is to talk about sports and the town square remains the venue to talk about politics, anyone who raises a political issue in the rec center will be escorted to the exit.
To help individuals ask questions or direct comments to an officer, the town has established a contact directory.
All of these addresses were already on the website; however, they are spread among several pages and the officers want to make it easy to converse with individuals. If someone has a specific question, he or she is invited to come into the town hall and ask one of the officers. Depending on the question and/or workload, the officer may ask another officer to respond.
The officers also want to communicate directly with groups of citizens. The officers have decided to add a large meeting room to the town hall. Regular forums with a moderator will be scheduled in the meeting room for citizens to talk with officers.
From time to time one or more of the officers will also come out to the town square and/or the rec center to chat with citizens.
In non-allegorical terms:
- Everyone is welcome to continue to raise political (and other) issues on the Topica chat list.
- If you do not wish to remain on the Topica chat list, send an email to: ultracycling-unsubscribe @ topica.com
- Everyone on the Topica chat list will receive an invitation later this week to join the Google chat list, which is restricted to discussions of ultracycling.
- If you are not on the Topica chat list and would like to join the Google list, please e-mail Terry Brown lists-master @ ultracycling.com for an invitation.
- Please be patient during the shift to Google — given the volume of members the change will take a week or so.
- Anyone with a question, suggestion, comment, etc. may use the contact directory to individually e-mail any one of the UMCA officers, who may refer the question to a different officer.
- However, the officers will not respond to blanket inquiries accompanied by a distribution list.
- The officers will establish a moderated forum for discussions among citizens and the officers.
- Check this website frequently for UMCA news. Announcements will be made on the website, not on the Topica chat list.
As we said earlier, good communications are essential to any organization. These changes are steps in that direction. We are committed to making further changes and will be discussing, for example, Rick Hays' suggestion of an ombudsperson. If you have other ideas please send them to one of the officers.
Signed:
John Lee Ellis, President
Joe Jamison, Vice President
Jerry Segal, Treasurer
Nancy Guth, Secretary
John Hughes, Managing Director