From my experience as an international WLM organizer, indeed what's lacking
is a user who is aware of all the details and at the same time can be available most of the time to answer questions and communicate. This is very difficult: usually you have someone who is either available all the time, or is aware of all the details.
However, I also found a problem that I don't know how to solve, and as I understand it was present in all previous years: that in some countries the team is very small/busy and it's very hard to get feedback from many national teams. As far as I can tell, some national teams don't have anyone who follows this (general WLM) mailing list.
One other thing that posed a problem this year is that the team was set up so quickly that it wasn't clear to everyone whom to talk to about what. This is where we actually need (as Maarten said) a dedicated core team, and too many people will be counterproductive. Even with this year's 3-person international team we had a few internal communication problems, so I can't imagine how it will work with a huge team (say, 10 people). Dividing the tasks among a few people is easier than among many people.
Finally, another major point: ever since Maarten left, we haven't really had a technical coordinator (talking about managing the tools, not the campaigns which was done quite well by Romaine). True, last year Platonides handled it and this year I did, but there's a very steep learning curve and the "job" was pretty much imposed simply because no one else wants to do it—so many people were disappointed in the last 2 years. Therefore the most difficult position to fill by far (IMO) is that of technical coordinator who has both enough time and knowledge to handle the project.
—Yan (Ynhockey).
On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 7:53 PM, Maarten Dammers maarten@mdammers.nl wrote:
Hi Karthik,
Karthik Nadar schreef op 29-12-2014 19:47:
Been in the international team is also more of applying for grant, documenting, following up and keeping track of status of all participating countries. Time to be spent may vary according to the skill of team members; more the skills and people, lesser the burden; however you can assume 10 hours a week during the contest (just horrifying).
I want to add to that everyone on the time does this as a volunteer, but that doesn't mean you're not committed. I noticed the past couple of years in organizing teams that some of the members went below the minimum activity threshold, not communicating, not doing their action points, etc. If someone joins the international team, that person is expected to be committed and that person should expect the same for the other members of the team. It's better to have a committed small (core) team and a bunch of volunteer around that team that do particular tasks than have some big half inactive team. If you manage to assemble such a team suddenly everything seems to go easy and smooth, so you can focus on the real challenges.
As for the grant part. Getting a grant in our movement is just a horrible process. It changes every year, but it always feels like torture (advanced granting techniques?). You might just want to split the getting the grant part from the main team otherwise you risk having a burned out team before you even start.
Put a focus on communication next year. So much to gain there.
Maarten
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