On Saturday, April 3, 2021 at 11:56:30 PM UTC-4, noel.wade wrote:
Gene -

FWIW, I've done a bunch of volunteer work for soaring: Serving on the BoD and acting as Treasurer for multiple clubs in my area. Organizing and helping to run Cross-Country mentorship events (like the Ephrata "Dust Up") for several years. Acting as Contest Manager for our Regionals for several years. Acting as CD for a Nationals contest or two.

I'm also an IT professional who's been a web-developer for both for-profit and non-profit entities.

Volunteer labor is always in short supply and yes there is always a minority of folks who do a majority of the work. I get that.

I do not doubt that people had the best of intentions in their hearts. And I do not doubt that everyone involved sincerely wants a good outcome. I am sure they are nice individuals whom I'd love to chat or fly with.

But none of that excuses poor project management, which this website redesign is obviously guilty of. And well-meaning-but-poorly-executed help from volunteers is not as good as a smaller amount of well-executed volunteer or paid professional work.

In 20+ years of running IT for small businesses and non-profits, I cannot help but be frustrated by so many "rookie mistakes" and glaring problems (*after* setting the site "live" for the world to see). Not when there were better options available, and so many opportunities for engagement with the members who could've provided services or donations "in-kind". Its one thing if the SSA BoD reached out to the membership with a call for help, and then whittled it down to a key group of individuals as a focused committee (to keep the chaos in-check). But AFAIK this wasn't done. Some deal was put together without engaging the membership, and then this new site was sprung on us right at the start of Soaring and Contest season; with major disruptions (which Craig pointed out quite astutely).

There was absolutely no reason for it to happen this way. Its just terribly, terribly disappointing.

--Noel
On Friday, April 2, 2021 at 7:50:27 AM UTC-7, GeneReinecke wrote:
On Thursday, April 1, 2021 at 7:02:47 PM UTC-6, noel.wade wrote:

First of all, thank you to the volunteers for their effort. We have to acknowledge that the website was not properly tested, and not ready to go live. SSA needs to seek professional IT help to make sure we are not dealing with a broken website for months.