Letter from the President - June '19 Edition

Date
June 4, 2019 at 7:33am
Categories
General

Ever pick up an in-flight magazine and wonder how the editor comes up with new stuff to talk about every time you fly to see Gramma a time zone or two away? No? Just me? Classic.

I'll admit that I'm usually scrambling to put this thing together at the 11th hour, which probably contributes to my feeling like I'm running out of things to talk about (and is, of course, nobody's fault but my own). But if I think back to the genesis of this column -- the basic intention behind my contributing to the newsletter -- it was to have my face show up creepily in your inbox, once a month. Now if I think back to the second reason for doing this, it was just to increase the level of communication between MODS' board and membership. Just the fact of making contact is valuable, I think/hope, so that it feels more natural to reach out, get involved, etc.

Luckily, I do in fact have an easy way to make use of the space this month. About half a year has passed since the fall-2018 member survey we completed, and almost as much time since the first newsletter of 2019 wherein I laid out where MODS' board landed re: priorities for 2019 (incidentally, both docs were put together before the new website launched... thank you, Google Docs). I figure this is a good time to check in on how we're doing against those priorities we laid out for ourselves. Here goes...

(Original list again, for reference.)

Operational Priorities (stuff about our leagues/programs and day-to-day happenings)

  1. Successful launch of new website: done and, despite a few hiccups, pretty great overall
  2. Programming review: ongoing; there are no silver bullets in deciding how to allocate finite resources, but we do have open communication in progress with our Women's Committee in particular
  3. Revive 'Beat the Skeeters': about to be a big, shiny check-mark! (If you haven't registered yet, stop what you're doing and call the office.)
  4. Grow adult participation: this one's a fail, with adult Summer Mixed League having shrunk a bit since last year. MODS' staff tried a few different things to beef up registration, to no avail. At our last board meeting, we talked about doing some deeper thinking on the topic (beginning with "is more adult participation even a goal?") between now and next year. Look out for a working group, coming soon.
  5. Fix scheduling challenges: much better with the new website. Would love to hear feedback though: what's good? What still needs work?
  6. Improve Spirit of the Game: elsewhere in this newsletter, there's an update on exactly that

Strategic Priorities (stuff about how organizational philosophy, administration etc.)

  1. Revisit MODS' documented values: no movement on this one yet (I like to think we've been devoting our energy to bringing new life to the values we have); we'll see what we can do in the next few months
  2. Sort out ideal staffing model: lots of productive conversation about this among the board; latest update is basically "let's see what the first few months of the new website does for our staff's quality of life".
  3. Sort out bookkeeping: pending; some discussion of this, but also waiting to see what spin-off effects the website has.
  4. Figure out sustainable model for supporting disc golf: we've made positive strides here, improving structure (e.g. having a formal Disc Golf Committee as part of MODS' administration) in ways that should help us get and keep momentum for years to come
  5. Sustainably improve communication: I'm really thankful for and proud of the work that Giuseppe and the Communications Working Group did on this. Check it out, if you haven't already.
  6. Create conditions for retaining institutional knowledge: lots of progress here, e.g. finally creating proper role descriptions for board positions (go here and click on people's roles/titles) -- seems silly, but stuff like this makes a difference when turnover is a fact of life.
  7. Better educate members on how MODS works: stuff like the survey was meant to put a dent in that one; Mark, our treasurer, also has something in the works to help shed better light on how the money works. Not bad, overall.
  8. Focus on member needs (communication, tradition, etc): our eggs are mostly in this basket this year, and I feel pretty good about the results so far. I'm sure we haven't been perfect, so by all means let us know how else we can help.

See you at 'Beat the Skeeters' this weekend! If you need me, I'll be the one reading the stolen in-flight magazine.

-Yacine