doc

Well, I'm still having a bit of difficulty cutting my eligible list down to just six individuals, so I thought that ideally each of the interested candidates could please kindly indicate something other than what was posted on their "blurbs." Specifically I was curious, all modesty aside, what each felt their strongest attributes in serving FT & FT'ers might be?

For those who may have forgotten, the candidates are:

777 global mile hound
Art234
BlondeBomber
brattdisp074
Cat333
chexfan
ChicAAgo
cigarman
deelmakur
dhammer53
Droneklax
Dudemon
freakflyer
Goldlust
hfly
jeffhouston
john battison
KevinB
LAX 1K
Markie
Middle_Seat
nologic
peter42
rpmkwpw
rwinn
sbrower
Spiff
stimpy
stockmanjr
Tolarian Wind
wharvey

BTW, perhaps we should have a runoff among the top ten finishers next year?

Thanks ALL!

wharvey

DOC,

Thanks for the post.

I believe the strongest attribute I bring to the table is my sincere desire to make the FT Community the best community it can be. I have gained so much from this community and intend to do my best to make it even better.

I feel like I have lived in the chat room for the past six days as I continued to learn and add value to my fellow community members.

I believe my extensive experience in Organization Development would be a trememdous asset to have on the Advisory Board. I have worked to build organizational communities, build teams, and diffuse conflict. I have helped leaders build strategic plans and business plans. And finally, I have facilitated corporate global and virtual teams to be highly effective.

I would welcome the opportunity to bring those same talents to the FT Advisory Board. Regardless of the outcome of the election, I will do my best to add value to this community.

Thanks



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William Harvey
"Create a Great Day"

LIH Prem

doc:

I could only find a few of the statements that seem to support "moderate with moderation" in those words or other words. The rest seem to be silent on the issue.

-David

rpmkwpw

Well, this IS turning out to be quite a campaign. I like!

Let me start by addressing LIH's post, wherein he brings up an important issue. It's one I would be happy to address:

I agree, David, to moderate implies a degree of moderation. In fact, I would suggest this community is indeed a better one when moderators allow a certain degree of human nature to take its course. By that I mean, an agressive approach to closing, moving or controlling threads can sometimes be more disruptive than it is conducive to good conversation or debate.

I like moderators and have anticipated the addition of this feature for some time. However, I believe the moderator function should be rather transparent, focusing on the innate ability of this community to police and correct itself for the most part.

Having said all that, please allow me to reply to Doc's important question:

Here's what I think I can add to help you make your decision when you vote:

I am a creative, innovative and passionate person. These are, I think you'll agree, rather personal traits, but they extend to my many years experience in project planning, boards, committees and my work life.

They're important to FT, I believe, because they'll permit me to work with the rest of the TalkBoard team to approach issues and challenges in a unique way. I believe I can help us explore new possibilities, think outside the box, and find logical, simple solutions to challenges we may face as a community.

I also think it will help us with the growth we face now, and will continue to face in the months and years to come. To welcome new members, lurkers and guests, while ensuring long-standing members get what they need from FT will be a real challenge. Innovative approaches to growth will be important.

To make this community the best it can be (and it's pretty darn swell right now), a passion for travel, point and mile collection, sharing, learning, people, culture, language and community will make us all stronger. I have that.

Dynamism, perspective and sensibility need to be balanced in this role. I will bring that to the role. I hope I've helped give you more of a clue as to who is asking for one of your six votes.

Good luck to all!

nologic

Doc,

I hope people appreciate my focus on FT as a community and my initiatives to promote shared experiences to which many of us favorably relate.

For me, this commitment even includes venturing into contentious areas, because sometimes the debate itself is healthy (as long as it doesn't become personal and people respect others' opinions and perspectives). While I may support less aggressive moderation (less active movement of threads vs. more of a free-market, self-policing approach), I feel strongly that Moderators can be helpful in protecting against abusive/offensive posts.

And Doc, I agree as suggested somewhere here that you should be ushered into the FT Hall of Fame under the Lifetime Achievement Award category.

Jonathan


[This message has been edited by nologic (edited 09-18-2001).]

cat333

Hi Doc,

Interesting question. I bring an 'newbee' view -- or at least that is why I offered to join the board. I am not a frequent traveler, only a 'wisher'. I like to research and learn, and I like people so this was an ideal place for me. In not having the experience that most have I offer a different viewpoint and hopefully fresh ideas. I am an asker of 'dumb' questions that others with their experience might consider the answers obvious and therefore leave many that were afraid to ask in the dark -- or possibilities unexplored.

I am not sure if that makes me a good canidate, in view of all the wonderful qualifications of the others, but it is who I am.

Cathy

stimpy

My strongest attribute is that I really don't want this job.

But I do have a desire to preserve the qualities that make this such a great place to hang out.

Kremmen

I would have thought that an optional preferential voting system would have been far better than first-past-the-post. (It would be far better for US presidential elections too, yet getting that fixed seems impossible, so I'm not holding my breath.)

As far as the attributes, I'd say we need some people with technical competence above all else at present, though this may be outside the intended purpose of the board.

Currently, we have a system that runs very sluggishly and inconsistently. Changes occur without warning and without making sense. Changes, such as the garish blue on bright white colour scheme and the disgusting smileys, occur without consultation. (And such changes would make sense as user profile options, not universal changes, anyhow.)

In short, if the board is technically a mess, I believe we should be fixing the problems which make the board a right pain to use first and worrying about minor issues later.

doc

---

And here I'd thought that if you did not want the job, you simply wouldn't submit your name for the position! Just as I didn't! It just shows what little I know!

Is it too late now to withdraw?

LAX 1K

Hey everyone... my strongest attributes is that I do not think I have that strong of an attribute Seriously, I really do not think I am expert at flying. Only been at it for 6 years of so (no where near the 20 or more years of some other members). I consider myself good at getting a few extra miles out of United, Northwest and American when I can... and I really like people and getting to know them.

I would really like to help newer members get the most out of flyertalk as they possibly can. I believe the format is great, but can be confusing to new members (and even some veterans ) But I would like to see my role as one who assists new members and can be a voice for all members to Randy.

Also, in light of some postings on flyertalk, I would also like to support Randy whenever possible. We have a great privilege being on flyertalk. There are no popup ads, links to porno sites,etc... this is a forum that is very much a gift to the traveling community. I want to do my best to keep it focused on what it was started for.


[This message has been edited by LAX 1K (edited 09-22-2001).]

Markie

I think that the reserved place for a European Member has the effect of echoing one of my strengths - internationality. Whilst I collect primarily in US programs I do in fact know quite a lot about KLM, BA UK, British Midland etc and hope to offer a perspective from the 'other side of the pond'.

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Yes, I'm standing for TalkBoard too!

doc

Well, after much agonizing thought and inhouse discussion, I finally chisled the list down to just 6 and cast my ballot!

Best of luck to all!