For current and past members, would you enlighten the rest of us as to the type of commitment needed to be a Talkboard member. How much time is required per week and what are the responsibilities. If you can tell us what you accomplished as a group and as a Talkboard member, that too would be very helpful. Your information can definitely benefit those who may consider tossing their hat into the race. Thanks.

Nobody responded to this? This doesn't speak well to me for any current members running for re-election. I'd like to know what you do. So would others. Yet nobody responded.

Analise, as a current member I'll try and answer your questions.

Being a Talkboard member uses no more than a half hour a week. Most activities involve reading new posts, discussing outstanding issues and when needed starting the procedure for a vote on an issue.

We usually have no more than two or three outstanding issues at the same time, and offer a two week period to vote on these issues (once the vote has been posted). Talkboard membership fits in perfectly with those of us on the road.

As for me personally I can say I contributed actively to the following:

Advised on introducing the VBulletin voting feature to streamline votes
Participated actively in getting the presidential elections started
Advised on the technical side of the possibility of a fee based Flyertalk service

These issues of course in addition to the "normal" course of action and the day-to-day threads and votes I participated in.

I hope this helps answer your questions.

Analise,

Also, recognize many people do not check Flyertalk on the weekend, especially a holiday weekend as it is for many people here in the US. So, the few people you wanted to hear from may have just not seen this thread yet... or chosen to not respond.

Describing my TB tenure: I find it difficult to split out when I was in "Talkboard" mode and member mode. I was not a moderator when on the Talkboard so that is not confusing the issue.

I was of the belief if I truly represented the community (even though appointed by Randy), I needed to "talk" and understand what members wanted. My way to do that was to join FT chat as often as possible... I almost became a permanent fixture in chat... and even won the first Chat Trivia Prize... I found it a great way to respond to concerns and hear what is on the mind of members. That is how I have made some good friends; based on those chats. I also gained valuable insights that allowed me to suggest improvement/new areas to FT.

I have found you can spend as little or as much time as you want as a Talkboard member. I probably spent 1-2 hours a week on reading and responding to Talkboard threads (I was a pretty vocal member - others can decide if that was good or bad!). Initially, I spent a lot more than that because I took the time to read every single post that had been posted in the Talkboard forum since its inception. That took some time.... but was invaluable to understand issues, past decisions, and the personalities of the Talkboard members.

Is it a major commitment? Probably not.

William

Are there currently any international members on the TalkBoard, other than kempis (who I voted for last time)? By that, I mean non-Americans. I would also be interested in knowing about internationally-based members who are American.

It seems to me that a lot of the members of the Flyertalk community are from countries outside the US (which is one of the things that makes Flyertalk interesting).

Perhaps it would be a good idea to strengthen the international representation at Flyertalk even a bit more?

Also, so far, dovster (he would be one international candidate) is the only candidate that has "officially" announced that he wants to be elected...nobody else interested?

You're right. I'm working today so I didn't even think about it being a 3 day weekend. Thanks for the reality check.

Sorry, Analise, but I was not here last Friday when you first posted.

As far as accomplishments, probably the best record is kept (or should be kept) at FT TownHall. You can see the issues we've voted on there and who voted for what.

The time committment is minimal, but we do ask that you participate in discussions as they develop and vote when called upon to do so. Usually what happens is that someone makes a request of us in this forum and one of the TB members starts a thread in the private TalkBoard forum so we can discuss its merits. If it passes some initial scrutiny, an official vote is posted by the TB President, who sends everyone an email or Private Mail advising a vote is open. Otherwise, the issue is tabled.

Unlike most folks, I get paid to check in here, so I am usually around for eight hours Mondays through Fridays, so I probably have a skewed outlook on how much real time is required. I very seldom, if ever, check Flyertalk on the weekends, but if I knew there was a crucial discussion taking place in the private TalkBoard forum, I probably would be inclined to do so. Luckily for most of us, nothing has been so crucial as to demand that we check in on a daily basis.

I agree with wharvey that whoever gets elected needs to go back and read all the posts in the private TalkBoard forum to get an idea of what has been discussed before.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

Our mandate is that a minimum of two TalkBoard members be elected from outside the North American continent...at least, I think that's what it says. I don't think this means that they can't be American.

IIRC, I think kempis and hfly are based outside this area, but I could be wrong about hfly, who I'm pretty sure is an American (might be wrong about that as well). If so, Randy's folks probably need to be sure that at least one other member outside this continent gets first consideration - even if they don't get the most votes overall - so we live up to our mandate.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

It is the goal and intention of the FlyerTalk host that at least two members of the TalkBoard be based outside of the North American continent. This is to recognize the diverse membership and interests of the entire FlyerTalk community.

IIRC hfly lives in Istanbul.

As for time commitments, there is some information in the Talkboard Guidelines found in Town Hall, but ScottC pretty much summed it up - About a half hour a week.

I think I would be willing to invest more than that, seems like a very small amount of time.

Hey, maybe that should have been my platform last time

Vote for jfe, I am MEXICAN

Alas, I didn't win

Maybe there should be one representative from each continent, just to make things interesting. It's incredible how the perspective on things can differ, and we are just talking from south of the border

Mexico is still in North America isnt it?

Of course, but it all depends who you ask

My fellow members both past and present have summed it up well. I have never divulged my actual nationality (or ies) on FT, nor do I plan on doing so here, although from following my posts one could get a good idea (and there are a few FT'ers out there that know the definate answer). I do live in Istanbul and have done so for quite awhile, and over the last 25 years or so have lived in a bunch of different places/countries/continents as well.

Yes, that would make things interesting.