I was thinking of an app for privacy and to compile data; something like a google form would work. Someone would have to clean up the incoming data (some people would typo an extra zero or two into their answers, etc.) and sort it. All fixable, just takes someone whose job it is to deal with it, and someone else would have to remind people to send in hours.
I agree that the main issue with time tracking is "the Board must decide that the org should track hours"; the rest is logistics. And they are not big logistics issues; I was only pushing back on the idea they could be resolved in a short meeting. I have no idea if I've considered accessibility or other issues that might require a different approach.
(And yes: observers, this is pretty much how decision making works on the inside--and this is a simple topic that isn't fraught with complex personal history or fandom community dynamics. Multiply this by every topic you've ever thought, "The OTW should just...")
A big part of the value of hiring an HR/administrative person would be that they could say "we're doing X; this change starts in two weeks; address questions to Person Y over here who understands the thing." There are a swarm of administrative functions where nobody is in agreement on whether we need this change or not - we all know we need changes; nobody is sure which ones would fix problems and which would just add hassles. (...Some people are probably sure. Those people are not "a working majority of the Board," and there is no current way to get that knowledge to the Board, and that is one of the things that needs fixing.)
The current Board is two people. If two people cannot sort out something less complicated than a pizza order between them, they have no business being on the Board.
Hi, I just wanted to say I've really appreciated your input on this stuff, it's been really interesting to read. I get the feeling some people want OTW to be both small and casual and a perfectly organized business depending on the situation, and I feel like that's where a lot of the pushback to what you're saying is coming from. I do get their annoyance, it's always annoying to remember how much buocracy exists, but such is life
I would like to point out that my original suggestion for tracking time was not so that the OTW could pay its volunteers hourly or keep ultra-detailed records of when someone logged in for 5 minutes to do work. I think reframing the purpose of time tracking would resolve a lot of your concerns. If they were tracking time to PAY people, then of course yes, they would need a highly accurate record of timekeeping to assure any hourly employees were paid fairly. But they're not. I proposed time tracking as a way to get more information about the actual work required to run the org by volunteers. This lets you know which volunteers and committees spend 40+ hours a week and which people spend like 5 hours. Where to delegate more resources. How to accurately describe workload to incoming people. How to describe the job requirements and hours of the paid positions they plan to eventually implement. Part of researching for paid staff SHOULD include time tracking imo. And just for example, if volunteers are handling sensitive material, like on the PAC committee, maybe their workable hours dealing with tickets should be capped to help their mental health -- but we need to know what to cap it to. We just don't know even a rough estimate of the average volunteer work being done. To me this is baffling and untenable, and leaves a big opening to further volunteer mistreatment and exploitation.
So anyway. The point of time tracking as I suggested was to get a rough estimate of who does what where for how long, which is information to then use to accomplish other things and identify problem areas. Precision isn't the goal at this stage.
Comment on Resignation of OTW Directors
Elf (Elf_Herself) Sat 29 Jul 2023 03:50PM UTC
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azarias Sat 29 Jul 2023 03:56PM UTC
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DwarfBumblebee Sun 30 Jul 2023 09:26PM UTC
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switchwitchbitch Mon 31 Jul 2023 01:28AM UTC
Last Edited Mon 31 Jul 2023 01:29AM UTC
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