Blogpower AGM

We have a time consideration in this matter and three admins felt that this could be presented as our concrete proposal:

1] New administrative roles

Lord Keeper of the Blogrolls - Ian Appleby with James Higham deputizing when Ian is away;

Lord Keeper of the Mailing List - Ian Grey, who will put a post up about this tomorrow;

Blogpower Profiles and Events MC - Tom Paine [assisted in the profiles by Pommygranate];

Weekly Profiles and Testimonials Officer - Pommygranate;

Birthdays Officer - Mutley;

Admins without Portfolio - Colin Campbell, James Higham.

2] Blogrolls

a. Pending - including prospective members and those on the way out;

b. Full list in three forms:

[i] Automatic;

[ii] Automatic in a box;

[iii] HTML;

c. Currently resting list.

3] Blogpower Ethos: what is Blogpower?

a] Blogpower is more like an international extended family than any other model;

b] It began as a reaction against the closed selection procedures in blogosphere awards and exhorted Blogpowerers to get around and support other small and medium blogs with a view to upping traffic and creating a friendly atmosphere;

c] As a family, it includes the technically sophisticated, the untechnical, the political and apolitical, the able and the not so able;

d] As a family, it looks after its own but where we differ from a RL family is that we are open and welcoming to new members of any persuasion;

e] Also as a family, its members roam far and wide and bring people home as well. It's somwhere to come home to once you're done out there;

f] As a family there is a certain decency required when you visit, take your shoes off and come inside to someone's nice clean blog. This is not to say we can't express our views even heatedly - we do. Very strongly;

g] We don't love all that our brothers and sisters get up to in the real family and neither do we in Blogpower. However, when one member severely rocks the boat, the family closes ranks and makes its feelings known;

h] We have no political, religious, national or any other ties as a family and reject any suggestion that we do. Others may call us what they will. We know what we are;

i] We have few rules - only as many as are absolutely needed and no official structure - none of us has the time to prop up some sort of expanding bureaucracy. If one member wants to take on the burden of a new idea, say a mailing list, well and good. If not, well and good;

j] Our ethos is tolerance and egality in that the admins are there to serve and administer, not to rule. The real power resides in each and every member who, for practical reasons, allow the admins to do the spade work. You want to be an admin? Fine - we'll find you a role;

k] Sometimes an admin will seize the agenda and run with it, e.g. the Awards and the Awards Ceremony but this is always subject to comment from the members;

l] This page, the original page, is the forum where feelings are made known and new ideas are put. If anything private needs deciding, the mailing list is utilized;

m] We are not a hi-tech organization and this is an important principle - a substantial proportion of our membership is quite low-tech and doesn't appreciate newfangled technica which forces them to do things they neither understand nor need;

n] In this, as in all matters, some wisdom is called for to keep us on the middle course;

o] Naturally, a certain loyalty builds up amongst people who have known one another for quite some time and we respond to calls for help and sometimes make suggestions unsolicited;

p] We do not tolerate disloyalty, where one member is trying to push his parochial barrow at the expense of the rest of us or where he sees himself as one of "them" instead of one of "us" or uses his affiliation with us as legitimacy for his RL organizational membership;

q] Almost our only a sanction is relegation to the Provisional Roll;

r] We can't be pinned down. If you ask: "What is Blogpower?", you'll get a dozen answers. Like G-d and electricity, there are numerous explanations.

4] E-mail list with Yahoo

Now a goer with Ian Grey and he'll post on it tomorrow.

5] Limiting size

50/50 inconclusive result and this can become a poll to determine member views after the polls in N6 are concluded.

6] Admissions and exclusions

Inconclusive so far:

a. Wayne [Central News] is moved to the Pending Roll whilst a secret poll by e-mail is conducted. Please send to jameshigham@mail.com the subject Wayne and then either Yes - exclude or No - retain. Poll closes this coming Friday evening. Only Full Members may vote.

b. UKN&P remains on the Pending Roll whilst a secret poll by e-mail is conducted. Please send to jameshigham@mail.com the subject UKN&P and then either Yes - exclude or No - retain. Poll closes this coming Friday evening. Only Full Members may vote.

Conclusive:

All other pending members immediately moved to the full list, including Tuscan Tony.