Please Read: Important Change to the Community's organizational structure

[Mark]

All,

A fair number of you probably do not know me at this point, but I'm the Director of this place and have served as the primary community Administrator for a number of years. For a variety of reasons, my ability to spend time in the community has become very limited and that has created a problem with getting things done in the community. Administrative decisions and actions have been required at times and I was not up to speed on what was happening so as to make informed decisions.

In order to address this problem, I am today widely announcing a change to the manner in which the community organization is structured. In order to increase responsiveness and simplify local decision making, I have appointed Malign to the newly created office of Community Manager. Malign is now the front-line Administrator of this place and should serve as the first point of contact for members who need to communicate with site administration (e.g., me) or who simply need to get administrative things done such as name or account changes. Community members should still feel free to communicate with me directly, but please, only in the event that there are *serious complaints* about how things are going.

Neither Malign nor myself anticipate that this change will result in significant disruption of the way things currently get done. We anticipate and expect that the majority of local decision making will continue to occur by consensus of the moderators with input from the members when that is appropriate. This change is primarily designed to address situations that require rapid executive response; something for which I am not presently able to help with due to my busy schedule. The change allows Malign to make decisions as my proxy at a local level to make decisions happen faster, which should streamline the site experience for everyone.

Why Malign? I chose him mostly because he doesn't really crave the job and therefore would appear unlikely to abuse it. He has been a moderator for a *long time* and thus is well known and trusted (I believe) by all who have been here for any length of time. Even his avatar (the yin/yang symbol) suggests balance. I think he is an excellent candidate for preserving the feeling of safety in the community.

I recognize that this sort of change could be upsetting; that is not the intention. The primary intention of making this change is to allow the community to be able to function independently of my decision making at a time when I am simply not very available to the community for that purpose. Please feel free to comment on this decision. Please note, however, that this decision is not negotiable.

Mark

[Lindamomof7]

Hi Mark

I think your decision is appropriate given your circumstances and I believe Malign will do a wonderful job to help facilitate the efficiency of this forum.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season

[JustTrying]

Going to miss you and like Maligin..... but If I NEED you I can still send you a message??

Gabs

[Mark]

JT

Feel free to send me a note if you want to. I'm not going away. I'm just recognizing the constraints on my time and making adjustments to allow for the community to function better.

Mark