The Clouds are Gathering

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."

I have thought long and hard about the AKA. It is wonderful to see that there are still people willing to do whatever is necessary to put the AKA on to the right track. As much as I think the would-be rescuers are tilting at windmills, it is good to see that there are people still willing to invest their time and their talent in the hopes that the Association will become a welcoming refuge and resource for all kite fliers.

Volumes could be written about individuals who have given freely to the Association their time and their talent, only to be reviled, castigated, used, abused and cast aside. Surprisingly, many of those individuals still seek to make the Association a viable and welcoming congregation. In any other group, these individuals would be called the Loyal Opposition, and their counsel would be sought or at least considered. But our beloved Association has no such designation. AKA Members can either drink the Kool Aid, and march in lock-step, or be termed an Enemy of the State, persona non grata. Welcome to the AKA ‘Adjustment Bureau’.

Not surprisingly, many of those who have endeavored to contribute to the AKA, who have been used, abused, and cast aside, are quite content with their pariah status. They have no wish to be welcomed back to the fold only to be shorn and/or slaughtered. Their answer to the problems of the AKA is to form a new national kite club which would avoid the pitfalls in which the AKA finds itself currently trapped.

Forming a new national kite club is a drastic step. A strong case could be made that it is a fool’s errand and doomed to the same fate as the AKA. But those contemplating a new club realize that there are a handful of individuals who have an institutional hold on the AKA, whether those individuals are in front of, or behind, the scenes. Their intentions and their power-brokering cannot be overcome by those who are motivated merely by a pure love of kites and kite flying.

The clouds are gathering. There is discontent, even among the AKA faithful, that has no means of expression within the AKA. How that discontent ultimately manifests itself will be very interesting to see. Where some see hope for reconciliation, others see only immovable object and irresistible force. A new club may indeed be the only answer for those who have no home in the AKA.

Where is the line?

There is an interesting thread on the AKA Forum.Tony Heeschen in Maine was asking about where to find brown ripstop.

After some suggestions, none of which contained links, the AKA President posted that links to help other kite fliers are fine, but "Just don't do blatant outright advertising except in the store section."

That makes people like me wonder, where is the line? How much information about a source is allowed before someone decides it is "blatant outright advertising"? What is the standard?

Now, for the record, it would be great to be able to just Reply to the President's post and ask the question. But it might be reasonable to surmise that if certain people did that (me, for instance) it would be construed as anything but a simple request.

Forum Avatar

Just in case you wanted to get full measure from your Avatar, the instructions on the Web Site Profile page are misleading. I uploaded a bunch of different Avatars to learn the following:

The web site says that any uploaded pics will be re-sized to 200 pixels wide by 500 pixels high. Nope. It's backwards.

It might be 500 wide by 200 high. Well, for sure, a pic of those dimensions can be loaded and will be accepted. May be it is just me, but on my monitor, the stuff on the Forum is squished together. In a quoted post, the Open Quote punctuation appears over the quoted text. Likewise, an Avatar that is 500x200 leaks over on to the text of the post and obscures it.

For now, I am using 300x200 until the resolution is resolved.

Day 1

It is Thursday noon. No word of welcome yet. Various Board members have e-mailed congratulations. No greeting from the President to the new Board Members. Maggie has the Board section of the Forum on RSS feed so she will get e-mail notice if anything gets posted.

With apologies, I have to wonder. Where are all those 'touchy-feely' Board Members who used to lecture me on making them feel welcome? Call me crazy, but I thought we were all adults and no one needed their hand held. Boy, was I wrong about that . . .

The good news is that the Newsletter question got answered. There was a note on the Board section that said there would be a video available on WebEx with a tutorial. That turned out to be a video on YouTube which explains that using the Newsletter function is the same as doing Bulk Mail before.

Oops

Well now, isn't that interesting.

I saw a post on the AKA Forum this morning and decided I might be able to Reply and make a point without getting Maggie in to too much trouble.

That prompted Maggie to get on the Forum and poke around. Suddenly, with no preamble, she is able to access the Board area of the Forum. So far so good, but a little warning and instruction would have been very welcome.

Observation One: There is no access to previous Board mail. There always used to be.

Observation Two: There is no access to to previous Board Actions. There always used to be.

He who controls the information controls the conversation.

There is a section on the Web Site (under the Resource Tab) that says "Board Only". She can't get in there yet.

But wait - there's more! There will no longer be Bulk E-Mail. Henceforth, communication with Members in the Region will be accomplished via the "Newsletter" function of the Forum/Web Site. What that means, only the Sitemaster knows for sure, and he ain't sharing yet.

So, using the Newsletter function could mean that Members will still receive the communication via e-mail. Or, it could mean that the Members will need to access the Web Site to get the information.

Wouldn't it be nice to know?

Transition?

It is Wednesday morning, October 27. It is two weeks after 2010 AKA Annual Meeting. Today is alleged to be the day that transition from the old AKA Administration to the new Administration will take place. We are starting a pool for a time when and if the new Regional Director for Region One hears anything from the AKA.

The sum total of everything the new Regional Director has heard from the AKA is contained in the missive from the President in the post below.

Transition? What transition?

Oh, but this next is really cool. There is a new protocol for Board electronic communication. No more Board E-Mail. From now on the Board will write to each other in a reserved section of the Forum. Wow! What a great idea! I sure wish I thought of that. Oh, wait, I DID! It was a terrible idea then, but it is warmly embraced and put in to practice now. Sigh.

That begs another question. Will the new Board have access to old Board mail? Past Boards have had access to previous Board email. Or will the Newbies be kept in the dark about past decisions and who made them? Keep in mind, when the New Forum arrived, the old one disappeared. Will that happen with Board mail?

Speaking of which, what about Board decisions? There is (or was) a spreadsheet of every decision/action taken in every Board Meeting. Board members had access to this spreadsheet. Is that still there? Is there a reason why only Board Members can see it? Is there a reason why mere AKA Members can't see what actions were taken and when they were taken?

Why the curiosity? There is a rumor that the Board officially made an official decision choosing a venue for the 2011 Convention before the Wildwood venue became available. When Wildwood suddenly became available for much less money, the rug was pulled out from under the venue they had chosen. The rumors I that have heard say it was Rick Kinnaird's Outer Banks proposal that had gotten the nod, but I am betting it was Roanoke.

Wouldn't it be nice to know?

Kudos

Thank you to the new AKA Sitemaster for the code for the AKA animated gif. In the process of moving and upgrading the AKA Web Site, the code for the gif was changed from --http://www.aka.kite.org/images/aka_sanm.gif-- to --http://aka.kite.org/images/stories/logo/aka_sanm.gif--