Staff Meetings

[Tyler]

I've been thinking about trying to schedule a bi-weekly staff meeting where we can discuss many issues that arise in our forums. I found this (http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html) nifty little website that can assist us.

I'm just curious if anyone has scheduled staff meetings? If you do, do they help? Do you stay on the original schedule and actually do for the better?

Just hoping someone has 'em sometime or another :flirt:

[Scott]

Yes, I've had a few from time to time. Not as often as I'd like because of timezone problems (try getting Canada, UK and Australia online at once). The can help a lot if you plan out what you want to discuss...if you don't - it can become havok.

[adb22791]

Good luck, their extremely hard to organize.
I tried, but I didn't get all the staff on. Tell us how it works out.

[Doug]

It's tough. If your staff isn't paid - it's even tougher. That web site, though, is quite helpful. It was worth a save. Usually it's better just to talk to a few people at a time, or create some way for them all to talk (i. e. a forum topic or whatever) regarding a certain issue or a set of issues.

[mpadc]

We tend to have meetings in nice Resturant and talk over a meal :P

only for the UK Mods!

For other mods we just use a staff room (forum within our board)

[Scott]

We tend to have meetings in nice Resturant and talk over a meal

That's a nice idea, but do you get much done?

And who pays? ;)

[mpadc]

That's a nice idea, but do you get much done?

And who pays? ;)

Well to be honest We Plan to talk about forum issues but we end up talking bout how wonderful the Food is and all and forget why we are there!

Paying...well lol we let the Moderators pay for that..they treat the admins :p hehe

[Tristen]

One thing I encountered very early on in the development of the forum was 8 people, 8 different lifestlyes, 6 different time zones and 2 different late sleepers. So I promptly put up a Staff lounge.... and it worked. Hell, it even help prompt a couple of staff meetings. So now thats our place to go for the latest information. We have activated a calendar as well to watch timelines, but for us the Staff Lounge provided where group meetings could not even get off the ground.

Thanks.. Tristen

[Mark]

I like the idea of a staff lounge area, I had one on my first forum and it worked quite well.

For my current forum I don't really have enough members to need other staff, let alone a forum for them. I'll probably figure all that out once I've got a few hundred posters.

[Tristen]

I went with the "If you build it they will come" theory on this. That included getting the mods in place first Keep your fingers and toes crossed all goes well.. The Board opens this weekend. And wouldnt ya know it, I'm not going to be in town for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Well, I guess I'll find out just how devoted my mods truly are.

Thanks,
Tristen

[spechackers]

we have planned to do one, but not yet.

[Doug]

My forum has had a staff forum since day 1 and it's been amazingly helpful. I don't think we could operate without it, actually. I'd highly recommend it.

[Syphon]

At our forums we have tried chat room meetings but it just doesnt work. We have 12 moderators and 3 admins. We used to have around 17 mods but did some cleaning of those that were not doing much moderating.

Anyways I just started a hidden forum that is for the mods and admins only. I post all announcements and ask that any member issues be posted in this section.

The way it also works is I talked to my co admin twice a week by phone and he talks to a few of the moderators by phone once a week and senior mods talk to other mods by phone. Its kinda a phone chain in a way. All issues end up coming back to me in the long run. Thats another idea for you. Set up a phone chain.

[Jan]

Interesting idea Syphon :) You have people in different time zones or are you all in the same country?

Welcome to FU BTW :) :wavey:

[Syphon]

we have one thats in AUS but the rest are in the US...its just getting everyone into one meeting with diffrent time zones. Plus alot of my staff are school aged kids..so they have after school jobs....this makes it hard too.

Also as i said before I have on admin that talks to them for me. See im 21 almost 22 and most of my members are 13-18 as are my mods. My other admin I relay everythign to is 17. He relates better with the other mods cause hes near their age. I highly suggest this for anyone that runs a forum built for teens. If you think aobut it...even though you were a teen not to long ago..things have changed alot.

[spechackers]

mine is from UK and US.

[TheDPQ]

I tend to do my staff meetings in Skype. I use the (hidden) staff forum to posts general ideas, and aim to get a more focused conversation with someone but if i want to talk to a few people at once i'll always do skype.

However its hard to work with everyone schedule and timezones and often i just try to get a few of them and leave it at that.

[jamie]

im planning to make a uk based forum because its based on alternative music released by the british music industries, its just going to be an informative forum about when new material is coming out, although i have no members just me and another admin i have an admin/mod hidden forum, it contains all relavent info on the forum organisation for new mods to read, a news section, it contains a news music section so when new material release dates are found all admins and mods can add thei input before its showed to the public, new forum ideas, and new forum topic additions (they are added as it expands)

Ok i have no members for all this but i think the organisation is the key, it must be there from day 1 then everything will hopefully run smoothly when the members do arrrive.

Damn i just re-read my post and it goes of topic, but because its british based having biweekly meeting could be possible, thanks for the idea :D

Jamie

[Frets]

In a forum setting it makes no sense to me. Esp considering time differences.

It's better just to have a one 24 hour time block and post in a thread. Like a report day.

Every thrusday list ideas objectives Everyone is required to respond in a 24 hour time frame. Friday come to a sumnation and save as a minutes. Send minutes as email.

Next week review minutes in new thread then start itinerary for that week.

My job is on the internet. employess from all over au and 3 from eastern us standard time. We hold meeings once a week on a chat service. Which is something you can do if your paying someone. It's not something you can force and expect compliance if they are not being paid.

[TheDPQ]

In a forum setting it makes no sense to me. Esp considering time differences.

It's better just to have a one 24 hour time block and post in a thread. Like a report day.
A lot of planning is done that way on my forum however nothing compares to a skype staff meeting in terms of how much is covered and how creative people are. Its very hard to bounce ideas off people and have the 'creative juices' flowing when the next reply might not be for 4 hours. Even chatrooms can not compare to a voice meeting. There are just too many things you pick up from voice.

[adb22791]

Skype and [private] IRC have always worked for me with anything staff related (forums, opers, etc).


Alex

[Alternity]

Our forum has weekly meetings. We generally meet at noon every Saturday for about an hour.

Our forum is smaller, so were talking about 5 or 6 people in attendence most meetings.

We have a staff forum where we post an agenda at the beginning of every week and mods/admins add topics for the meeting.

We generally do it over AIM chatrooms. We've tried Skype, voice software, IRC, but really AIM just has the easiest logistics so we've ended up sticking with it.

The meetings are very helpful for issues that have been talked over but not resolved.

[Rob]

Yeah AIM is pretty good for staff meetings although I have started experimenting with GoToMeeting - looks quite good but it does cost qutie a bit.