ADMIN: Some information on how the List Admin Team operates

[Kelley]

Hello, everyone--

There has been some discussion on this list recently about 
administrative policies and some questions about just how these lists 
are governed. We do understand the concerns some of you may have, and 
we want to answer your questions, and do so as quickly as possible. 
This post will address these issues, answer some of your questions, 
and will hopefully give everyone a bit more insight into who we are 
and what we do as List Administrators.

We realize that some of what we do may appear mysterious, maybe even
random. It looked that way to us once, too. However, we do have 
policies that we follow, and we do want to share these with list 
members, so you'll know how we operate and why we do the things we 
do. Sometime in the near future, we intend to make public the
guidelines that we follow when making decisions about all the things 
we do to keep the list running smoothly and happily: how list elves 
are chosen, how new members are moderated, how we handle various 
situations, etc. We don't have this ready to present to you yet, but 
we are happy to answer any questions anyone may have, and we'll begin 
with this question that was asked of us just recently: just how does 
someone become a list elf?

We'll start with a bit of history: The very first List Elves were all
volunteers. There were somewhere between 400 - 700 list members at the
time (April '01), and the mods put out a call for volunteers. Nine 
people were brought in. The next time it was decided to add some 
people to the team, it was done by a different method, but only 
because it just happened that way. We realized we needed a few more
people on the team, so we just began mentioning list members amongst
ourselves whom we thought would be good in the role of list elf and
possibly interested in helping out. We invited these folks and most
accepted our invitation. 

This is how it worked the next couple of times, too. Now, this last 
time, we looked at all the people who volunteered, either directly to 
us or on OTC, we looked at others who were active on the FAQ team, 
and we looked at others who were active and involved in the groups. 
We came up with a list of about 45 people. This is an enormous 
number, the most we'd ever considered at one time. 

Because of how much there is to know and do in the work of being 
admins for these groups, it's better for us to bring in smaller 
groups of people at a time. There's a lot to learn, quite a bit of 
training involved, and it works more smoothly to do this with smaller 
groups. In this last round, we invited 12 people, 9 of whom agreed 
to join us.

Now, just what qualities do we look for when bringing new people onto
the Admin Team? Here are the main things we consider: 

Excellent posting habits: exemplary (*not* utter perfection, but 
really great quality) spelling, grammar, snipping, attribution, all 
that is outlined in our posting rules. We should be models of what 
we expect from the list; if we have consistent problems adhering to 
any of the rules, how can we then in good conscience enforce those 
rules on others?

Attitude and behavior: above all, the Admin Team should be people who
care about the lists, who want to ensure the continued quality of the 
lists, *and* can promote this in helpful ways. What we mean by this 
is that when answering questions from list members, when handling 
posts that don't conform to list policy, when acting as part of
the administrative team, that we do so with patience, a very helpful
attitude, friendliness and courteousness.

We also believe that how long a person's been in the group matters, 
too. We see some members who are amazing right out of the gate, but 
because our group is a bit different from other groups out there, it 
makes a great difference if the people on the Admin Team have been 
active here long enough to really grasp the feel of the group, the 
spirit of it, the diversity, the sheer complexity, and so on. 
Typically, we only bring in those who have been in the group at least 
six months. We think that's a fair amount of time for us to get to 
know them and for them to get to know us.

Aside from all these qualities being necessary when helping list
members, they're also necessary for working on and as part of the 
List Admin Team, too. Give and take is very important for the 
functioning of this team. For those who would like to help out in 
the future, know that administrating these groups takes a great deal 
of time, many hours every week. We must be as available as possible, 
not only for each other, but for the groups and all list members, too.

There is one other specific issue that has come up in recent 
discussions that we want to address now: the apparent slowness of our 
responses when questions are asked. We know that sometimes it can 
seem as though we are taking a long time to respond, however, we 
assure you that we do take all messages addressed to us seriously - 
both on-list and off-list. In fact, often our delay in responding is 
*because* we take things so seriously. We want to make sure that 
we've discussed how to handle a particular situation, and we also 
spend a lot of time in drafting and perfecting our responses, so we 
make sure we say exactly what we mean, and do it in a clear and 
concise manner. Certainly not all queries will take such 
deliberating, so most questions are answered and most situations are
handled as quickly as we are able. 

Another reason for the apparent delay is that we try to operate by
consensus, which is, of course, the *slowest* form of decision-
making. The List Administration is made up of 31 people, who among 
them cover British, Continental Europe, Near East, American East 
Coast to Pacific Coast and Australian time zones, so obviously we 
aren't all available at the same time to weigh in on decisions. And 
since we work to reach a consensus, this often requires a bit of 
discussion, again happening over time as people are available in 
their own time zone to participate. If we find we can't reach 
consensus, we will often go on to a majority vote procedure; taking 
even more time.

So, if you have a comment or concern, please don't hesitate to write 
to us at HPforGrownups-owner@ yahoogroups.com. We *will* respond 
just as soon as we can, and we apologize if we don't always attend to 
things as quickly as people might wish us to. Please keep in mind 
that we are all volunteers, so all list administration is done *in 
addition* to all that we do with our jobs and families, and while 
this list is a high priority for all of us involved in 
administration, it is not our *only* priority. 

We would rather that these discussions do not happen here on OT-
Chatter, on the main list, or on the Movie list, and we have been 
hearing from list members who feel the same. We *are* working on a 
way for all list members to discuss their thoughts and concerns with 
not only us, but with each other, and we hope to soon make this 
available to you all. For now though, please contact us at 
HPforGrownups-owner@ yahoogroups.com and please know that you are not 
the only list member with concerns and that we do take each and every 
person's comments and suggestions to us very seriously.

--The List Admin Team:
Abigail, Ali, Amanda, David, Debbie, Dicey, Eloise, Grey Wolf, Jen, 
Jim, Jo, Joy, Judy, Kelley, Kimberly, Kirstin, Maria, Marina, Melody, 
Michelle, Mike, Paul, Petra, Phyllis, Pip, Pippin, Saitaina, Sheryll, 
Steve, Tabouli, and Wendy