(Brief) Reflection: My Time With The BoG

[Renomitsu 934]

As some of you know, I'm one of the newer members of the Board of Governors - my position was announced on August 15th, 2019, so I've been on for just under six months at this time. The BoG forum started sometime in late 2013, which was before my account was made - and so naturally I have some access to the threads from the original Board members. But when I was selected, there had been some degree of uncertainty with my selection: I had been back for just six months, I'd gone inactive with Saul Hackett stuck at 180ish TPE back in the mid-S40s. All I had to my name were some decent media spots and the shadow of a two-time championship defenseman in Hiro Renomitsu some fifty seasons ago.

 

I'll admit that the first time I heard rumblings of my name to replace users in the BoG, I was a little skeptical and surprised I was in consideration. I've never held a job other than reviewer/league writer in any sim league, partly out of respect for the generally high-quality experience on the site I'd had as an above-average activity member without responsibility, and partly because I didn't think I was good enough. I haven't been a GM before, and you can reasonably argue that my activity has been spotty at best.

 

The Board of Governors forum is an interesting place. It'd always been shrouded in mystery for me, partially because I had never been on the board, and I didn't know what they did. And the decision to unban Boubabi was the specter haunting the raging league discussion subforum at the time, which meant I'd be joining a power structure that supposedly was to help make that decision.

 

That meant, of course, that the first significant decision for the site after I became a member of the board was one I didn't agree with. I mean, I seriously disagreed. But as one of the neophytes in the group, I began to understand further some of the power dynamic between the BoG and admins, and while I still feel as though I don't understand it completely, I've come to understand that you won't make everyone happy unless the decision is a foregone conclusion to begin with. That is, the BoG is a collection of members that genuinely do have varying viewpoints. There are times I'm incredibly frustrated with our decisions and vehemently disagree with them; there are others where I'm part of a hotly-debated majority but I fall on the winning side, and that's just how things are. 

 

I want users on this site to understand that not every member of the BoG agrees with every decision. That's why it's the board of governors as opposed to a singular authoritarian entity (Gustav does make a great Grand Poobah, but that's not quite how the Board works). And when we make a controversial decision, we do take your feedback into account - seriously. Understand that with certain decisions (the trivia one, for example), I'm on the side that hotly disagrees with a given decision, and I'm thankful to be a 'good guy'. But there still plenty of instances where I'm a member that disagrees with an overall well-received decision. We shouldn't forget that board members are still human, and while a collective intelligence of select invested members is often smarter than its parts, it's still not always right.

 

In essence, I'm still a learner. I've never 'governed' a member base this large for much of anything (I've led teams of a few dozen at most for work): I can only ask for your patience and understanding, and hope that you (as a collective) will continue to be as vocal and proactive about issues you're passionate about with both the administrators and BoG-only members. I promise we're willing to lend a listening ear if you're willing to offer us your voice.

 

Thanks for reading. I'm looking forward to advocating for you in the future.

[Fire Tortorella 2,653]

Ctrl + F "old boys club"

 

Results not found.

 

You obviously still have much to learn  

[Victor 10,942]

49 minutes ago, Renomitsu said:

I began to understand further some of the power dynamic between the BoG and admins, and while I still feel as though I don't understand it completely

no one does

 

50 minutes ago, Renomitsu said:

Understand that with certain decisions (the trivia one, for example), I'm on the side that hotly disagrees with a given decision

Maybe not the best example given the BOG wasn't involved at all.  

[Will 4,660]

33 minutes ago, Renomitsu said:

I began to understand further some of the power dynamic between the BoG and admins, and while I still feel as though I don't understand it completely

 

The power dynamic is certainly interesting because there is 0 documentation of what it should be - it basically relies on the good faith of the admins and changes quite a bit depending on the admins of the day. It was intentionally named the Board of Governors and not the Board of Directors to keep final decision power with the admins but, at least in more recent times, it seems like its become pretty common for the admins to let the majority in the BOG make the final decision on certain matters.