Posted by Chris Caravella on 21 MAR 2012 16:9:15
I will begin posting a president's message every third Wednesday of each odd-numbered month. This is also the blanket schedule we have set for board meetings with three of those meetings reserved also for general membership meetings. (The meeting proposed for tonight was cancelled.) start this off with a "state of the union" address. 2012 is our third year of operation since the CSBA reorganization in September 2009. Financially the organization is sound and we have a strong base of supporters and followers who are willing and eager to participate in society functions. On the flip side, we continue to struggle from an organizational perspective. We started with very little, basically a lot of good will, but I cannot say that after three years, we have built an operational structure that functions well and is transferrable to the next generation of people who would lead the CSBA. Actually this is quite typical of most societal organizations these days but the hope was, and still remains, that we could find a formula that works for the CSBA. is a turnover year and we will begin the process of replacing people in all board positions, including the presidency. Some current board members may serve in different positions but we need to pull in new people to the board. We need volunteers, so please consider serving and proactively contact myself (chris.caravella@cox.net) or the board (CSBAboard@ustica.org) with a request to serve. On an organizational level, we should soon have the membership roster up-to-date and completely managed from the CSBA website. At that point, members and former members will be able to review their membership profile and easily determine if they have paid their annual dues for the year. Members will be able to alter their profiles, i.e. change their email address. I will continue to work on further automation of the membership renewal process including online payment by PayPal. to the CSBA database. If you have some obituaries that you would like to see at the website, you will be able to type them in yourself. I will continue to integrate them into the family charts, but if this first phase goes well, I will consider releasing more features to the membership. on my short list is to learn how to do webcasting. With all of the new member features that have been added to the website, we need a means to interactively demonstrate how to use these features and help everyone get the most out of the CSBA website. see from the previous section, my personal focus continues to be on further development of the CSBA website. The meetings and social events are a great part of CSBA but they are too great of a drain on our limited resources and it is likely that many will not happen this year. Please don't be discouraged by this, but rather take it as a call to service. We can do a lot as an organization and now is the time to step up and add your talent and voice to make it all happen. di San Bartolomeo Apostolo