Re: 2014 AIS Awards

["Robert Pries " <101p@rewrite.aisboard.org>]

It seems each year we learn a few things about how to release awards by problems that arise. As PR & Marketing chair I take full responsibility for errors and misjudgments. In a sense this is our highest profile bpress releaseb of the year and I assume responsibility for it. 

In a perfect world all of the players and stake-holders would have had a discussion and plan ahead of time. That did not happen and I am not sure there is the interest or free time to do that. But we are having this discussion now. 

To start at the beginning, it would be nice if all judges voted on line. Gerry has not complained about the time and work involved in counting paper ballots, but I would assume that if 95% of them voted online the time from end of voting to release would be cut from a couple of weeks to a couple of days. It would also be most likely error free. It is obvious that our members would like to know ASAP. Gerry mentioned that half of our judges still vote with paper. Considering the mail, and the effort involved in counting 350+ paper ballots Gerry does a heroic job. Perhaps we could launch an effort to show the paper judges how easy online is, and help them overcome their hesitancy.

Second, I think the order and timing in which the announcement is make is important. Today, many people hesitate to join or maintain membership in an organization. They believe with some justification that they can get what they want from Facebook, Davebs Garden, Etc. We create the awards. Of course they need to be widely broadcast, but there is no reason except my incompetence that they cannot get to our members first, or perhaps in this day and age, at the same time.

Not long ago the announcement of the awards was withheld until it appeared in the Bulletin. People are impatient and do not want to wait. Fortunately we have News & Notes. The Bulletin and N&N are active in that they are sent to members. The Website and the Encyclopedia are passive, someone must go to them. I feel it is important that N&N gets the message out first as a perk of membership. Unfortunately N&N must link to the Website or the Encyclopedia because displaying it directly would be unwieldy and too many bites for some mailboxes.

Facebook is sort of a mix of active and passive. Many people get notifications of new posts. I recently listened to an hour long presentation on Facebook marketing and some interesting information was discussed. It used to be that if a post was sent out on Facebook you could judge its success by how many people responded in the first fifteen minutes. Facebook has changed some ways in which it works, especially for organizations. Not everyone sees a post at the same time, and responses can be stretched out over a day or two. So one cannot count on everyone seeing or having access to a post at the same time, as used to be the case. Facebook groups perform differently than Facebook pages. My analysis is that Facebook has made it much more difficult for organizations than for groups.

In my ideal world members would get the announcement first through N&N. But my world does not exist. Therefore it is probably rational that the AIS Facebook page have the information at the same time or within hours. And of course the Bulletin needs to have images, etc. when it comes out. I have already heard a request that the printable version on the website to be in two columns so there would be fewer pages to print. Because all announcement venues require a little preparation or a lot, it seems important that all the venues have the information they need before, so they release at the same time or as soon as their publication in the case of the Bulletin.

It took about ten hours work for me to get the information ready to go on the Encyclopedia. I dropped all other projects to get it done as fast as possible. But it would be nice to have maybe three or four days to be working on that. If Gerry would get this to me while Jim is making calls instead of after, I might be able to have it ready to go, with no errors to fix, as soon as Jim makes his last call. 

Considering last year it took a while to reach one of the winners perhaps we should create a timetable. When Gerry tells Jim, it is announced that the awards will be announced in 4 days. If the winners cannot be reached during that time than too bad. They were probably not waiting with great anticipation. And during that time the publicity could be worked on by those needing to do the work. There is of course more publicity that needs to occur past the immediate release date. But if a date was set for publication, perhaps the winners would be available for those calls, and others would be less eager to beat AIS to the punch on Facebook.


----- Original Message -----
From: "andi rivarola" <0b5865f51@rewrite.aisboard.org>
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 9:58:12 PM
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Awards

Jim, the Awards information was posted on the AIS website first, and it
took more time, perhaps some 8 hours for a post to appear in the
Encyclopedia. Bob was encountering some coding issues that took longer than
expected. Anyone who saw the post on our website could have shared the
information on any social media outlet... and they did. Not sure that it
got into News & Notes. If it did I have not seen it.

I was not involved with the awards pre-publication talks so I wasn't aware
that the AIS website was about to publish this. It would be nice in the
future for all publication sources (electronic and/or printed) to be
involved, not only News & Notes, the website and Encyclopedia. Kathleen and
myself should have been part of the conversation so we have time to prepare
for our respective jobs and discern what type of information would be best
suited for our separate mediums. When I saw the post on Iris Lovers I
rushed to put publish on the Blog and subsequently on Facebook (this occurs
automatically). For best results, I only publish early in the morning PST,
thus it got published Thursday morning.

Hope this helps.

Andi Rivarola


On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 12:41 PM, Jim Morris <1005@rewrite.aisboard.org>
wrote:

> I also wish to thank Bob, John, Gerry and Wayne for their coordinated
> effort.  I also learned from last year that social media is as fast as a
> rumor.
>  This year I called and congratulated all the winners on Sunday and  Monday
> and asked them not to post to Facebook until Monday, August 18 to give  our
> folks time to get the winners posted on our web site and wiki encyclopedia
> and News & Notes.  Also, I did not inform them of any winners except  their
> own (even though most asked).  And no AM nor HM winners were  contacted at
> all this year except for the Walther Cup winner.
>
> Where did this "Iris Lovers Facebook" group get their news?   Bob?  Andi?
>
> Jim Morris
> President
> American Iris Society
>
> ********************************************************
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 8/14/2014 1:19:02 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
> 101p@rewrite.aisboard.org writes:
>
> I wish  to thank John Jones, Gerry Snyder, and Wayne Messer for the
> coordination of  effort involved in announcing the awards. While not
> perfect yet we
> did do  better than last year and got out the announcement to our members
> the same day  as it leaked to Facebook.
>
> I could make the following observations. It  would be nice to have been
> working on this during the time at which the  president is making the
> calls to
> the winners. As it was, I felt pressure not  to delay its upload. So I
> worked for about ten hours straight writing the code  that would provide
> all the
> links. When John and I pasted it up on the website  and wiki respectably at
> the same time, I discovered that some of the code did  not translate and I
> had to spend a few more hours fixing it before we could  send out News &
> Notes pointing our members to it. During this time lag it  was discovered
> on the
> website and eagerly announced on Iris Lovers Facebook  group. Nonetheless
> it still went out to our membership the same day with News  & Notes. So I
> failed in it being absolutely first to our members but we  did do better
> than
> last year. And I have received several thank you s for  getting it out
> quickly. In this day and age it seems a few hours is an  eternity.  Bob
> Pries
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From:  "John Jones" <100h@rewrite.aisboard.org>
> To:  aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 9:13:43  PM
> Subject: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Awards
>
> The 2014 AIS Awards listing  is up on the AIS website  at:
>
> http://www.irises.org/About_Irises/Awards_Surveys/AIS_Awards.html
>
> Thanks
>
> John
> __________________
> John and Joanne Jones
> Registrar-Recorders, American Iris  Society
> aisregistrar@irises.org
>
> John Jones, Chairman, Electronic  Services Committee
> aiselectronicsvcs@irises.org
>
> 35572 Linda  Drive
> Fremont, CA  94536
>
>
>
>
>
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> --
> Bob  Pries
> Zone 7a
> Roxboro,  NC
> (336)597-8805
>
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-- 
Bob Pries
Zone 7a
Roxboro, NC
(336)597-8805

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