Meeting Results

Results of Web Committee electronic meeting with votes 15 July 2008:
(A more detailed report for the Web Committee and for the Board will be later in July, along with further development of an agenda for the October 15 electronic meeting.)
Discussions in email, and posting to the web those items which might lead to amendments, seems to have worked at least moderately well. Other than finding ways to encourage input earlier in the process, are there any suggestions for improving the process for electronic meetings?

Items which passed unamended were
A (Web Committee meeting procedures)
and B-1 (outline of vetting committee structure, and initial members)

Discussion revealed a need to have more explicit the rules under which the vetting committee operates, which we have been sort of assuming implicitly, and your committee chair will word a draft shortly simply stating those, and of course for consideration at the October 15 meeting if any formal action is appropriate.

Item B2 encountered two substantive objections, which led to amendments B3 and B4, and the combination with the amendments passed. Amendment B3 is a recommendation to the Board to change one instruction we were given, as it turns out to be in contradiction with what has been assumed by the Board in practice, and an overload on the President's duties. The Board can consider this. Since the web committee was given explicit instructions on this, we cannot change practice until the President or the Board changes that instruction.

Past President Mavis Greer contributed discussions towards fulfilling some of our action items, material which is posted on the discussion page (see below).

More detail later in July.
End of rough summary of July 15 electronic meeting.
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New Votes requested by Web Committee Chair, B-3 and B-4:
B-3 To permit President to delegate or restrict authority to approve new content on those pages with official ARARA information, responsibility for which has in general been assigned to the Board / to the President. Do web committee members agree? Please see discussion here.
B-4 To leave it to the Web Committee Chair and the Conservation Committee Chair between them to work out overlapping responsibilities for the page "Action Alerts and Success Stories" and its dependencies, to reach agreement between the two committees and report this to the Board. (Reason: these announcements may involve rapid and flexible response to breaking news, and we probably want the minimum of beaurocracy, within guidelines to be established by the Conservation Committee.) Do web committee members agree? [This suggestion of an amendment, to adapt to practical reality, results from Lloyd's review of the draft list of web pages and responsibility for each.]

Summary of votes so far on amendments B-3 and B-4
Marglyph: Yes on B3, B4
Lloyd Anderson: Yes on B3, B4
Frank Cox: Yes on B3, B4
Peggy Whitehead: Yes on B3, B4
Ken Hedges: Yes on B3, B4

Summary of votes so far in order received on items A, B-1, and B-2. The first six member votes recorded were prior to the two amendments proposed above.
If you have sent your vote and it does not appear here, please notify the web committee chair again. If you wish to change a vote, please do so by the end of Tuesday 15 July. (For these three items, if approved by the Web committee, they go to the Board in case it wishes to consider them further):
A. Procedures / B1. Vetting committee & 3 members / B2 Who authorizes web page updates, different for different pages
Chris Gralapp: Yes on A, B1, B2
Ken Hedges: Yes on A, B1, B2
Marglyph: Yes on A, B1. On B2, Marglyph wants to make sure that rules to not require
     overburdening President and preventing delegation. Discussion here.
Lloyd Anderson: Yes on A, B1, On B2, agrees with Marglyph's reservation.
     Delegation-in-practice taken for granted is currently contradictory with instructions
     from past president Mavis. Discussion here.
Mavis Greer: Yes on A, B1, B2. Some discussion points see here.
Bob Edberg: Yes on A, B1, B2
Frank Cox: Yes on A, B1, B2 (also B3 and B4, see above)
Peggy Whitehead: Yes on A, B1, B2 (also B3 and B4, see above)

Late addition to Agenda: disclaimer notice needing revision -- and a request for help!

Your committee chair is supposed to find something in between what is on the page linking to publishers and what is on the Disclaimer page, though the discussions in Farmington did not specify distinct contexts of use. The first link at the end of this paragraph is to a very brief statement at the point where visitors would be leaving our web site to visit various booksellers specializing in rock art. What needs to be added to that? What sellers of books relating to rock art need to be added (please provide their URL's)? What principles can we use for inclusion and exclusion so we do not end up trying to list all sellers of used books?
The next link is to the general disclaimer which is intended more for essays and articles on various rock-art subjects, quite a different context. It has been shortened and re-arranged to be clearer. The section specifying that we have no financial interests is yet a third context, and has been more clearly separated at the end. How does this one need changing? [Late addition 16 July: With attributed articles we can add the very simple "The opinions expressed in this essay are those of the author. See disclaimer <here>."]
These are here http://www.arara.org/Booksellers_Featuring_Rock_Art.html
and here http://www.arara.org/Disclaimer.html

***
     This page is now a combination of a Web Committee report after Farmington May 2008 and Web Committee Agenda for future work. Subject to the approval of the full Web Committee membership voting by our first electronic meeting on 15 July, 2008,
     the first paragraph (A) below describes our procedures tentatively adopted at the informal meeting during the Farmington conference in May, 2008.
     Following paragraphs (B) to (D) describe additional proposals favored by those present in Farmington, which need to be considered by the full Web committee, affirmed or altered.
     Next come Action Items from the Farmington meeting.
     Then comes one item put on the agenda for the 15 October meeting.
     Topics not yet discussed or acted on follow that.
     The ARARA Mission Statement and two paragraphs adopted by the Board which govern the operations of the Web Committee appear at the end of this agenda for ready reference.

In Farmington, only about 6 members and one visitor were present, and with a dominant presence of those concerned with form and procedures rather than those concerned with substantive content, out of our total committee membership of around 15.

A. PROCEDURES TO INCLUDE FULL PARTICIPATION
Meetings of the Web Committee will be electronic so that all members may be included and so that we have full representation of our diverse membership, as envisioned by the Board. "Meeting dates" (dates by which voting must be *concluded* on items put to a vote) will be 15 January, 15 April, 15 July, 15 October, to bracket the ARARA annual conference and the end-November Board meetings. Action items must be put on each agenda at least 3 months in advance of the date by which voting is to be concluded. (Exception for actions mandated by the Board, which may be acted on more quickly if there is good consensus in the Web Committee.)
     Implementation possibilities: Discussions and advocacy can be posted so Web Committee members can review discussions and can communicate their tentative and final votes to the Web Committee chair to be posted. This allows the weight of opinions to be estimated in advance.
ACTION FOR 15 JULY 2008 MEETING: vote whether to approve these procedures or not. Discussion of alternatives?

B. APPROVAL OF WEB CONTENT
     The ARARA Board asked the Web committee to establish a procedure for vetting new material to go onto the web, subject to Board approval. In Farmington, the Web Committee temporarily chose a trio consisting of the outgoing President (Mavis Greer in 2008), the chair of the Web Committee, and Leigh Marymor. The task of this committee is only to review proposed additions or changes to the web site for important issues which need to be brought to the attention of the President, and this only if there is something which might be legally or ethically or financially sensitive or which is expected to impinge unfavorably on the status or image of ARARA. (This Vetting committee has only this very specific purpose. It is not an editorial committee nor a web design committee.)
     There is a four-way distinction of material for the web site. Official ARARA documents must come to the Web Committee chair or to the Webmaster from the ARARA President. Documents from ARARA Committees must come to the Web Committee chair or to the Webmaster from the chair of each respective committee, and must be vetted by the three individuals as described in the preceding paragraph. Substantive material from any other source must be vetted in the same way. Purely editorial matters do not require such vetting.
ACTIONS FOR 15 JULY 2008 MEETING: Vote whether to approve this structure. Vote whether to approve the choice of three members of the vetting committee. [The chair urges that we attempt always to have the most recent ex-President as a member of the vetting committee.]
ACTIONS FOR 15 JULY 2008 MEETING: Review the classification of pages on the site www.ARARA.org in terms of whether they require authorization by the President, by Committee chairs, or whether the Web Committee may initiate changes on its own. For the current draft lists of web pages falling under these categories, please click here.

C. ACTIONS FOR THE TEMPORARY VETTING COMMITTEE: [accomplished]
     The new web site was approved by the Board as of its last review (January 2008). The content as of that time needs no further consideration by this vetting committee. Items received since then from the President or from the old web site also need not be considered. Purely editorial corrections and calendar information need not be vetted, nor changes which were carrying out instructions from the Board to make certain content material no longer publicly available.
      Other items added and changed since then should in principle be vetted for any potential issues which the Board might need to address. These can be tracked on the page of "Latest Changes". Please click here. The chair suggests that only the following items contain new substance that is not purely mechanical or excluded as noted above: Feb. 2, March 5, 12, June 3, 4, 16, 18(upper item) [Mavis Greer responded promptly that no issues with any of these]
      The Vetting committee needs to review future additions and changes for the web site promptly, in order to avoid unnecessary delays between availability of materials and their posting on the web site.

D. PROVISIONS FOR SECURITY OF DOMAIN NAME AND HOSTING OWNERSHIP
     The Colorado Rock Art Association website was down for several weeks earlier this year because of the death of the domain name owner. ARARA needs to secure its assets against such an eventuality. President Mavis has asked that the Web Committee make proposals on how to handle this. What is the current status? ARARA is a corporation. Unless the fees are higher for a corporation as domain name registrant, it could be the owner?
    Associated with this is a potential question about backups of web site content onto hard disks and/or onto CD's or similar, anything beyond what the hosting corporation already does. How much security do we want and of what kinds?
ACTIONS FOR 15 JULY 2008 MEETING:
How do we propose to handle these matters?

ACTION ITEMS ASSIGNED AT 2008 FARMINGTON MEETING (OR FROM OTHERS):

ACTION ITEM 1. For Web Committee chair [not yet complete]
To revise a shorter "Disclaimer" statement but still longer than merely "You are now leaving the ARARA web site and we are not responsible for content". To adjust the links particularly to sellers of rock art books.

ACTION ITEM 2. For Bob Edberg, Ken Hedges, and Lloyd Anderson [half completed]
Make proposals on a possible change of domain name registration [and hosting] agreements, taking into consideration quality of services available which ARARA will reasonably want to use, and costs to ARARA.
     Partial action: Bob Edberg urged that we not use forwarding (or his domain name registrar did not offer that?) despite ARARA Board permission for that until late November. In order to get the new web content running, consistent with various needs, the chair had to move to purchase a new site immediately. Until 30 June, WestHost was offering $6.95 a month with a 2-year payment cycle, and 6 months free at the end of that. Edberg had previously judged Westhost as very good. The chair purchased this agreement, and www.ARARA.org is now hosted there.

ACTION ITEM 3. For Bob Edberg and Frank Cox
Make a proposal for how best to enable the Webmaster to use Dreamweaver CS3 so that additions and changes to the web site will remain compatible in coding. Should ARARA pay for such a program and own it? Alternative proposals?

ACTION ITEM 4. [continued, from Conservation Committee] Prepare a web page to keep track of action alerts so they remain accessible after members lose track of their emails.

ACTION ITEM 5. [from Board] Consider the distribution of functions between AIRA, ARARA Online, La Pintura, and the ARARA web site, with emphasis on the latter two. For the Web site, focus on relatively permanent accessibility. [Commentary from Mavis Greer can perhaps be taken as part of a default statement. This can be refined in late summer 2008.]

ITEMS FOR AGENDA FOR 15 OCTOBER, 2008

OCT2008.1 Develop a proposal for what aspects of web design we may wish to ask a professional designer to help us with, and which aspects of our site we wish to specify that the professional designer should take as more or less fixed (the tree structure for example? the home page "sandstone" design?). What mechanisms will we have for including our membership in evaluating any proposals for web design, so that we are not simply giving our choice over to an outsider, and investing so much in it that we feel we have no choice and must use the result, as opposed to being able to say, as an organization, that we choose not to use what the designer has produced if the members do not prefer it?
How do we most effectively encourage members to suggest web sites whose designs they very much like, which we might consider as models? We can post a set of links to sites which members like.

OCT2008.2 Develop effective methods for soliciting additional pictures from members to continue to illustrate our web site pages. Which pages should have pictures added? Smaller for detailed shots, larger for landscapes or full panels? Keep to the format where images on any one page should normally be from a single cultural style, so that they can serve both esthetically and as educational sources? Adjust brief labels / commentaries? Credit sources?

INCOMPLETE FROM MAY 2008 AGENDA:

INCOMPLETE 1. FOR ALL ADDRESSEES OF THIS MESSAGE
We do not yet have a full listing of interests of Web Committee members, so no way even with those limited categories to evaluate whether we have good coverage of the range of interests of our members.
Click here for an an Excel sheet which you can return by email. This is a survey of interests, not quite the same thing as social networks, but it is a start. Chair to attempt to get responses from all Web Committee members regarding this, as a preliminary. Then from that point how to proceed?

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OTHER PERMANENT GOALS, AND SOME TOPICS NOT YET CONSIDERED

2g. In our content pages, we want to include multiple points of view and many good
     articles, so that we foster good thinking and education on subjects relevant to
     rock art. [Any additional content to be included now? Any discussion of policies
     on content to be included, consistent with the two paragraphs of directives
     from our Board?]

3. Immediate requests to other committees or to the Board?

3a. To Conservation Committee re Alerts
     [A series of questions was submitted by Lloyd for their Agenda, 13 May 2008.
     So potentially considered done for now, though Web Committee can of course
     reformulate to modify request to Conservation Committee, subject to full
     web committee vote in mid-July to confirm discussions at end of May.]

3b. To Conservation Committee re examples of Best Managed Sites, asking what
     is especially outstanding about the management of each which we may wish
     to highlight as a good model, and how we wish to list them (private; public)
     [need to do]

4. Immediate editing
4a. Rock Art in Universities -- are there other wordings which can show the degree and
     kind of interest in rock art at various universities while being a bit more formal?
     [Volunteer to work on this one?]

[4b. Any other pages which volunteers would like to rewrite, to propose alternative
     wordings to be considered at our next voting meeting?]

5. Encouraging all our members and visitors to help us extend the web site
     with additional relevant content, and to help us keep it up to date.
5a. Additional content at this time?
5b. Means for gathering further content? [and making this process more effective
     for the long run, reducing work needed?]

6. Encouraging feedback on any ways we can improve access to make it easier
     and more logically transparent
6a. Changes to navigation at this time?
     [? No new proposals received during 2008? Think not.
     Note here to chair to check under Evaluation & under Goals pages]
6b. Changes to graphics at this time?
     (Note that a number of graphics changes are already in the works, and will be
     implemented step by step.) [actively in June to August of 2008]
     [Default procedure for graphics changes: someone proposing a specific change
      should if possible provide the HTML code to post the alternative on an
      experimental page of our web site, accessible to at least our Web
      Committee members and other committee chair persons.
     One page which is accessible only to Web Committee members,
      not from the public web site, is an example of a different type face,
      and a different layout for pages when images are the main point
      and text is much less significant. "Art Inspired by Rock Art"]

For the longer future, actions which need not be taken immediately

10. A possible directory of ARARA members (voluntary), where members with a
     password can update their own personal information (this needs to be made
     safe against spam bots).

11. A book exchange page, in which members could list books highly relevant to rock art
     which they wish to sell.
     This should not be for commercial booksellers, not even for used-book dealers,
     who can be listed on a page designed for them, but for single copies of books.

12. Encourage our members to update and improve Wikipedia to increase the worldwide
     visibility of solid information on rock art. There are already many articles relevant to      rock art which are part of the Wikipedia. Click here for "rock art" search results.

13. A Content Management System, especially so that Committee chairs can post
     their own new material immediately in a preliminary status
     without having to wait for the Web Committee or for any webmaster,
     and the Vetting committee can then examine it and either approve it or refer it
     to the Board for consideration.

14. A proposal has been received that ARARA should accept paid advertising,
     and also that it should broaden at least its links to include all influences
     of rock art on popular culture and decoration

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ARARA STATEMENTS GOVERNING THE WEB COMMITTEE

[The Mission Statement, on the Home Page, is the highest policy statement governing ARARA, having been adopted by the membership.]
The ARARA Board has approved two paragraphs stating goals to guide the Web Committee, appearing immediately below, and has asked that the Web Committee develop general procedures for its own work which the Board will review.

The Board affirms that the Web Committee needs to be composed of a diversity of ARARA members representing all our social networks. This is in compliance with our Mission Statement whereby the organization represents people with wide-ranging interests.
The Board affirms that our web site should contain a wealth of information from which both our members and non-members can choose what is of most interest to them in an effort to learn more about rock art and to participate and contribute to activities of ARARA.