Somebody, somewhere along the line has to have the insestinal fortitude to stand up for what they think is right for their people.  IMHO

I believe that our recently former DD here did have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for what they thought was right for their people.  I remember a staff forum post telling us that he had stood up for a point the ATM's were having difficulty with.  But DD's have little to no influence in the upper tier leadership from what I can gather.

I have seen each and every single application for BoG and EC jobs over the past year.  Just like the real world, applications are on how you sell yourself.

My comment was ambiguous.  Someone says that many people are in this thread are wining and don't even have the gumption to step up, I was just stating that that is not the case.  I know a few people in this thread who have made attempts to be on the BOG/BOD that is really all I am saying Norm.  I would have no idea as to the specific qualifications of anyone who applied for a position, but more particularly those who were selected, as I really don't know any of them.  I am sure, or at least hope, that each position is advertised, and everyone who applies is given the appropriate level of consideration based on their qualifications both on and off the network.

Harold,

Jeff,

Using your logic, why does each city need a mayor? Keep the directors of the Department of Public Works, Police, and Fire in their position, then every city can talk to the governor of its state. Frankly that's ridiculous.

Mayors have the authority to develop policy and broad discretion (sometimes not because of city councils holding of the broad discretion) to make decisions.  They can create ordinance, allocate funds (which we don't do on VATSIM) so on and so forth.  Though it seems like the idea of a Mayor and VATUSA1 may fit together I don't think that they are as connected as it may appear.

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE [/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]Resignations are not necessarily a bad thing. If people in positions such as VATUSA1 get worn down, then they're going to resign. It's not necessarily that they're unhappy. And just because VATUSA gets more frequent resignations than, say, VATEUD, that doesn't mean something's wrong.[/quote]
That would be good if it is the fact, but I don't think that the recent turnover is because of normal attrition.  I could be wrong and only those people really know the answer.
[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE [/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]The GRP is not an overwhelmingly binding document (edit:) with regard to VATUSA policies and has very little (if any) effect on them. In fact, it's hardly an overwhelmingly binding document at all. I worked as the TA of ZDV for a year to establish ZDV training department compliance with that document. It primarily bounds ARTCC training departments. Sure, VATUSA has had to tweak a couple of things such as the Training Resource Center to reflect rating changes in the GRP, but beyond that there isn't a whole lot that has had to change on the divisional level. Whether or not you agree with me, the GRP is not an evil document and has provided many positives in its implementation, as shown by the response from individual ARTCCs to VATUSA at the time of GRP review last year.[/quote]

The implementation of GRP1 was dramatically different than the implementation of GRP2.  

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE [/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]VATSIM divisions are bound to the Code of Regulations in the same sense that states of the US are bound to the US Constitution. Cities in states of the US are bound to the state constitution. That's basically how VATSIM works, too. The CoR does not  prevent someone from trying something new, expediting efficiency, or -- generally speaking -- from making new policy, as long as it complies with the policies set forth by the top.[/quote]

Not really.  The Constitution is a supreme law, one which all other regulation must fall within from the local level to the Federal level.  The COC/COR are technically the only low.  Outside of what the BOD can accomplish policy wise there are is technically no rule making allowed outside the COC/COR.  There is rule making allowed within the U.S. Constitution hundreds of thousands of pages of law which have been created to fit within the guidelines of the Constitution.  The discretion at the local level on VATSIM to make rules is extremely limited.  Essentially to minimum hours requirements, which is also regulated, and local field procedures which are also regulated through GRP.  

[!--quoteo--][div class=\\\'quotetop\\\']QUOTE [/div][div class=\\\'quotemain\\\'][!--quotec--]Many of the positions have been established to simply reduce workload for other staff members higher up on the bureaucratic tier. Nothing's wrong with that. It's okay to have people making regional, divisional, and ARTCC decisions that conform to VATSIM's policies.[/quote]

You are right, that is the purpose of hiring staff members under you but if no authority or discretion is delegated to those staff members all that is created is frustration, and confusion.  For example, all of the staff at ZID, and I hope that they would agree, have extremely broad discretion to make decisions regarding their departments.  I don't approve everything my TA says or does, nor my DATM.  I monitor their decisions and attempt to stay in communication them so that their decisions are likely inline with my vision for the ARTCC.  If I were to require them to have approved by my everything which they do I completely eliminate the purpose of hiring additional staff, and should essentially just leave the positions vacant and do the work myself.  And that leads us to the initial post.

Leaving the division staff vacant may be something to consider, maybe not ideal and certainly not my decision to make it is an idea which deserves thought.

It was kind of nice to see the VATUSA senior staff operate as a team for a while at least.  All the best.

I am sure I am just overlooking them but has anyone managed to find meeting minutes for BOG and BOD meeting minutes on the new VATSIM website I can't seem to see them anywhere.

Thanks for the help,

With help from a friend I stumbled upon an application for IPhone which allows you to connect to a Teamspeak server over wifi or 3g networks.  I got it and tried it out last night and it works pretty well.  Downside is that it costs money but only like $5, and they do seem to be pretty proactive at updating it and making it better.

Just thought that there may be someone else out there who may find it useful.

Oh yea the app is called phonespeex

Alex,

This is great, I don't kmow how I missed the first 6 issues.  Great job keep up the good work.

Bruce