KEJ Announcement 11-1-08
Breaking Announcement
Wiki-Continuity
The November 1, 2008 Announcement is an announcement made by ADSIC Co-Lead Editor Kort Everett Jackson to all members and visitors of the AcaDec Scores and Information Center. Such announcement comes during the second full season of operations for ADSIC, and entails a call for discussion to streamline processes in ADSIC as well as asking a series of informal questions that would provide input on whether or not to cancel unused programs.
Letter of Announcement
BREAKING ANNOUNCEMENT BY CO-LEAD EDITOR OF ACADEC SCORES AND INFORMATION CENTER KORT EVERETT JACKSON:
Greetings All,
I understand that ADSIC is now powering up for it's second full season. We are on the verge of going through another competitive season, and it's time for some changes once again.
Many projects have fallen by the wayside in ADSIC, and this is by no fault of anyone. The main focus of ADSIC has been to provide scores and information for events directly correlated to the United States Academic Decathlon.
In June of 2007, we took a bold leap forward by including The World Scholar's Cup. However, I believe that some of our projects are becoming deadwood and are hampering efficiency, and the WSC section is hurting the most as a result.
Therefore, I am announcing a series of informal "referendum questions" to be voted upon on AcaDecTalk. The vote is quite informal and is more to get the public's sense of what we are doing correctly, what we need to work on, and most importantly, what we should be doing. This way, we can effectively serve our visitors and members better. My justification for placing these questions on ADT as opposed to a vote station on ADSIC is two fold:
- 1. The vote is informal and ADSIC has no obligation to follow the results if need be; and
- 2. ADT would be a better place to get input at this time.
Such a series of questions will be asked as a ADT poll, and polling will likely begin at the start of November and move throughout the mid part of November.
The Questions to be asked are found below, followed by justification.
Q1: Should the name of the Academic Decathlon (AcaDec) Scores and Information Center (ADSIC) be amended to a shorter, more inclusive name to include the recent expansion of The World Scholar's Cup?
Justification: ADSIC is no longer an accurate term to describe the dual focus of AD and WSC scores. Another reason is that the acronym is close to 'ASDIC', which if searched online, triggers a result that contains inappropriate material that ADSIC does not stand for.
Q2: Should ADSIC end the Personal Biography project and remove it no later than December 31, 2008?
Justification: This project has had very little forward progress and has not caught on. We may leave a personal biography list to provide short details for each outstanding or important decathlete/coach, but individual bios are too time consuming and have fallen by the wayside.
Q3: Should ADSIC end the Project:Phoenix conversion and remove it no later than December 31, 2008?
Justification: Project:Phoenix NEVER even got started. The only positive thing Phoenix generated was a admissions order list of when states entered the ADS or ADSIC database. The list would be kept, but Phoenix would be scrapped.
Q4: Should ADSIC review the policies of Local/County/Regional pages and consider revisions?
Justification: While most confusion over Regional pages has been settled, a final, easy to ready codification of policy would help make it easier for new members to begin adding information on ADSIC.
Q5: Should ADSIC consider creating a simplified mission statement?
Justification: We tried a Constitution, but it ended up going in the wrong way. The intent was to create a generalized statement (like the State Constitution of Alaska), but we ended up with a constitution similar to the complexities found in the State Constitution of Texas (or even Alabama). That focus was scrapped in early 2008. Such focus on a general statement will identify purpose, link to policies, and help newcomers understand what we are all about.
Q6: Should ADSIC consider reviewing and removing obsolete deadwood policies no longer in effect?
Justification: While some of ADSIC's policies are still good to use, there is a chance after some time in operation that some policies may need updating or removed entirely.
Q7: Should ADSIC consider creating a five to seven member Editorial Board of Regents who serve staggered one year terms to function as the main editors and policy setters for ADSIC?
Justification: This is a drastically scaled-down version of the Unicameral Council of ADSIC, which would allow for greater flexibility but retain a group consensus.
Q8: Should ADSIC permanently end all use and development of HTML tables and move to a complete "wiki-table format" by January 1, 2009?
Justification: ADSIC, by the large part, has removed most if not all HTML tables, and switched to Wikipedia-table coding. Adoption of this question will formally end the HTML policy.
Thank you for your time reading this announcement.
Kort Everett Jackson
Results of Non-Binding Referendum
November 8, 2008 - November 21, 2008
- Q1 (Name Change of ADSIC): Yes 21.43%; No 78.57% (3-11)
- Q2 (Removal of Personal Biographies): Yes 21.43%; No 78.57% (3-11)
- Q3 (Removal of Project Phoenix) Yes 42.86%; No 57.14% (6-8)
- Q4 (Review of Regional Policy) Yes 64.29%; No 35.71% (9-5)
- Q5 (Mission Statement) Yes 71.43%; No 28.57% (10-4)
- Q6 (Review of ADSIC Policies) Yes 100.0%; No 00.00% (14-0)
- Q7 (Editorial Board) Yes 42.86%; No 57.14% (6-8)
- Q8 (End of HTML Tables) Yes 85.71%; No 14.29% (12-2)
