Tom Pearson 2003-2007 multi-Annual Report For positions: Assistant Executive Director; On-Line Communications/Membership Director Greetings from Guam For the past few years, I have been serving RAW in three capacities. Two have been officially titled positions: On-line Communications Coordinator and Assistant Executive Director. The third position never had an official title until by-laws were written and approved, and the position was entitled Membership Director. As Assistant Executive Director, I have worked closely with the Interim Executive Director, Kyle Russell, who volunteered to step in and take over that position, when I stepped down as Executive Director, after it became obvious that I could no longer wear as many hats as I was wearing at that time, and still give priority to my day job of being a High School Math teacher, Math Department Chair and Head of our school’s Residential program responsible for a dozen teenagers. Over the years, my school has increased my workload in an administrative capacity to the point where I currently work over 110 hours per week. In addition I am also a Radio DJ and have worked hard to develop a strong Guam RAW posse that meets twice weekly. As a result, Annual Reports have always been a good intention, but unfortunately, have never become a reality. In keeping with Kyle’s request that all Board members produce an Annual Report covering the years since the last year in which I was actually able to write such a report (2002), I submit the following: Assistant Executive Director ===================== Major projects over the past few years since my last Annual Report have been working with other Board members, especially our Interim Executive Director, Kyle Russell, to come up with a set of by-laws, a project which had been attempted but never completed many times since RAW’s beginnings in Dec 1992. The current by-laws were finalized over nearly two years ago after a lengthy process, based on a format that is currently used by another non-profit organization I am quite familiar with, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. This format was chosen for a number of reasons: 1) I was able to get a copy of their by-laws quite easily, 2) those by-laws were relatively short and concise compared to other formats we’ve tried to use in the past, and 3) those by-laws include the concept of regional chapters, something I think RAW should seriously consider in the future. The actual writing of the by-laws took quite a long time as we checked every word and punctuation mark to adapt the template we were using to fit RAW’s special needs. What was finally passed after Board approval is not perfect, but did allow us to move forward to the next step, holding elections to replace existing Board members, some of whom had been serving since having been appointed by Papa Pilgrim to the original Board, over 10 years ago. Over the past year and a half, I have been closely involved with Kyle Russell in setting up the process of holding elections. We finally established how best to hold such elections in the early fall of 2007. I mailed out all the election ballots and kept track of all votes as they came in. In January 2008, the final tallying of votes was completed, and an announcement of new Board members was made. On-Line Communications Director / Membership Director (pre-official new title) ========================== I have continued to accept items for submission to our on-line newsletter "Wha’ Gwaan in RAW?". Items must come from members in our database. After checking that a particular item does, I forward it to Eric Harris (#1418), who then sends out the actual newsletter. He keeps me informed of any email addresses that bounce back. I keep him informed of email addresses that have been changed. For any given newsletter, we may get a couple dozen bounce-backs. So we ask members to keep us updated with correct working email addresses. I also answer questions that come in as best I can, or refer them to another Coordinator who may be able to provide the information requested. During the month of June, and often into early July, I take my annual pilgrimage to the US mainland. During this time, members are advised that I will be off-line and items for our newsletter should be sent directly to Eric. Guam is located in what is known as "Typhoon Alley", and we are occasionally visited by vicious storms that wreck havoc on our communications systems. Power has been out for as many as three months after a "super-typhoon" has visited us. Luckily, since the time of my last Annual Report, we have not had any storms of such magnitude. Knock on wood! In addition to my official positions of Assistant Executive Director and On-Line Communications Director, I also perform many other tasks that keep me very busy. The new by-laws addressed this issue and created an Executive Board position entitled Membership Director. Processing new memberships and sending out membership packets, getting new members "linked" to the existing membership, sending out renewal notices, processing renewals, sending out renewal packets, maintaining the RAW database, updating and sending out various membership lists (New Members & Changes, the Email RAWster, the URL RAWster, the Discount RAWster, and RAW Demographics) are all items that I have been taking care of for over a decade. In January 2007, my computer was fried as a result of Guam’s frequent power outages. I was able to recover the hard drive, but had to buy a new computer. Much to my dismay, the operating system of the new computer would not recognize the software I had been using to maintain the RAW database. I looked for updated version of the software, only to find the company had been sold twice over, and no longer manufactured the software I had been using. Numerous attempts were made to recover that database by computer techie friends on island without luck. I tried linking the rescued hard drive to a computer at school that was the same model I had been using, only to find the data had been badly fragmented. By the spring of 2007, it was obvious that I would need to rebuild the entire RAW database from scratch after purchasing new software that would take care of our needs. After asking for many recommendations from the RAW massive, it was decided that Filemaker Pro would best serve this purpose. While on the US mainland in June 2007, I was able to purchase such software, and upon my return to Guam, I began the long process of rebuilding the RAW database. Luckily I had an updated (as of Jan 2007) paper copy of the membership llist that I had printed out just prior to the electrical fiasco that took place in January. By August 2007, the database was again in place, but unfortunately, although Filemaker Pro is relatively easy to use, it is not as easy to set up. I had major problems setting up the layout needed to print out the RAWster in a form that would not run to 100 pages. Kyle Russell hs some experience with Filemaker Pro, and he volunteered to help, using his own knowledge, and that of a relative, who has working with the program extensively. We managed to get to about a 50% acceptable layout, but we still had many kinks. At this point in time, we are very close to having what we need done, but it is not quite ready yet. Crucial info still does not appear, and until we figured that out, the RAWster is on hold. The other report that I was able to make quite easily using the old software was the RAW demographics report. At this time, I have not figured out how to work with Filemaker Pro and do that as easily. One of the pieces of information that I was unable to recover during this long process was renewal information on each member, since this data was never included on any printout of the RAWster. As a result, I was unable to send out renewal notices or new membership packets for all of 2007. That unfortunate condition still exists as of the writing of this report, although I hope to be able to rectify that situation very soon. I made a motion to the Board, which was passed, that addresses this current status: 1. All members listed in the RAW database at the time of my computer crash will be considered active members, whether they were overdue in renewal dues or not. If you are still receiving any form of communication from RAW, that includes you. If you no longer wish to be considered a RAW member, I will need to hear from you directly with a request to be dropped from the RAWster. 2. All membership dues for 2007 will be waived, including any outstanding membership renewals dues. If you werediligent enough to send in dues without having received a renewal notice, that payment will be applied to 2008, and your membership extended accordingly. 3. All new members who joined in 2007 will have their memberships extended by one year. Since I have not been able to send new membership packets, those new members have not yet received the full benefits of their membership (i.e. printed RAWsters, etc). 4. In observation of RAW’s 15th year in existence, we will once again offer former and current members the opportunity to "buy back" their original membership number, as we did during our 10th year. Former members may re-join at the current fee schedule and be re-assigned their original number for an additional $25 for all categories other than Committed Reggae Fan. Former members who rejoin in the Committed Reggae Fan category may be re-assigned their original number for an additional $10. Current members who have already rejoined may take advantage of the same opportunity by sending in $25 for any category other than Committed Reggae Fan. Current members who rejoined as Committed Reggae Fans may do the same by sending in an additional $10. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, you must know your original membership number, or at least give me a close enough approximation that I can research the RAW archives and determine what it was. Finally, since I no longer have renewal data on a majority of members, I may need to suggest a new renewal plan. Nothing definite has been decided yet, but I am thinking of a quarterly renewal notice system. What I’m leaning towards right now is that 1/4 of our members would be due in March, 1/4 in June, 1/4 in September, and the final 1/4 in December. This would greatly reduce the number of times I need to send out renewal notices. But until the RAW database layout is finalized, no firm decision will be made. If anyone has any suggestions on how to do this equitably, please let me know. Sincerely yours Tom "Jah Son" Pearson, submitted 2/1/08