The Winter 2005 journal info will be posted within a few days. The new board members will not actually be on the board until January. And there will be information in the president's letter which was not known when the election results were final. Can we all wait for the info? Yes we probably can. I'm glad that people are highly interested in the AAW and its progress.
I am all for using the website as a method of communication and delivering content as early as it is known. We have tried to ramp up the amount of material which goes to the website as a means of improving communication with the membership.
Yes, I noticed that folks were frustrated in the thread about the 2006 symposium. In the end, a few folks got some info 2 whole weeks before it was scheduled to go on the website. What about the other 50 questions which people have about the 2006 symposium? The 2006 symposium webpage will get built out probably next week. It is a lot more effective use of my time to build out a webpage than bleed out tidbits of info on the forum. In general I post stuff to the website as soon as it is known.
If we use the 2005 Symposium webpage as an example, I built it out about this time last year. Then whenever new info became available I posted it as an update to that page within 1-3 days. Also I posted which items got updated on that page as a running status. That's about as good as it gets - even when you have paid employees.
As I mentioned in some previous postings, we are currently working on revamping the website to become more dynamic. Originally I hoped that work would be done by December. The new forecast is that it will probably be complete in February. Part of the update will include a secure online Resource Directory to accompany the paper version. I am hoping we can extend the usage of that online directory. I want AAW members to have a more interactive online sense of community with the website. The online directory and some of the associated software should help get us there.
I do not feel the forum is a good place to disseminate info. The homepage serves that purpose. Typically whenever I post news on the homepage I also mention it in the forum in case people didn't hit the homepage that day.