During a past stinging at Samuel's, I started venting about it. As I went on, I got louder and more animated, and I realized that I was outright angry about it.
I teach online. One of the things that we discuss in our training is how students can feel when they aren't getting the kind of responses that they expect*. How people can feel left out, and the imaginary situations that they fabricate in an effort to put a reason behind why the doors seem closed. Once I had a student contact my supervisor saying that she thought that I didn't like her. I was very surprised when he told me about it, because this student was doing fine, and I had absolutely no feelings of animosity towards her. However, I wasn't giving her the amount of feedback that I was giving to some of the other students, and in her mind, that translated to me having something against her.
So while I admit that I did spend some time concocting possible scenarios about cliquishness and jumping to some other unfounded conspiratorial conclusions involving money scams, I needed to figure out what I could do to get the results that I wanted, namely the answers to the questions that I posted on the forum.
There's a network list that only members of the AAS have access to. I found the vice-president of the AAS board, who is also a doctor and an apitherapist, and I sent him an email. It bounced back. I thought that I might kill something.
But I took a deep breath, thought through what other options I had, and sent a private message to his wife, who is the administrator for the forum. Because I sent a PM through the forum, I would have expected to get a PM back, but I got an email instead??? The administrator had received an email notification that she had a private message, but she didn't know how to check it.
EPIPHANY.
NOW I understand. Old school. These people are old school. This is about a generation gap and computer skills, not money or exclusivity.
So.
In addition to my questions for her husband, I responded with this:
"Do you have any idea when the forum will be back up? I have some questions that I would like to post. Also, if there is anything I could do to facilitate more activity on the forum, I would be more than happy to offer my assistance. As an online teacher I have a fair bit of experience in managing online forums. I would love to see more robust discussion there, a greater number of responses to people's posts, and more activity from more experienced members of the community. I have plenty of energy to put towards that goal, and I'm excited about the possibilities, so please feel free to use me!"
The result?
At present, the forum still isn't up, which is frustrating because I have a ton of questions that I want to ask and because it doesn't seem to be a priority for the AAS. They recently had a revamp on the website, and the forum was never put back online. I think that they don't realize the potential of that tool.
However, I got a very positive response from the administrator. She seemed very interested in having me help out, and when we meet at the conference we're going to discuss the possibility of *me* being the forum admin!
I bought my conference ticket last week and my plane ticket this morning. I've already arranged a substitute for my Friday class. New Orleans, here I come!
*Which isn't to say that people's expectations often aren't out-of-whack, too high, etc.
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