http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/MichaelJacksondownloads3/

I am the owner of several PTA groups, and have been helping some school PTAs that have experienced hostile takeovers of their lists by people that were entrusted with ownership, or started the group for the PTA and then when their child moved onto another school, decided to keep the group for their own personal agenda, and not turn it over to the new leadership, or became suddenly anti-PTA and decided to turn the list into their won style of community forum, without changing the name of the list and leaving the pciture of the school on the group website!. For that reason, we are now suggesting that the PTAs have a signed form stating that the owner understands that the list belongs to the PTA, not the person, and will relinquish the list when they leave. Talk about trust issues!

I too have more than one id registered for each list, and actually that is beneficial when direct adding members – if every group were under one id, I would only be able to add 10 people, period. With multiple ids, I can add 10 people per group, which is important during our busy time in the fall when we get a lot of new members joining with the start of the school year.

Just my 2 cents worth!

Richard

But, the one point that I see many of you missing is – what the heck are you going to do if you wind up in a car accident and are laid up for 6 months or a year? How about the death of a child or spouse and you NEED an extended break? Or worse yet, your hit by a bus and killed… Can your group survive if no one is at the helm for that period of time or not at all? Granted, more than likely if your dead, you really won’t care about your group, but so many of us have poured our heart and souls into these groups, especially if they are some sort of support group, that they should not end just because you are no longer involved.

There is no doubt that the picking of a co-owner is not easy, and there is always risk when involving others (especially if you have a very strong personality), but can your group really afford to not have such a cheap insurance policy to insure that it will continue on with out you?

The group that I was co-owner of, was started by a man who was in fair health. Within a 3 month time frame, he went from fair health to passing away. In that period of time, he had appointed a co-owner as well as a new moderator (me) as the group was growing rapidly. Upon his death, his co-owner took over, and asked if I would take on the responsibility and then appointed me as her co-owner. As I said in my post above, we worked out a 51 – 49% ownership agreement (actually my idea as she wanted a 50/50 deal at first), and although we “locked horns” more than once, we both kept the best interest of the support group as the main focus and more often than not, she eventually agreed with my point of view on an argued point. When she took her leave of absence, I appointed a co-owner with the agreement that I was owner, the replacement was there “just in case” happened to me and the one on leave was to be appointed as owner again when she was ready and able.

Please don’t keep your head in the sand.. Life happens and if you want to insure that your group will continue on without you, take precautions NOW. Hold regular meetings with your moderators and co-owner, get to really know them, talk on the phone now and then.. Take the input from everyone into consideration before making major decisions (really helps in making everyone feel they are important and making a difference in how the group is run AND helps instill a ‘team’ feeling) even if you decide to go your own direction in the end.. Make decisions that involve the direction of your group with a lot of forethought. do this and your group will continue on even if you can’t be there to guide it on it’s journey.

Just some things to think about…

Ez