WISH Team structure and organization (All team members please read)

[Kristi1357]

Tricia & anyone else who is interested -
I will start a thread for volunteering sometime at the end of the summer. I am pretty sure that's when Disney starts looks for 'enthusiasts.' My cohort Judy & myself will make sure to beat as many people into submission, err, I mean recruit willing WISHers to join us in volunteering & scream teaming for marathon weekend.

Seriously, we had a blast at water stop #2 last year! And our official duties ended early enough for us to go off scream teaming elsewhere around the World. We also usually have a large contingent at YC/BC. And no one can forget Anne, her crazy hat and oranges!

As one who followed her DH around the marathon course for many years before finding WISH...it is MUCH more fun to scream team with friends than alone. So even for those who are not interested in volunteering through Disney, we could try setting up some scream team locations so that no one has to be out there hours upon hours alone.

 

[chimera]

I'll definitely be scream-teaming for the full, no beatings required. I'm not sure where yet. I'd like to get to someplace like Anne and Heather did last year where there's not a lot of support, but I'll have the girls with me, so we may just be back around YC/BC or Boardwalk area.

I will warn everyone though...I ended up with one heck of a cowbell blister on my finger after ringing it for the whole 5K at Minnie a couple weeks ago
We may need some WISH tape for our fingers during the half and full

Teri...thanks for offering your enthusiasm and expertise. I don't thing we've really gotten to discuss vegan nutrition but I do believe there are other vegetarians/vegans in the group. That would be cool to add! What pace groups would you be comfortable leading?

Morgan...Debra says everyone looks good in lime green

 

[Big Vic]

I'll definitely be scream-teaming for the full, no beatings required. I'm not sure where yet. I'd like to get to someplace like Anne and Heather did last year where there's not a lot of support, but I'll have the girls with me, so we may just be back around YC/BC or Boardwalk area.

I will warn everyone though...I ended up with one heck of a cowbell blister on my finger after ringing it for the whole 5K at Minnie a couple weeks ago
We may need some WISH tape for our fingers during the half and full

Teri...thanks for offering your enthusiasm and expertise. I don't thing we've really gotten to discuss vegan nutrition but I do believe there are other vegetarians/vegans in the group. That would be cool to add! What pace groups would you be comfortable leading?

Morgan...Debra says everyone looks good in lime green

I can see it now. Lime green WISH Scream Teamer Cowbell Gloves.

 

[Lynn G]

Tricia & anyone else who is interested -
I will start a thread for volunteering sometime at the end of the summer. I am pretty sure that's when Disney starts looks for 'enthusiasts.' My cohort Judy & myself will make sure to beat as many people into submission, err, I mean recruit willing WISHers to join us in volunteering & scream teaming for marathon weekend.

Seriously, we had a blast at water stop #2 last year! And our official duties ended early enough for us to go off scream teaming elsewhere around the World. We also usually have a large contingent at YC/BC. And no one can forget Anne, her crazy hat and oranges!

As one who followed her DH around the marathon course for many years before finding WISH...it is MUCH more fun to scream team with friends than alone. So even for those who are not interested in volunteering through Disney, we could try setting up some scream team locations so that no one has to be out there hours upon hours alone.

Kristi, this sounds great, I would love to do a water stop with others that I knew. I think it would be more fun than doing it with strangers - although I am sure they would not be strangers for long. I will be looking forward to your volunteering thread later.

 

[wtpclc]

I can see it now. Lime green WISH Scream Teamer Cowbell Gloves.

I think we have a new priority WISH gear item!

 

[cdn_gal_eeyore]

Just my two cents on the volunteering thing - I think it is great that you guys are trying to encourage more of that. I loved seeing Susie at the 5K at her water stop (although unfortunately she missed me since I was on the opposite side). Just a thought though, I really missed seeing you guys at the water stop at the full this year! If things work out timing wise, any chance on having a WISH presence at a water stop after the courses merge?

 

[corinnak]

Look no further - here they are. The latest in lime-green cowbell ringing technology.


I am fairly new and ran my first races in Wish attire at the Minnie. I have to say, I think that the shirts, loud as they are, really do help a person feel integrated into the team quickly. Probably they aren't as necessary for those who are well known by other WISHers, but for me, I was glad I was wearing a WISH shirt, even if I do look a bit sickish in all my phtotos . I appreciated all the WISH waves and cheers and photographers, too - very few would have recognized me as a WISHer without my bright green, I'm sure!

 

[shell78]

My $0.02 + some extra for inflation. The numbers before some statements refer back to the initial topics posted

1. Mission statement - In general I find this to be a good idea as this sort of lays down a path of what this group is about, and what it is not about. I do think there is some contradictions though - in that you state the focus should be on Disney events, but then later in the post talk about virtual races and organizing meets at regional races, etc. Obviously Disney should be a focus as this group is derived from a Disney perspective and that the majority of the support (volunteering, etc) should be at Disney related events, but at the same time I think it should be appropriately worded that it is not specific to Disney. One of the first sentences is "support, encourage, motivate...continue to train for various endurance events...healthy lifestyle". All these things are not solely in the Disney domain.

4. Streamline gear - Is this streamlining in the types or the "allowable" vendors? If it's reigning in the different vendors that are being used and going to only 1, I'd have to disagree. I feel that if the gear is in the correct family of lime green and can use the traditional back design of the shirts, then that's enough. Quality, material, sizing, etc. are different among vendors and I don't think those options should be limited. I like the variety as is.

3 Coaching/ 6 Committees are very similar in idea. I can see there being duplication of efforts in this and all the committees make for too much bureaucracy. The committee for new members is well served by a "My first (fill in the blank distance)" thread or the "welcome" thread. What I've seen prior to races is threads pop up with "who's running" and then people are making their own plans to meet up if they are running for a particular time goal. It is probably better to organize pacing and meets within a particular race thread rather than as a separate committee. There's nothing wrong with people being "in charge" of a particular aspect of racing (almost like a mod but not quite with the same power) and taking on responsibility for making sure certain logistical things get done pre-race, but committee-izing these things might just take it a bit too far.

The future goals:

Wish link at Disney endurance site. Bad Idea. First the fact that this steering committee was put together to try to stay on top of this group's growth is clear that it may not be quite prepared yet to handle how to deal with everything. I think that there is already a great web presence and word-of-mouth/race presence that people are finding it on their own. It would be extremely difficult to have one board inundated with tons of people before races and you'd see a ton of repetition on posts and questions, because let's face it, people won't go searching to see if this question has been asked before, they'll just flat out ask it and make a new post. The Runner's World Discussion boards have probably 20-25 different subtopics and we just have one here. Imagine this board getting the number of posts that all of Runners World might get in a day!!! People would be overwhelmed and not find it interesting or helpful anymore.

I wonder if anyone has considered it from the other perspective - as what would Disney REQUIRE to have such a link posted. We all know that Disney is very serious with its advertisers and employees (sorry, cast members). The "Disney Look" anyone? Having a link on their site would mean that this is an approved Disney affiliated group and that might require a ton of new rules to follow. Is that something that people would be willing to undertake, and who would spend all their time policing it? I'll even put it this way: I've been a long time reader of a particular blog that was all about one of my favorite sports teams. It was just some guy who started the site independently and did a lot of work gathering together all the different news stories, trades, etc. This year this blog entered an agreement with the network that carries the team broadcast. While the site still gets a lot of info and the guy declared this deal would not amount to any sort of censorship from the network/team, there definitely is a change in tone and I think a lot more of the critical posts (when warranted) that used to show up don't anymore. The moral of the story here I would say is "Be careful what you wish for".


Advocacy for pacing - I agree it is a good idea as this is a large group that has an interest in such things. However I'd prefer if/when this takes place that it is done as an individual basis rather than "we are sending a letter to Disney on the entire WISH behalf." I think if a poll was posted you would not get a sufficient sample size to declare that this is the will of the group. I can also see lots of flame wars with people who may disagree on what someone is trying to do (this assuming the advocacy will not just be for pacing specifically, but maybe also for other issues with other race details). In this case I would prefer to see a post saying "For this race Disney is doing X, some of us feel they should consider changing it to Y, if you agree please consider writing to the RD at Z."

 

[AmyBeth68]

Great feedback! Thanks everyone...

I'll speak to some of Shell's concerns as an SC volunteer...but only in regard to the areas that I feel confident discussing ...

1. Mission Statement: I think our focus will be Disney but we will absolutely encourage and support races anywhere the WiSH members go . I just think we want to concentrate the bigger effort on the Disney series since it relates directly to the DisBoards focus.

2. Coaching/Mentoring: I believe we were discussing the *possibility* of sticky threads for several areas for mentoring advice. Just an easier way for folks to go with very specific questions (Walking, Running, Strength Training, Core Training, Nutrition, etc). Within those threads anyone who happens to have knowledge base in any of those areas would voluntarily check it out and answer questions as they pop up. It's a very informal situation...but just a way to organize and keep the threads accessible to team members. If someone has specific questions relating to core work or pilates...they could post a question in the "core thread" and as an instructor I might be able to help out with some exercises to try or workout dvd recommendations. Quite informal...just more of a streamlining of several of the threads that currently exist.

I love the feedback Shell . Your comments are valid and we'll definitely take into account your advice!

 

[scuba diver]

I guess I'm just a little confused and probably in the minority here.

I thought DIS was a place to talk to people with similar interests, like running. I come here to get info about Disney races, etc. A place of free flowing, exchange of information and ideas. Ask a question....get an answer.

Steering committees, mission statements....it all sounds like my job. Not fun.

But then that is just me.

 

[CarolA]

I am not sure about this.


This is an internet community. I think you can only take it so far. It may be that it is what it is and that's just fine. It may be that trying to sturture etc... will "kill' it's sprit. It's not like we are a group of "like minded" individuals trying to cure cancer, save the whales or elect Mickey Mouse for President..... The only common thing is that MOST of us like to do Disney races, but is that enough? And not all of our members may like Disney races or even if they be able to attend them.... I am not the Disney race connection is enough to take this beyone an informal internet community.

We saw just a few months ago how devisive T-shirts can be! So you streamline the clothing and 100 memebers don't like it... Go back and read how that went!!!!! YIKES!
The T-shirt fight nearly drove me off!


I also think the "growth" ideas have some concerns....I find the "link" on the Disney Endurance Page to be a concern, but in truth I doubt that will EVER happen so it's not worth getting worked up about. Disney is NOT going to offically get involved with the DIS boards. There are things on these boards that violate Disney policies and procedures (i.e., photopass sharing anyone?) which Disney is not going to want to even remotely touch LOL! Nor are the board owners probably going to want to play

Now, the saddest part to me is that a poster was attacked for what he posted even if it was on another board. It's like the "censor police" are following folks around making sure they "play by the DIS rules"???? While this has happened on the DIS overall I have never been comfortable with it and find it sad that it continues....

 

[ScoJo15]

I thought DIS was a place to talk to people with similar interests, like running. I come here to get info about Disney races, etc. A place of free flowing, exchange of information and ideas. Ask a question....get an answer.

You are 100% correct Jim...and all we are trying to do is look at how we can make it easier for folks to find the information they are looking for. We've had many newer people say they think this is a great idea because they were confused about where to go or how to join the team.

It's not a rule setting and dictating group...it's just a cross section of people throwing ideas onto a board and seeing what sticks....thus the request for ideas and information from ALL WISH members

 

[ScoJo15]

*deleted*

 

[chimera]

Shell...I think AmyBeth answered your point well about the Disney race focus. I just wanted to elaborate a tad. We've always considered WDW marathon weekend the annual, 'official' if you will, WISH team event. That doesn't mean folks don't do other non-Disney races, but that you will find the largest group and main meets at that weekend.

Great points on the future events. Panda Dave made both of those suggestions so maybe he can elaborate more on what he was thinking. You are correct, if we ever get to the point where we want to do more 'advertising', we have to be ready for the influx of new folks we might see. So far, those have not moved beyond suggestions, though there are a few running groups currently listed on the marathon weekend site. Not sure how they got there (or how much they might have paid).

I do agree that any letter/email that went out to WDW sports on behalf of the WISH team should be proposed to the entire team before it's sent.

Jim and Carol...I appreciate your comments. We need folks that feel the way you do to keep us from structuring ourselves to death. We are trying to keep the team informal and we're not looking to develop a hierarchy or body of officers or anything like that. Most of the structure is to make it easier for new people to find info and 'old' people to keep up. It's also a way to make sure that as we grow, we don't devolve into chaos. And, it's a way to offer more 'services' like pace groups and mentoring.

Carol...I hesitate to talk about shirts these days. It's been frustrating for everyone and I still don't think there's a good answer. It seems that none of the 3 vendors works for everyone on the team. We have a few folks that are willing to look into finding a 4th vendor that might be everything we need, but not sure if that's realistic.

I don't want to ignore your last point but I'm not really sure what to say or how to fix it either.

The one thing I will disagree with is that doing Disney races is the only thing that binds us. I think we're all here because we find a great joy in what we're doing and helping others to achieve similar goals. I really believe the WISH team has grown beyond just simply racing together. I don't want to get cheesy or sappy, but I love seeing everyone out there and on here cheering for each other, helping each other through rough spots and making people feel welcome regardless of their background. The concept of Ohana works here.

 

[ScoJo15]

*deleted*

 

[windwalker]

.

Great points on the future events. Panda Dave made both of those suggestions so maybe he can elaborate more on what he was thinking. You are correct, if we ever get to the point where we want to do more 'advertising', we have to be ready for the influx of new folks we might see. So far, those have not moved beyond suggestions, though there are a few running groups currently listed on the marathon weekend site. Not sure how they got there (or how much they might have paid).

.

Mel, and everyone else, unless I am mistaken we are still just in brainstorming mode. Which is to me anyway a free flow of ideas to evaluate which need more thought and which need to be discarded. Then ideas that we think have some merit would be brought forward for the group to discuss.

I mentioned linking an invite to Dis Boards on the Disney Sports site since a lot of people have no idea there are discussion and information sharing groups like WISH.

The Pacing wasn't my idea, not sure who brought that up and that's irrevelent since we are still brainstorming ideas. But this idea is interesting, it needs discussion, it spawned another idea of a WISH runner/walker or two who would start at the back and encourage/help WISHers who were falling behind.

The whole idea of the committiee as I understand it is to look at things we might want to change as we get larger, since it appears that we are growing at a pretty fast rate. We also want to try to head off concerns that arise. We may decide we don't need to change very much at all.

One of the concerns we saw is that a brand new person stumbling across our board would probably be intimidated by the size. They would also not really know how to join us or even ask a question. How would a new person even know that there were answers and fellowship available.

We have an enormous amount of knowledge on the WISH, we wanted to look at how we can best share our knowledge. Be that information stickies, mentors for different fitness areas or information threads like we have now.

Having a mentoring section is an idea that I think is one of the ideas that needs to be discussed since I think it has merit.

As for disagreements the rule about that, in my understanding, is disagreement is fine and everyone has an equal voice. But we need to respect the individual. We don't have to agree all the time and we won't.

Walking Panda

 

[Kristi1357]

On second thought....
*delete*

 

[scuba diver]

One of the concerns we saw is that a brand new person stumbling across our board would probably be intimidated by the size. They would also not really know how to join us or even ask a question. How would a new person even know that there were answers and fellowship available.
Walking Panda

Wouldn't they just post a new thread with the question?

Or use the search function like on all the other DIS threads?

That's what we do on all the other running formuns. Just post, read, and search.

Why is stumbling onto DIS any thing different then going to Runnersworld for the first time?

Just wondering what I'm missing.

 

[windwalker]

Wouldn't they just post a new thread with the question?

Or use the search function like on all the other DIS threads?

That's what we do on all the other running formuns. Just post, read, and search.

Why is stumbling onto DIS any thing different then going to Runnersworld for the first time?

Just wondering what I'm missing.

Your not missing anything Jim.

This is just about looking at our forum and seeing what if anything needs to be changed as we grow larger.

Speaking of running, was it you I was having a discussion with about why the Kenyan runners were so sucessfull? I was having a discussion with someone about that a year or 2 ago.

Walking Panda

 

[dsnyfan21]

Wouldn't they just post a new thread with the question?

Or use the search function like on all the other DIS threads?

That's what we do on all the other running formuns. Just post, read, and search.

Why is stumbling onto DIS any thing different then going to Runnersworld for the first time?

Just wondering what I'm missing.

I guess you don't miss much, however I missed a bunch.
Sorry to say, but as a new person to WISH and disboards and pretty much forums on the interent, I was VERY LOST!! Maybe you are use to this kind of format but I wasn't and I was sort out there thrying to figure it out. I think everyone just wants to make it a bit easier to navigate the WISH team area for new people and to maybe streamline it a bit. Sorry, but I don't really do alot of going on internet forums, however since I am a huge DISNEY fan and I found disboard and you guys by seeing the shirts, otherwise I probably would not have TRIED to find you on disboards at all - its all kinda spread out and overwhelming.
Remember, there are still people who don't do alot of the stuff that the internet offers and when they feel out of there comfort zone they will avoid it. I consider myself to be somewhat computer savy, but I was still overwhelmed a bit at the forum.
Just my two cents.
-Tracy