WSMs Stepping Up in Fall 2018 and Beyond (Call and Conversation)...
Team WSM!
As the saying goes, “Times they are a changin!” We know you’ve noticed all the great changes we have made to EN in the last couple years. All of this has been done with the goal of growing the Team, our knowledge and the sports surrounding the endurance world.
As a WSM, you are the backbone of the Team. Without you, our Team wouldn’t be as strong, as smart or as fun --- so for that, we thank you. It’s time to make another change for the Team...and this directly involves the WSM role.
Note: I'm planning to have a call to discuss before any changes are made (pick a time here for the week of 8/27), but for now, please read on to see if you are interested.
The Gist: Extending the WSM role to include dedicated forum time answering questions.
As you know, the vast majority of coaching time in the Official Coach Forum is spent helping athletes will all manner of issues. Some are simple: “What plan to choose?” Some are complicated: “If I sign up for race “X” but have plantar fasciitis now, what should I order from the local Thai restaurant?” No matter how many times we tell athletes to move simple questions to the larger forums, they always end up in the Coach Forum eating away at Coach time that should be spent are bettering our community on a larger scale.
I am asking WSMs to respond to those basic questions with your WSM knowledge, and of course, you can always “bump” me in a forum thread response if it truly needs my attention.
The goal will be to have you answer / triage the Official Coach Forum on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (you will be able to choose your dates on a shared calendar so we can be sure all the dates are covered). I will still do Mondays and Fridays. This shouldn’t take more than 20 or 30-minutes per day, 1 hour total per month.
Steps
Pick Your Dates to Help Online Here: http://bit.ly/2wclNe3
Block out a 30-minute segment of time in your day, whenever you can.
Login to the Official Coach Thread on your day, and start with the oldest “new” post in the forum (work bottom to top).
Answer the questions you can and “bump” the questions you can’t or do not wish to respond to, to my attention.
What once made Endurance Nation revolutionary are the grass roots we need to stick to, a community of athletes helping a community of athletes. Throughout the years this has been altered a bit. For multiple reasons, this seems to be like a step back in the right direction. Plus, the more we grow, the more help I need and to be honest, this will help drastically.
There will be adjustments to your perks as a thank you for this service. Regardless, we hope that you know how appreciated you are for your years of dedication and friendship.
Looking forward to the call (if you want in, pick a time here for the week of 8/27) and to your continued help!
~ Coach Patrick
Comments
So thankful...and using a GIF to appear stoic (saving unicorn tears for Kona).
If you want to talk, help pick a call time or if you are all good we can move on...but happy to talk.
Ps Jenn with the LL Cool J....you all never cease to impress...
Another thought is quality review...it would be good to incorporate feedback (not necessarily always from the one and only Coach) on the value of the program as a whole and on individual answers.
And, guidelines for how to answer. E.g., statements presented as facts should be documented, opinions should be noted as such, personal experience differentiated from group knowledge, EN dogma (Coach, Wiki, etc) identified and linked to as necessary.
Apparently I have no life or just a 16 month old am around home a lot. I'm pretty much available any day as long as I know a bit in advance to ensure Patti's around to look after Brody. I can even make Thursday work for a 1/2 hour block but Grandma does come by to visit that evening so not preferred.
We can discuss how to handle this on our call.
Edit - signed up. Will we get a google reminder or do I need to set that up?
I have the same questions Al has on the logistics. However - even before that and apologies if this is obvious: Are we trying to pick a time we can ALL attend a call? Or just ONE time that would be ideal for us to attend 1-1 with you @Coach Patrick ? I see high value in getting a lot of folks together but suppose that could be logistically challenging. I only selected one time but only because I'm not sure I understood - I can go select all that would work if that's the intent.
#GoodTimes
The intent here is to have as many of you on the call as possible so we can bring up / sort out some of these issues. I don't want it to be too complicated; but we want to do it "right" as well, so I want to be mindful of that.
Looks like Wed 8/29 8:30 to 9:30 EST gets the most folks...all except Jenn and KMF, so let's plan on that date and we will zoom call it here:
https://zoom.us/j/2572877525 (or enter this number when you join me from your Zoom account: 257-287-7525)
@Al Truscott @Dave Tallo @JeremyBehler @John Withrow @Jenn Edwards @Mike Roberts @Paul Hough @tim cronk@Gordon Cherwoniak @Shaughn Simmons @Rich Stanbaugh
I think there are some preliminary things we can outline here before the call:
Hey Hey Cool Kids,
So. Lots going on in GroupMe and I've found it to be a really great tool to connect on-the-fly. You know, singing songs and holding hands and all. Now now, I know full well that our project is all about the forums (what!??!) and that's where a lot of our work will get done. I do personally still see value in creating a GroupMe group (see what I did there?) for US to collaborate and connect informally taking care not to exclude anyone that isn't feeling the GroupMe vibe.
Anyone hate it? Thoughts? I did get the green light from P with input from y'all first so let me hear it if you wanna veto it. No major objections by say... late Saturday and I'll get to work on it Sunday.
Muchas Grassy Ass!
Jenn, you must have been sending out something over the ether, as I had the exact same thought at about the same time as your post today.
The upside of a WSM GM group: we can coordinate responses and learn from each other.
Downside: risk of it taking off in another direction as *some* of the groups have done. We don't want an elitist exclusive secret WSM group, I'm sure. Knowing the people on this list, though, I doubt that would happen.
So I'd vote yes, with the proviso that its purpose is to help us all do a good job in supporting the "Keep Coach P Sane" project.
The groupme is live for WSMs... @Jenn Edwards Can you please post the link to "open join" here so folks can click on it if they haven't gotten the notification yet?
Thanks!
~ Coach P
Viola, a magical miracle link to join: https://groupme.com/join_group/43193810/3pKKSZ
Hmmmmm... my GroupMe-fu is weak. Looks like this to me when logged out. And looks like you're a member when logged in. Can anyone else help?
I thought of something else that didn't come up last night regarding Forum revamp stuff.
When you click on "Recent Threads", the Top 6 "Recent Thread" Forum posts are always "Stickies", so they are always at the Top (and most of them aren't "recent"... Can we move those somewhere else, like add a new link on the right hand side under "Recent Threads" called something like "Stickies" or "Super Important Member Announcements" or something similar....
This would make people see the actual "Recent Threads" with more turnover at the top of the page...
@Paul Hough I Can send you a group me invite to your email or you new Phone number, just get it to me!
@John Withrow - done! When we "announce" something we can limit it to the Category only vs Category and Recent Discussions....thanks!
And another thing...
Jess overheard part of the call last night, so this morning I saw her after my run she said, "when somebody signs up for EN for the first time, they should be assigned an 'EN senior' member to help direct them at the beginning to convince them to be active on the Dash and in the Forums and to help them navigate the Wiki, etc and basically just make them feel comfortable". I said "Oh, Jenn mentioned something like that last night". She laughed and said "Of course she did... Women actually think and care about people and you men are just a bunch of grunts"!
So x2 on pairing newbies up with a vet. Maybe it's a WSM... Or maybe it's a broader group of the ~20-25 "Active Veteran" members (inclusive of WSMs). ...we basically all know who that group is.
Honestly, IMO, we would be lost without female WSMs.....
Apologize for not contributing last night. I have 4 teenagers.......nuff said.
I am following conversation as we go here. Hope to contribute more as we progress.