The future of BWE?

[AlexR]

Hi guys,

Ian posted this message earlier today, so I decided to use it to start a new thread.
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“A poignant interview with Jim.
I am sure many of us were shaken as much as I was about what happened in Jim’s hometown, which as he noted has one of the lowest violent crime and homicide rates in the country.
Maybe this can concentrate minds enabling this community to unite and turn the page, draw a line under what happened on here several weeks ago, regroup and move on, and usher in a new era for BWE rather than let it wither on the vine?

From my telephone conversations with Alex Jim seems intent on stepping down from the day to day running of the site and it doesn’t run on its own.

Are there any suggestions and/or volunteers, to hold of the torch - I am thinking Greek Olympic marathon analogies here rather than simply ‘passing the baton’ which kind of metaphorically lacks imagination and ambition.

Without wishing to get ahead of ourselves I could name two inspirational and younger people on here - JC and Joel as possible candidates - just thinking aloud here.

While BWE welcomes everyone from around the globe my 2c I think it should be run by an American.
In November I am going to be in New Zealand and I I looking forward to meeting BWEer Ian Craig.
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OK. Here goes.

I saw Jim three weeks ago and interspersed with chateau visits and meals, we did have a talk about BWE since the controversial exchange of messages that evidently caused quite an upset.
Jim said two things to me I would like to relate:

1 – He wants out, he’s been running BWE for over 20 years and he well and truly would like to bow out now.

2- Jim explained that the technical aspect of running the site is not all that challenging, but what people don’t realize is that there’s a lot of involvement in overseeing posts and, especially, getting the ball rolling when the board is slow.
As it is now.

Jim has posted just once in over a month, to say that he was safe during the rampage of the Lewiston killer.

I’m asking board members to put their heads together and to suggest a new orientation for the board and someone to run it.

Please share you thoughts.

Thanks in advance

Yours sincerely,
Alex R.

[JoelD]

Thanks for posting this Alex. I was typing up a response on the other thread but I'm moving it here.

It's clear that so many people value BWE more than the posts indicate, that definitely includes myself. I value you Nic. And also empathize with your concern about putting in effort to make posts/notes and having it not feel that they are read/engaged with. I also appreciate Ian's concern and suggestions.

Out of respect to Jim and this horrible tragedy, I would second Alex's suggestion/post that we move this discussion to this thread. Also I would suggest tabling any discussions in the short term to give Jim and others the time to grieve and focus on matters much more important. Even though we all love BWE, I think we can agree that this is trivial in comparison. However this board is also a great reprieve from more serious matters, similar to how sports and other passions can be.

I completely agree about putting our heads together and coming up with the best solutions to revamp and regrow our beloved community. I have some thoughts on this, but for now I'll wait to get Jim's blessing on it directly before sharing them. I know he has a lot on his plate now so I believe we should all be a little patient on this.

Best,
Joel

[marcs]

I agree that the context of the Lewiston tragedy and Jim dealing with that was not the setting to bring this up.

We'll discuss this all later no doubt but my personal view is that BWE is all of us. As long as we all post here and take the initiative to set up social wine events with each other, this place has a thriving future. If we don't, it doesn't, no matter who is or is not designated as "leader". And if we try to avoid awkward or draining interpersonal spats on the board and keep our social invitations generous and open I suspect that posting and socializing will in fact continue. My two cents anyway.

Personally, I haven't posted as much here this last year, to a large extent because I haven't been drinking as much or going to as many events, and also because of some other distractions. I'll be trying to post here more often in the coming weeks and months.

[Michael-P]

I too lurk in the background reading many of the posts but have obviously not posted consistently lately. A small remedy of that today.

Agree it's all of us but the site does need a moderator to kick out the insurance sales people.

Michael-P

[NoahR]

I’m also a relative lurker, mostly because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get email digests or email notifications of thread responses, even though the function is checked n the website.

Obviously I’m not technologically advanced enough to moderate. But I appreciate the community and hope the board continues.

[Jay Winton]

I've also seen some technical glitches-links not working correctly-so someone with that kind of technical expertise would be helpful. I think a true team effort would be best.