This is a suggestion for making a little more use of this Discussion Board. Over the last two years of managing a team, there have been all kinds of disappointments and near disasters, but, by far, the most annoying thing has been the breakdowns in communication. These were never earth-shattering, but they have had a way of occurring at times and in circumstances that made them supremely irritating.

The first word of the message that tells you things are not what they seemed is always, “Oops!” Then the first sentence goes on something like, “I don't know how I ever let this slip...”

I hate messages that start with, “Oops!”

In particular, I suggest a hierarchy of discussions that mirrors or represents the hierarchy of the state: Top level for the regional coordinators, next level for local coordinators and then a level for each of teams. This hierarchy provides a centralized means of communication among coordinators, managers, and team members that is independent of ad hoc mailing lists and should greatly reduce the need to conduct business from a particular computer.

This is also a suggestion for starting a list server. This enables literally anyone with an interest to follow the communication. Rather than hoping someone's mail list is up to date, you can simply subscribe to the appropriate list. Lists can be created that, again, mirror the hierarchy of the state, with local coordinators responsible for lists for the teams, regional coordinators responsible for locals, and so on.

These information sharing pathways would give a certain stability to communication while greatly increasing the amount of information available to all. And this increased information would offer the opportunity for much insight into “how other folks do things.”

All in all, I think these services would do much to support the natural evolution of this thing we call “DI”.