A personal note from Becky to share with all TangoTang members and all TangoTang participants,

Dear all,
 
I would like to write a blog on my latest thinking relating to my experience as a TangoTang director since taking the director tenure in late September last year.   As you may have known, TangoTang has grown almost double from the 150 plus active members to nearly paid 300 members in less than 9 month time since the new director team came on board.  We have worked very hard to provide continuing vibrant tango cultural, dance, and music activities to the members as well as overall HK tango community with events such as ArTango series, 10^th Anniversary celebration workshop of concert series, workshop, wine tasting, fashion show, milongas, and more. 

We have also worked diligently to modify and improve the Club operation behind the scenes that may not be as obvious.  Examples such as assigning one director to each project to supervise and assist the Project Manager/Team so each project would comply to the overall objective of the Club (same applied to every Tuesday's Guided Practica), disclosing director meeting minutes to Tangotang website for public viewing on latest project update and workshop planned, updating monthly P&L with disclosure of bank statements on TangoTang's Repository Intranet (secure), record keeping for available documentation for historical archive including audit trails for all financial document, revised check signing and approval process for check and balance among the director team, and the list can go on so all of our learning and  records can be passed to future project teams/directors/officers/members and so forth.

We have yet many objectives that we have stated on our proxy objectives but not yet finished.  One big project that has been discussed since we became the directors is the website revamp project to upgrade our information system so we can leverage online membership form with PayPal payment method, and most importantly, eliminate manual record keeping for membership update.  As the Club grows to a bigger organization (assuming with projection of nearly 400 members by end of year), we just do not have the manpower to manually handle the large capacity that is coming in the future without more help from the volunteers, members and others.  The directors as well as existing project teams can be soon burnt out if we don't improve upon the technology and allocate the appropriate resources to do the future projects.  Solutions have to be implemented to keep the Club operating in healthy pace to cope with the expected increasing membership growth.

With all has been said, the directors are not perfect and I am not perfect.  We are humans and we make mistakes along the way, but most importantly, we have to learn from our mistakes to improve and make things better for the Club.  For example, we took a risk on Tango-jack concert project which was the first time in TangoTang's 10 year history.  Considering we had little human, financial resources and time to prepare, the two Tango-jack concerts were very successful in the overall perspective without any sponsorship.  We achieved the goals that we set-up for ourselves.  We had a full house at City Hall and a respective turnout at Kwai Tsing Theatre.  Yes, we may argue that we could have done better with the Kwai Tsing concert to sell more tickets to the public.  However, we learned that HK audience did show interest in tango concert but we just didn't have the right marketing channels to reach them to attract more of them to purchase the tickets earlier.  Our overall financial results were just slightly under than the original budgeted loss.  This was a learning curve and we should be thankful that the tuition paid to have learned this experience is manageable so we will be ready for bigger thing next year.
 
I have suggested to the director team that we do an overall survey after our anniversary celebration to listen to our members for what have been going well and what are areas for improvement for future reference.  There will always be negative criticisms from members but we should turn those comments into constructive feedback so we have something to work toward and be better.  For example, if there are photos of tango masters that shouldn't be group together, next time, we should suggest the particular member(s) to tell us earlier so we can take them off from the website instead of just telling us after the fact which does not solve anything....
 
Those are just examples of things that the TangoTang members and our friends can give opinions and provide solutions to help us grow and learn.  Yes, we may not know tango well nor know all the things, but we are here to learn and to support the club and each other.  It's also the members' responsibility to help the directors when they see we need more help.  Then, the directors and members can both grow and build much better and healthier relationships.  We are all volunteers and can all contribute positively to TangoTang to make this club better with respect and appreciation.
 
I have said this to the director team that we should pat ourselves on our backs to say we've done a good job.  There will always be room for improvement and we should be self-critical to always seek ways to improve the Club.  Of course, the members can judge me or the other directors otherwise but we need to also take moments to enjoy what we have achieved in very short time and be proud of ourselves.   

The directors have also recently approved a volunteer reward system to project manager and the relevant team members.  It is my belief that we should reward volunteers who make more contributions to thrive the Club.  Although those rewards may not be monetary, but it's a token of appreciation and recognition that we hope more people will join and continue participating in the project team on long term basis for years to help the club grow.   

It is also my belief that we should reward the directors in a fair and open way in a standard policy that can be passed on for years from now so that the director team can also be recognized and awarded from the Club for making positive contributions.  Again, the rewards to the directors would not be monetary but a token of appreciation for the relevant contributions made to the Club.  As a director speaking for myself, the amount of workable hours that I put into the Club for the last months has been more than a full time job.  I am not asking for pay and I do this for the Club passionately, but this may not be sustainable or possible for others who wish to become director in the future to continue on the same capacity when they have a full time job outside of the Club.  I believe this is something the current directors have to think through carefully and draft a standard policy plan to resolve to properly incent the volunteers including the directors so the legacy can pass on for the new generation of director team and all volunteers to come.

By September, my one year directorship will be over.  My director experience has been fulfilling on both personal and as well as exposure levels.  Honestly, it's still too early to say whether I would like to continue working for the club as a director for the coming term but I take every TangTang project and experience so far as a personal growth experience.  All we want to see is HK tango community and Tangotang to grow bigger with more tango loving happy members.  Even if I am not a director next year, I would still want TangoTang to continue on the positive ride to a club that more people want to join and the new director team can keep up the momentum for the coming years so all of our effort this year to double the size of the club would not go wasted and the Club will be running even better..  
 
I care and will continue to care for TangoTang.  I hope you care too.
 

Sincerely,

Becky

Last update: 05-06-2009 12:29