Wikipedia:Association of Members' Advocates/AMA Coordinator/January 2005 Survey

The following notice is being posted on AMA member pages:

OFFICIAL THIRD MEETING NOTICE AND REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
The second AMA IRC Membership meetingwas held on Sunday January 30, 2005 at 19:00 UTC on freenode.net IRC channel #AMA. Attending were Wally, Metasquares, Anthere, Sam Spade, and alex756 (coordinator). The log of the second meeting can be found here: AMA IRC Meeting log (1-30-05).

"The third AMA Membership meeting will be held on Saturday February 12, 2005 at 17:00 UTC on freenode IRC channel #AMA. That is 12:00 Noon Eastern NA Time, 9 AM Pacific NA Time, and 6 PM Central European (Amsterdam/Stokholm/Warsaw/Venice) Time. All members are invited to attend.

Suggested Topics and Specific Proposals

 * MEMBERS PLEASE REVIEW


 * Suggestions for topics/proposals and agenda to be discussed at the next meeting are to be found at: AMA Meeting (suggested topics). All members are requested to make proposals there and respond to proposals on the talk page there before the beginning of the next meeting so discussion can be held forthwith concerning such proposals. Thank you, your Coordinator.

The coordinator is requesting that members who have not done so already submit the following information for the upcoming coordinator’s report:


 * How many individuals did you help as an advocate
 * What is the maximum amount of time you put into a case
 * Do you feel your work as an advocate was successful?
 * How can the advocacy program of the AMA be improved?

Thank you. Please submit your responses here (under your user name):


 * Alex S
 * Amicuscuriae
 * Andrevan
 * I've never helped a user for any amount of time. I do think that the program needs improvement, and I spoke somewhat on this at the meeting, but I don't have any specific suggestions to offer. Andre ( talk ) 23:39, Jan 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * Anthere
 * From Alex756's talk page: Glad to see you around Alex :-) And to see activity... to which I really cannot participate :-( just too much to do. I feel like I do advocacy all the time, but not really here any more. I have a suggestion... about the sign-post... why don't you make a deal with it, so that to advertise your activity over there ?  I'll give you an example. Say a user A is unhappy with a certain rule, but the rule has a couple of tough gardians; User A is quite timid, so does not really dare to be bold with the gardians and question the rule.  He might ask help from a more vocable person, and this person could start making the opinion on the sign post... so as to test the solidity of the ground. Such as raising the question of this rule interest and general support. Depending on feedback, the advocate knows better what chance there is for success. ...  SweetLittleFluffyThing 23:26, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * Burgundavia
 * Denni
 * Dystopian Rhetoric
 * Ed Poor, aka Uncle Ed
 * I've lost count of how many users I've helped: almost one hundred, probably. The most time I put into a case was when user:Lir was banned by Jimbo, and I helped him get reinstated (around five hours, spread over several days). My work as an advocate has nearly always been successful; the few rare cases of failure have been when the person I was trying to help turned out to be a troll. By the way, I find my AMA work blends into my Mediation Committee work: generally, people ask me for help on my user page, and I help them. It's usually either (a) someone frustrated that another user won't allow them to express an idea (or insert a properly attributed POV) or (b) someone distressed at another user's discourteous remarks on a talk page. A little courtesy and friendly interest of my own usually smooths things over quickly. --user:Ed Poor (talk) 14:54, Jan 24, 2005 (UTC)
 * JCarriker
 * KeithTyler
 * I've not been an advocate for very long, but I have managed to help in two cases: the "Lugnut" anon case, and the Ray Foster vs. Dcreemer case. I think my efforts in Ray Foster vs. Dcreemer helped to calm the dispute from RfM state to a more localized page-survey state, and clarify some WP best practices. In the lugnut case, while I think I did every effort to try to track down the problem, I was not apparently able to convince the anon to come on full-fledged to WP. I've acted in an unofficial capacity to try and help another case though not in an official advocate capacity. Beyond that, I've tried to improve the format and maintenance of the Requests page, rekindled some communication elsewhere in the AMA pages, and submitted suggestions on AMA operation. I've also done preliminary investigations on a number of requests to aid in their assessment, and responded to a few non-dispute requests to assist the user. I'd say all told that I've spent about 30 hours involved in AMA related efforts, with probably half involved in advocacy or dispute related issues. As for improvement of the advocacy effort, I think increased visibility, timely response to requests, and maintaining good records of advocacy activity would be the best next steps. - Keith D. Tyler  [ flame ]  19:34, Jan 28, 2005 (UTC)
 * Lord Emsworth
 * Ludraman | Talk
 * Have not advocated (officialy). J OHN C OLLISON (An Liúdramán) 17:31, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * To expand: I have never advocated as an AMA member, as in advocated after the coordinator passed a case to me. I was requested to by Alex once, but I was away at the time. I have once or twice helped people out who requested so on my talk page etc. J OHN C OLLISON (An Liúdramán) 17:14, 26 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Metasquares
 * Hmm... I remember responding to this, but for some reason it is no longer here. I haven't really helped anyone officially with the AMA (mostly because I haven't checked Wikipedia very often recently and I'm not getting email notifications of these things); I've offerred unofficial assistance to members here and there, however. Obviously, I do not think that my work as an advocate has been successful, for the above reason. One easy step to improve the Association would be to notify members of requests in some way, rather than relying on the AMA Requests for assistance page. Metasquares 16:01, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Michael Snow
 * As it turns out, I haven't been very involved in dealing with individual requests, or at least not those directed to the AMA Requests for Assistance page. I've helped individuals occasionally when they came to me directly, but it seems most of my work in the dispute resolution system has been more focused on representing community interests. In trying to discern and promote the interests of the community, I've commented on the course of several arbitration cases and even brought one myself.
 * We aren't being given a quota of billable hours, are we? Just kidding, but I really have no idea how much time I've spent, particularly since I often didn't think of my work as being explicitly in an AMA capacity, even if it had an advocacy component. On occasion, the time involved has been pretty substantial, such as in presenting and supporting a request for arbitration.
 * Well, I haven't accomplished everything I wanted, but I feel my work has at least had some impact.
 * One thing that might help members is to develop more ideas and suggestions for how they can get involved in the community generally, even in ways that are not directly advocacy. Professional associations frequently urge their members to participate in outside community organizations as a way to develop personal connections and improve the visibility and public acceptance of the profession. --Michael Snow 19:31, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * Mrs.HippieBurning
 * Neigel von Teighen | Talk
 * I'm rather new on the AMA and I'm advocating my first 'client' and I don't care how much time I spend on him (succesfully up to now, though with some turbulence). The AMA's system is OK, but needs some kind of promotion, visibility. --Neigel von Teighen 21:44, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * Pakaran.
 * Pedant
 * How many individuals did you help as an advocate None
 * What is the maximum amount of time you put into a case None
 * Do you feel your work as an advocate was successful? None
 * How can the advocacy program of the AMA be improved? Maybe find some way to make advocacy services more available. Pedant 20:58, 2005 Feb 4 (UTC)


 * Perl
 * Pharotic
 * Sam Spade
 * My advocacy is extensive, so I will list only arbitration cases:
 * Requests for arbitration/WHEELER (current)
 * Requests for arbitration/Charles Darwin-Lincoln dispute
 * Requests for arbitration/172
 * Requests for arbitration/IZAK
 * Requests for arbitration/Paul Vogel (recused)
 * Much of the work I do is of great length, going on for weeks at a time. My advocacy is generally successful, especially in cases where my client is acting in good faith. My suggestions regarding improving the AMA are copious, and have been expressed elsewhere. See AMA_Meeting_%28suggested_topics%29, or contact me for further information on this or other subjects. (Sam Spade | talk | contributions) 01:31, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * : Secretlondon (has left Wikipedia)
 * Sekicho
 * Sj
 * Skyler1534
 * Stellertony
 * Toby Bartels
 * ugen64
 * Wally
 * I have, in all, responded to five requests for assistance, and handled two cases directly, the last one being the issue of User:Ray Foster, which was settled to the satisfaction of all parties without going to arbitration. Total time worked has been something on the order of fifteen hours. Wally 20:09, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Zestauferov