[games_access] IMPORTANT: About this Listserv & the SIG

[hinn at illinois.edu]

There is a meeting this week about how this issue will be resolved. Be assured that this is NOT a silent topic...my email inbox has taken quite a hit! But have a look a the IGDA forums as well (I believe under IGDA Board) and you can read thousands of posts on this. 

As soon as I hear anything official from the board about how this will be handled, I will forward that to this list. It is the right of all members and potential members to know how the organization will be handling this. At this point, your guess is as good as mine!

Please note that there have been some "spoof" emails about voting on the removal of this board member that seemed to come from the IGDA but did not. If you are ever in question if a membership vote is legit or anything else that comes from the IGDA, please email me and I will investigate. At this time there has been no action calling for a membership vote or anything else with regard to this and other issues.

I will also post information on AbleGamers.com should something suddenly happen to this list (again...the tech migration is sounding scary but hopefully it will go better than I hope). Many members of AG are members of the IGDA as well so I know that they will want to know what's going on if the SIG list suddenly goes dark. I will try to post information in as many places as I can (and I hope you all will too) but make sure you stay plugged in to the game accessibility movement by checking sites like AbleGamers (membership is free for all!). Yeah, yeah...shameless plug but it's important that we keep communication open so we don't lose each other since this list has been the lifeline for this group for so long. So check in there and the SIG blog (which is also being migrated over to the new site but I'm not sure we lose control over that (ie, the IGDA can't kill the blog since it's not their tech!)).

Michelle

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:44:00 +0100
>From: <oneswitch at googlemail.com>  
>Subject: Re: [games_access] IMPORTANT: About this Listserv & the SIG  
>To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
>
>Re. the bad feeling. If people aren't aware - just Google "Tim Langdell" and 
>have a little browse around. Quite an unsavoury association it seems to me. 
>I'm waiting for the IGDA board to make some kind of movement or statement of 
>intent before renewing my membership.
>
>Barrie
>
>
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: <hinn at illinois.edu>
>To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
>Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2009 2:05 AM
>Subject: [games_access] IMPORTANT: About this Listserv & the SIG
>
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I apologize for the length of this email but it contains some very 
>> important information about the listserv changing addresses VERY SOON and 
>> about the IGDA on a whole that I've been asked to pass along. If you are 
>> ONLY interested in the list part, just read the next five paragraphs (I 
>> warn you when you hit the point where I start getting into more specific 
>> IGDA information).
>>
>> The IGDA, of which this SIG is a part of, is about to unveil it's new 
>> website/mailing list/forum technology (for real this time for those of 
>> you, like me, who have been waiting about 4 years for it).
>>
>> What does this mean for the SIG? Very soon we will be moving list 
>> addresses and this list will go down permanently. I have saved the 
>> archives and they will be moved to the new site.
>>
>> How will you join the new list? To be honest? I'm not 100% certain. It is 
>> my belief that when the site goes live, you will need to sign up at 
>> igda.org for a "free" or "paid" membership login and password in order to 
>> sign up for our list. It is my HOPE that they will move everyone 
>> automatically but I'm getting less certain that will happen. So, yes, it 
>> will be inconvenient but I hope not too inconvenient.
>>
>> The new list will allow you to both read the list in a forum-like 
>> atmosphere and/or receive and reply to posts via email (just like this 
>> list). So for those that prefer email, that will remain an option but for 
>> those that would rather log in at their leisure, that will now be 
>> possible.
>>
>> Please note that although you may need to login to use certain features of 
>> the new IGDA site, this SIG will remain open and free to the public. Some 
>> SIGs will be choosing to keep their information "locked" for paid members 
>> of the IGDA only (as a "value added" feature of membership) but since 
>> we've always been open, I made the case to keep all of our information and 
>> the list open to the public. As I said earlier, you will need to create a 
>> login AT LEAST at the "free" membership level to get access to signing up 
>> for the new list and how you will choose to receive messages.
>>
>> [Interested in MORE? Read On!]
>>
>> Why is the IGDA making people login? Because they have decided to use some 
>> membership money to divide amongst the SIGs BASED on PAID membership. I'm 
>> not sure how it will work if a paid member is part of multiple SIGs but I 
>> imagine there will be a lot of overlap. How this will work? I honestly do 
>> not know at this time. There has been a lot of debate about "PAID" status 
>> including those who contribute their time but cannot afford to join 
>> getting "credit" since some companies "bulk subscribe" their employees to 
>> the IGDA but then those members do not necessarily contribute to a SIG, 
>> Chapter, or the overall IGDA. Since we have never been in a situation 
>> where SIGs directly benefit from membership, I imagine that there will be 
>> quite a lot of things to work out.
>>
>> I will keep you up to date as to the technology migration and I have 
>> everyone's contact information on this list in case I need to pass along 
>> subscription information due to something going wrong (ie, this list going 
>> offline and the new tech not working right). Please also keep the SIG 
>> email address handy (accessibility at igda.org) and my email address 
>> (hinn at uiuc.edu).
>>
>> The IGDA is undergoing a remarkable number of changes -- so many that too 
>> much of my time is taken arguing about and defending and shouting about 
>> the SIG on the SIG admin list! This is just one of them and is the most 
>> important to the SIG at this time.
>>
>> One final thing (important mainly to paid members but may be of interest 
>> to all) -- many of you have asked me about the IGDA getting a lot (LOT) of 
>> bad press lately due to at least one member of the board of the IGDA. 
>> There is currently a discussion going on about how members can "recall" a 
>> vote or referendum and I will keep you all up to date with that. There is 
>> a movement to have a vote of "no confidence" against one board member but 
>> it is nothing that has come from the IGDA -- the IGDA is figuring out how 
>> the membership can do that since it is in the bylaws that we can...it's 
>> just the logistics of how to do that they are figuring out since it is not 
>> something that has ever been done. There is also a conflict where there 
>> are TWO game design SIGs that came about with the transition of the old 
>> IGDA executive director, Jason, and the new executive director, Joshua. So 
>> this is being looked into as well.
>>
>> Hopefully when the IGDA website overhaul goes live, it will be easy for 
>> all members to be a part of these bigger debates and help cross-SIG 
>> information. This is the FIRST year that SIG and Chapter administrators 
>> have had so much input into the way the IGDA is run and our push has been 
>> to get our members that same access. Until recently we have not been able 
>> to view Board meeting minutes but now we can (and it has been something we 
>> should have been able to view). So there's a call for a LOT more 
>> transparency within the organization.
>>
>> I'm sorry that I have been dealing with that side of my role as SIG 
>> Chairperson so much that it's kept me from the details of the SIG itself. 
>> As most of you know, I've really never been "not sick" but I've been 
>> really sick over the last year and have had 5 surgeries and nearly died 
>> once and technical did die on the OR once as well...and the last bits were 
>> just since May!
>>
>> While the tech migration is first on my plate, the next agenda item will 
>> be to explain new changes to all SIGs so that there is a "board" in place 
>> for every SIG that will serve as "chairpersons" to the chairperson. For 
>> now, I'll save this information for once we get everyone over to the new 
>> site so that we don't lose track of how that will happen and what needs to 
>> be in place given new bylaws. This actually makes me quite happy because 
>> we will now finally have the backup from the IGDA that we've needed for 
>> quite some time now! You may note that different SIGs will be on different 
>> timelines for some of these changes -- our changes to the SIG leadership 
>> structure will go into effect in the spring. But I will be preparing us 
>> for that long before then because only PAID members of the IGDA can hold 
>> any sort of leadership position within a chapter or SIG of the IGDA once 
>> the changes have been put into effect.
>>
>> Hope you are all well! (And I have the feeling that there will be a lot of 
>> discussion about this email...)
>> Michelle
>> Chairperson, IGDA Game Accessibility SIG
>> .......................................
>> these are mediocre times and people are
>> losing hope. it's hard for many people
>> to believe that there are extraordinary
>> things inside themselves, as well as
>> others. i hope you can keep an open
>> mind.
>> -- "unbreakable"
>> .......................................
>> _______________________________________________
>> games_access mailing list
>> games_access at igda.org
>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access 
>
>_______________________________________________
>games_access mailing list
>games_access at igda.org
>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
.......................................
these are mediocre times and people are 
losing hope. it's hard for many people 
to believe that there are extraordinary 
things inside themselves, as well as 
others. i hope you can keep an open 
mind.
 -- "unbreakable"
.......................................