A Community of Graphic &
Web Designers Committed
to Social Change

We began at the Vision Brain Dump. This spoke to the GA as a whole more than the TD. The goals specific to the Transitional Directorship were spelled out and recently clarified. Several of the goals of the TD are ongoing and will become the work of the Board of Directors as that comes to pass. We aim to move from the TD to a Board of Directors to continue the work, clarify and steer committee work, and grow the GA. There will be an open election for this; potential candidates, take note!

The goals that have enjoyed specific accomplishments are noted here.

"Determining GA goals"
We have created Committees of interest to do the work that the TD has deemed important. Initially, these are Outreach and WebDev. As the first-born of GA projects, they have to pave the way for other committees (Diversity, Member Benefits, Fundraising) since their structure and capacity have to work to grow the rest. There are plenty of other ideas and projects that wait in the wings until membership is ready to engage in them. Some of the shelved ideas include a conference (or conference partnership), various meetups in person (not just via our website), a newsletter, etc. Details are in the Minutes kept on the Wiki.

"Determining GA policies" and "Determining GA organizational structures" are related. These are all elements the TD will pass to the Board for further refinement. They are stated as GA issues, but in truth, the TD must use the structures first, then apply them outward to the GA as a whole.

In the past year, we have developed several structural elements, beginning from the simple matter of what constitutes a quorum to make internal decisions to specifics of how meetings are run, how much time the TD members should expect to give, and how to be a committee chair. These can all be found linked at the Wiki homepage. Policies include aspects of how our list-serv is to be run, and what access the public has, what is appropriate content for the list, and who manages and approves messages.

"Ensuring that communications both to and from the GA constituency and relevant stakeholders are effective" and "Ensuring appropriateness for implementing programming" are also intertwined.

We are cleaning house internally before taking it to the masses. We have built ourselves in a functioning body, kept accurate and intelligible documentation of our process, and have streamlined a method to bring it to the GA membership. We also have outlined our plans to take it wider, with our Letter for Link Welcome and Invitation as well as the earlier Invitation to GA. Our membership is growing, slowly but surely, and we want to be sure we have the capacity not to look foolish and unprepared. All the preparation on such aspects as how the List Serv will function are part of this work. Guidelines are in place for this to proceed, which has the potential to exponentially increase our membership and what we can offer to those members.

We have of course, hit roadblocks. We have struggled to keep in contact with one another, to keep momentum from month to month, and to keep ideas fresh. Not getting bogged down, and knowing the risks of that with a fledgling organization such as ours have made growing pains for all involved. The first year is always risky, and we have survived it, stronger and ready to face the coming year with plans and optimism.

Many of you have expressed interest in working on the GA. We need you! and we're sorry if we haven't been as responsive as we would like to have been. We have several areas in which membership can make a difference now:

• Spread the word about the GA and send people to the website.
• Submit articles of interest and job listings to the e-mail listserv.
• Join one of the currently active committees.
• Donate printing services so that we can make more of our promotional cards.
• Consider participating in the GA Board of Directors to be installed in January.

Please email the TD to be a part of any of this, with your suggestions, comments, etc.
Thank you,
The TD