My fear is that, if left up to the current machinery, there is a small chance that the decision will be made based on what is best for the association, not necessarily the membership, and certainly not necessarily the European membership. This has been a somewhat recurring theme and I think it holds the WAA back … it also is creating conflicts of interest that many of us have noticed.

I guess what I would like to see is a “vote of interest” offered to European WAA members and non-members (I have a pretty substantial list of names if needed) to see whether a EUWAA is a good idea.

Anyway, it sounds like there will be a spirited discussion on Sunday so that will be nice. Congrats on your re-election Neil and see you real soon!

being the “WAA coordinator” for Germany for a while, I personally back up all activities which support the founding idea of the WAA as an international member driven organisation, which is “to unite and foster the interests of industry practitioners, vendors, consultants and educators who use, sell, install, implement, consult, teach or train in the field of web analytics”.

As each of us can think of, there are thousands (or even more) ideas and thoughts on how this could be archieved. One of those is the idea of changing the existing organizational structure.

However, based on limited available ressources (people, time, budget etc.), not all of those those ideas can be realised at the same time and therefore need to be prioritized. Because even the discussion of those ideas takes time and ressources (which could be used on other ideas or projects), every member and the organisation as a whole must decide, how much time he/she is able and wants to spend/commit on which area/discussions/projects.

This is basically the reason why I did/do not engange within your discussion until today - even though it affects the (european) environment.

In my (local and personal) view, the WAA organisational structure allows every member to build/create local grassroot WA projects under the umbrella of - and connected with - the global WAA. Of course there’s room for improvement (as always and everywhere), but instead of prioritizing on complex organisational projects and more charges/officeholders, I would prefer to see the organisation and it’s members to fokus on enganging and spending time in local/international Web Analytics related projects (which is the hen, not the egg - in the hen/egg likeness).

That said, my priorisation as a country coordinator in Germany is on local grassroot projects, to engange existing and new members to build/create Web Analytics related projects related to the founding idea of the WAA. (we have/had initiatives like the German WAA Blog, the cooperation with the XING/WAA Group (250 members), webinars, media-sponsorship/speaches on events like Internet World Germany etc) - but can think of a thousand more …local volunteers hands up!

Best,
Sven
e-dynamics.de / Germany

As I pack my bags for Emetrics and the WAA Board Meeting in SF next week, I have added some personal thoughts on the issue here: http://tinyurl.com/5wvorp

Look forward to seeing you all soon!

Neil

Marianina: I’m almost positive that nobody has suggested that the EUWAA be established to create a power struggle or conflict of interest. The whole idea was to do exactly what you state: create member benefits better suited to European members.

If the EUWAA were to happen, I suspect it would also create a nice side benefit — it would allow the great U.S. based volunteers to focus on North American benefits AND allow all of us worldwide to participate in worldwide issues (standards to some extent, education to some extent, etc.) as we like.

A question I would pose to you (and I should have asked Vicky … maybe she is still reading this): If you are elected to the current WAA Board, and if the EUWAA happens, would you be interested in relinquishing your “WAA” board position and taking a EUWAA board position?

I ask because inevitably the EUWAA will need bright, motivated, charismatic people like you to gain momentum … it would be sad to lose you here in the US but great to know you’re putting the pieces together over in Europe.

(I say this not knowing if you were elected or not …)

Anyway, sorry you won’t be at the Rave next Tuesday and the gala on Sunday. Hope to see you soon and thanks for your comment!