The Roof Cleaning Institute Of America Training & Certification Forum
"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"

Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa FL (813) 655-8777 wrote:

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Maybe we could limit the search ability of the forum to ONLY paid members ?

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 I think that is a great idea but I would go one better.  I would put all the threads pertaining to roof cleaning education in the member's section.  The only thing that should be availiable to a guest should be the Homeowners section to search for a roof cleaning contractor and a section describing RCIA and its membership benefits.  That would allow homeowners and prospective members to get what they need.

 ALL AREAS WHICH PROVIDE INSTRUCTION ON HOW TO BECOME A ROOF CLEANING CONTRACTOR SHOULD BE PRIVATE ONLY ACCESSABLE BY PAID MEMBERS.

I would also limit posting to members only.  A guest should only be allowed to read in the quest area and send a PM to contractors to inquire about services or to RCIA requesting membership information.

If a contractor can't support RCIA with membership dues then RCIA shouldn't support the contractor making a living.

Charles

garyw wrote:

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That would be "a dream come true", but the SEO rankings would fall flat on their face. Web crawlers would not be able to access anything and it would look like we didn't exist anymore. Not good for business if we have NO internet presence.
Gary

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 Ok maybe I don't know everything I need to know about SEO.  Maybe some of the SEO experts can comment on how our sites can be optimized without RCIA needing the exposure.  What is important to me is that I'm seen locally.  I don't need to be #1 in the world.

How about my other suggestion.  Only paid members can post.  If others want to be a part of the community by posting, let them join.

Charles

garyw wrote:

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Roof Cleaning Little Rock Arkansas wrote:

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Reliable Roof Cleaning Jacksonville FL wrote:

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Gary

Congrats to you and the other Board members for giving your time and efforts in making the RCIA better.

As far as suggestions I'm sure you will get many. What might be helpful and time saving for you and others is to post an outline of the items the Board is already considering. By doing this you can avoid having to respond to a suggestion already noted as being addressed by the Board. Some of these items may have been presented in other threads but I think having all of the Board's ideas in one post as a Sticky would be helpful to the Board and members. This list could be updated as new ideas are considered.

My suggestions at this time are:

1. Any organization (doesn't matter if its a corporate entity, non-profit or volunteer organization) should have and operate under a set of by-laws. By-laws set the rules and regulations as to how an organization will be run and define how members (both Board & regular) can operate within the organization. A copy of the by-laws should be posted with a sticky for the members.

2. Financial disclosure. Financial disclosure should probably be addressed in the by-laws but I mention it here only to make you aware of my experience of serving on several volunteer and business boards. Financial disclosure is for the protection of the Board members and to provide information to regular members as to how their money is being used. I assure you that without financial disclosure the Board will come under criticism.

3. This suggestion deals with how to navigate within the fourm. I would like to see a Paid Member tab at the top along with Recent Post, Home Page, etc. I would just name it "Members" since everyone else is now considered a guest. If possible I would like to see these same tabs appear at the bottom and top of the page. That way you don't have to scroll back to the top to select another area.

Thanks again.

Charles

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Some of your suggestion are already in place. (search--rules & regulations). The tab feature was discussed tonite in the board meeting. Will be active shortly. Finiancial disclosure will be provided as things progress and additional steps are developed.
Thanks
Gary

 

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 Gary I will have to admit I am less than satisfied with your answer to my suggestions.  I think you are confusing Fourm rules with Organization Rules.  Your recent thread "NEW AND IMPROVED RULES---RCIA" addresses Fourm rules.  I am speaking of By-laws that define an organization and how it operates.

Organization by-laws would cover such things as:

Naming the organization.
Stating purpose of organization.
Defining membership.
Defining Board of Directors.
Defining Officers and their duties.
Standing committees.
Voting.
Order of Business.
Meetings.
Dues
How by-laws are amendmented.

If we want RCIA to become a national leader for roof cleaning contractors & certification, we can not do it by making the operating rules as we go.  By-laws are a foundation document and proceeding without this document will lead to problems in the future.

If no one on the Board has had experience writing and maintaining by-laws, there are good examples availiable via a google search.

As Chris Apple said my dues are in the bank and I'm excited about the future. 

Charles

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garyw wrote:

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The Corporation documents are finally complete and everything you addressed in your post is/will be addressed and handled. I am sorry that I am not performing up to your standards, but I am having trouble finding more hours than the 50+ I gave last week to RCIA. If I can squeeze in about 20 more, I may be able to get things done faster. Sorry.
Gary

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Reliable Roof Cleaning Jacksonville FL wrote:

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garyw wrote:

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That would be "a dream come true", but the SEO rankings would fall flat on their face. Web crawlers would not be able to access anything and it would look like we didn't exist anymore. Not good for business if we have NO internet presence.
Gary

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Ok maybe I don't know everything I need to know about SEO.  Maybe some of the SEO experts can comment on how our sites can be optimized without RCIA needing the exposure.  What is important to me is that I'm seen locally.  I don't need to be #1 in the world.

How about my other suggestion.  Only paid members can post.  If others want to be a part of the community by posting, let them join.

Charles

 

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Yeah I agree here as far a getting some SEO input.  And I'm sure the board is already looking into it.  Cutting out some of the more instructional threads would be a must but just how far to go beyond that is a better question.

+)  cutting off the guests from posting would clean up the public side of the forum and prevent mudslinging and ugly arguments from breaking out.  It would also prevent unpaid non-members from pitching their own ideas to the public.

-)   but would also slow the current amount of threads to a trickle. The sheer volume of posts that come through here must in some way be connected to the google rankings.  Just how is the question.    It may bump the google rankings which would at best give more attention to ARCA, PWI, etc, at worst PitchWitch comes up first.  It would force the unpaid posters to other sites and cut down on the community size to a smaller group thus becoming less attractive to vendors.

just a few thoughts

garyw wrote:

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One thing we ALL need to keep in mind and start doing is to "tag" any new post that you make on a new subject. Keywords are what the "webcrawlers" look for and if a post is not tagged with keywords, it doesn't get seen. I'm guilty of it myself, but will do better in the future.
Gary

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