NBRC Item 2011-03
Consulting Agreement and Stipend for NBRC Website Director
As compensation for services provided to the club in maintaining the NBRC website, a proposal was submitted to award a stipend to the Website Director, based upon compliance with a “consulting agreement” defining the general responsibilities of the position. The proposed stipend would not affect the club treasury by resulting in additional money being paid out for administrative services; instead becoming payment already allocated in that that half of the current stipend being paid to the Secretary/Treasurer and would be re-directed to the webmaster for the consulting and web services provided to the organization. The Website Director has been a workhorse for the NBRC and recent development to the website has significantly reduced the Secretary’s workload, with many enhancements that have improved service and efficiency.
CONSULTING AGREEMENT
This consulting agreement (this agreement) is made and entered into as of the 1st day of July, 2011, by and among The National Birmingham Roller Club, Inc., a Utah Non Profit Corporation, and Gonzalo Banuelos for Web Master Services.
The Website known as NBRCOnline.com, NBRCOnline.org, and NBRCOnline.net are the sole property of the National Birmingham Roller Club, Inc. All access codes and keys will be provided to the President and Secretary-Treasurer for the above mentioned sites. All internet fees for maintaining these sites will be paid by the NBRC, as well as a $2.55 yearly fee per active member; this is a stipend to be paid ¼ of $2.55, paid quarterly for every active member. The Web Master will be directly responsible to the NBRC Secretary-Treasurer and the NBRC President for any and all decisions concerning management of the above mentioned sites.
Below is a description of the Web Masters duties as listed by Mr. Banuelos;
The job requirements of a typical web master are limited to performing system upgrades, updating website content, maintaining a working deployment of applications, be it web application or auxiliary applications, and making sure domain names, SSL encryption certificates, email forwarding and services, and any other certificates are up to date. This is one part of the job I will continue to do, as I always have.
My position, however, will be a hybrid. The role of “Web Master” is typically very narrow. Web masters do not seek or create content, they merely post it, or enable others to post it. They don’t actively solicit auction items and spend very limited time with customers, face to face. I will make sure, as part of my duties, that I create portals for other people to contribute in this endeavor. Secure portals will be created, as in the case of the Master Flyer system, for other trusted members to post scores, add auction items, and answer customer emails.
In addition to these tasks, my role will also be to augment the site with new features, by custom building web components and auxiliary applications that will allow users to maintain their own memberships, allow forums per region, for the entire club, and any other configuration we seek, provide “nbrconline.com” email addresses, and to be notified by email of NBRC happenings. The EC will be able to communicate in a secure environment as opposed to simply email. I will also create a portal for users to vote in a secure and anonymous manner. I will explore options for disseminating the NBRC bulletin as an e-book through a secure portal. That is, we will create an alternative “light” membership where users don’t get physical bulletins, but can nonetheless read the monthlies online.
Lastly, I plan to replace the current auction system with an embedded view of PigeonsBid.com. This view will be NBRC branded and will run for two periods a year. There will be a Convention Online auction, as always, which will run for 3 months, and also a post convention auction to get rid of excess convention items (shirts, hats, etc.). I will disable all other private auctions on PigeonsBid.com for the period of one month leading into the national convention, so all advertising and traffic will be driven to the NBRC fundraiser. The NBRC can take advantage of the traffic I will be driving to it from other sites, like the RollerWorld, PigeonDB, RollerDB and AllBreedDB and Google AdWords. I will not charge commission on the items sold, except for the cost of hosting and card processing fees and PayPal fees.
All EC members will have access as moderators to the new website. The president and special directors, where applicable, will have administrator access.
All of this work is to be performed within the budget the NBRC already spends on the website. No additional expenses are anticipated.
The goal is to eventually have a system that will allow for one person to be in charge of posting scores, one person in charge of answering emails and addressing membership issues, one person to seek and post auction items, and one or more persons to act as moderators for the embedded forums and blogs. This leaves me with the responsibility of building and maintaining all of these systems. I will write code and make sure the system operates at all times.
In Witness of this agreement, and by agreement of a vote of the NBRC Executive Committee;
National Birmingham Roller Club, Inc.
President, Joe Dan Parson
Web Master, Gonzalo Banuelos
Opponents of the measure expressed concern and hesitation of supporting the proposal because explicit language that addressed specific terms for separation for each party were not incorporated in the agreement. Other members expressed desire to seek new stewardship of the website, communicating irreconcilable differences in that conflicting ideas or beliefs between the current director and themselves cannot be brought into harmony.
Proponents were convinced that the proposal was well intended and justifiable, realizing that the efforts of the Website Director have dramatically reduced the Secretary-Treasurer’s workload, particularly with membership record and auction maintenance (it was stipulated that over half of monetary income is generated by the website). In recognizing that minimum charges for web services obtained from an outside contractor would range from $80-$300 hourly, the compensation award was deemed to be a bargain and well-deserved. In supporting payment for delivered web services through a stipend, the proponents for the most part saw no issues with the agreement.
Vote Result: The item passed the committee by a 16-13 vote.
Acceptance Date: August 10, 2011