Weddingbee boards

Sorry, I've been super busy lately and haven't had anytime to get it together.  Plan on compling the entries tonight and getting the hostesses to vote on them.  You should know in the next few days. Thanks for asking.

@pixiedixie862: Hi, We are finishing up the voting by the hostesses. With Thanksgiving being last week, i wanted to give us Hostesses enough time. I'll get them tallied and posted for the whole hive to vote. I do apologize for taking so long. We are a group of volunteers so unfortunately I got super busy and didn't have the chance to turn this around quick enough.

I would just like to chime in here. I take full blame on dropping the ball on this contest. I've organized these decorating contest in past and love doing them. Which is why I was the one who suggested and organized this contest. Unfortunately, things have not been well in my personal life. Not to get all in to it but my husband's health has declined and there were somedifficult changes at work that occurred about a week after I announced the contest. I thought this task was simple enough to handle. It wasn't. I had to take screenshots of every submission, place a caption, upload them onto a site that the hostesses could vote on. Oh, I had to organize them into logical categories too. It was about 50 pics I had to organize. Also, there were some technical difficulties with the upload site. Yes, I know all of this is just excuses. Yes, we are volunteer. So yes, we have to juggle our personal lives and WB. Also, I'm a mod. There have been a lot of resident trolls and we have to take care of them quickly. 

So there are certain things that take precedent over others. Which is why I'm apologizing for the Halloween contest. I'm deeply sorry and embarrassed.

My commitment to WB is still as strong and I am still happy to be a part of this site. It gives me a distraction from my personal life. I'm here to stay.

I 've decided that I won't be organizing any future events. I'm hoping to pass my involvement in WB contests to another hostess.

As for the contest, we will be announcing the winners soon. 

@yrret107:  I don't think it's anything to be embarrassed about or put a self-ban on future participation for some events- we all get swamped by life at some point or another. I hope things calm down for you in the near future.

But I think@MsBrooklynA:  has a good point - sometimes you just have to cut your losses. I've been a volunteer member for several clubs/organizations and this has happened to me too - you have so many things that people want done, plus the normal day-to-day, and you finally have to say x, y, and z would be nice, but just can't happen right now. I can see with all the changes going on mod-wise right now, that there are things much higher on the to-do list (and rightfully so).

Could some of these types of things be passed on to non-mods/hostesses? In the way that a waiting bee takes care of the waiting list? That's something that that group wants, but would take a lot of time out of a mod's week to pull together. Maybe for things like this that are non-essentials to the upkeep of the board, could be put together by members who want to participate. It's more likely to get done if someone who's really interested in it is heading it up vs. someone trying to get to it somewhere on their to-do list.

@MissBoPeep: I read it to see the new proposals, and I think you do a great job! And that's my point, maybe some of the non-technical stuff like contests and such can be handled by someone who really wants to take charge of it the way you have with the waiting list or some others have with weight-loss threads.

As for the waiting list, I don't think a hostess or mod is in charge of that list. 

Im not sure, what else you are talking about for responsibilities to pass down to non-hostess/mod? If its any contest or swap related, a hostess has to organize so we can check for trolls and distribute prizes. 

@CanadianMermaid: As for last years contest, I forwarded all of the addresses to eharmony and I thought it was taken care of. I did all I could on that end. We didnt realize until this contest was announced that the prizes were never sent.  We plan on sending late prizes to last years winners, too.

@yrret107:  no, I know it's a non-mod doing the waiting list.

I don't know much about swaps, but for contests that are pic-related, do like CanadianMermaid said, and have everbody post in the thread - make separate threads for separate categories if needed. That can all be run by a non-mod. Just have a mod make it a sticky if needed and then close it at the deadline. If hostesses need to vote, they can do so at that time and distribute prizes accordingly. It might not be as 'pretty' as organizing everything perfectly and having a separate gallery or the like for all the pictures - but it would get it done without a mod/hostess having to direct a lot of their time toward it.

@hisgoosiegirl: I was fully ready to take on the Halloween contest. Like I said above, I've enjoyed doing it in the past. I thought it was fun. I thought it was a great idea.

I'm not sure how many times you want me to apologize. I thought I could handle it and I'm sorry I was wrong. 

@yrret107: I have never once said you needed to apologize. In fact, I said there was no need for you to be embarrassed about it. Life happens. I was only trying to offer suggestions that might help take some of the weight off your back going forward.

@hisgoosiegirl: I've done the separate threads in the past. Also, I wasn't sure what kind of entries we would get. Would I get 4 in one category or 50 in another? I thought leaving it in one big thread would be easier in me and the hostesses.  Plus, I didnt want 5 sticky threads up at the top since we try to limit the amount of threads stickied. There were many factors I have to consider.

@tksjewelry: Thanks, I appreciate that. The Halloween contest is pretty much done. I just need to announce the winners and coordinate the the prizes. It was a simple task that I forgot about.

I'm writing the post as we speak.