Wikis to the Rescue

Typically I've found that any projects with a committee have had the following chain of events:

• Committee reviews document
• Committee submits comments to me
• I format comments and send to contractor
• Contractor makes appropriate changes
• Changes are sent back to me
• I sent revised document to committee
• Committee reviews document

And so goes the circle of colloboration. Now this process typically takes a couple of days (with one day lost from the time I compile comments to send to the contractor to the time they are actually reviewed.)

But I shouldn't be such a major player in the process - I hate middlemen - yet here I am working as one (notice how many of the steps I'm directly involved with). Well in an attempt to allow members to work with each other as opposed to through me, I've been using a wiki on my most recent project for the past couple months.

I've found the following 3 benefits of the wiki so far:

• Members can build off of each others comments
• Contractors can view comments as they're submitted
• I'm a smaller part of the equation

Members can build off of each others comments
No more repeat comments. Wikis allow members of the committee to see what has already been reviewed as well as the feedback on those sections. This allow members to build off of the comments and/or focus their time on areas that may not have been as thoroughly reviewed.

Contractors can view comments as they're submitted
Long story short, I recieved a revised lesson from a contractor with the following comment:
"I pulled the comments from the Wiki, so it is good to go."

I'm a smaller part of the equation
Outstanding! Now some people may freak about this, but not me! I'm not a Subject Matter Expert when it comes to Solid Waste, my area of expertise is helping groups work together and thanks to the wiki I've done that. Because in the end it's not my association, it's the members, I just happen to be lucky enough to be along for the ride!

Thanks for reading,
Bob

P.S. If anyone from my organization stumbles on this - just because I'm a smaller part of this equation doesn't mean I'm not busy :)