I just made the quip in a different thread that ideas are tossed out and never gain traction. But, it gave me an idea: just like there's a project tracker in the Brewhouse Committee forum, why don't we have an "Idea tracker" or "comments form"? Any member can submit ideas/comments via the website and at the monthly meeting the Board discussions with attendees and prioritizes whatever ideas/comments have come in since the last meeting.
Benefits: first and foremost, we'd have a record of them electronically so they don't disappear into the abyss of forum posts; there could be drop downs (or text fields) where the club secretary makes a quick note on what the Board and club discuss and how they prioritize it "low," "medium," "high"; then indviduals, committees, and the club can scroll through, read, and pick and choose from ideas they'd like to help accomplish (and/or the club can herd people in the direction of "high" priority projects/ideas). We have had ideas pitched at one point at the old brewhouse which had only come to fruition at the new brew house. Perpahs there's a dozen more ideas like that which no one remembers...
Is it ironic that this will be drowned in the seas of forum posts within a week? 
Jim,
For a while I've been trying to think of ways to get rid of the "recent threads" feed on the main page and drive people to look into the forum pages themselves. While I think the feed is nice, there's also something we're missing by not actually seeing the forums.
On to your original point, Brock and I have it on our todo list to take the brewhoue tracker to all of the committees so that each of them would have a place to track ideas. Is this what you're looking for?
Lucas
Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
Yeah, definitely.
Optimally it would be awesome to have an idea tracker at the top of each forum where anyone/everyone can post anything/everything they think of "to-do"-wise; the Board then assesses the need/feasibility and indicates their decision somehow on the idea tracker; and THEN discussion ensues about how to accomplish it (i.e., the Board has already taken care of the discussion on whether or not it's actually worth while to move on that idea and member discussion can then be very directed and dedicated to *how* to accomplish it, not whether or not to accomplish it). But, I realize you can't stop people from starting to discuss ideas before they get the "go ahead" from the club...and there's the rub.
Bumping this back up because it seems (at least publicly on the threads) that the club refuses to let people like Zach Burns help us improve our organisation; and the "CHAOS forums is where good ideas come to die" is exactly where he could help out.
The thread below is just one example of many that had a lot of traction and enthusiasm when it was first posted and - for whatever reason - there's nothing (again, at least publicly on the threads) coming of it.
http://chaosbrewclub.net/forum/brewhouse-committee/equipment-labelling-a...
I'm going to suggest again a tracker at the top of each committee forum where people propose literally whatever they want; the Board prioritizes them; the Board solicits volunteers on the top 5 (or pick another number) highest priority items it will make sure get accomplished; if no one steps forward, the Board actually delegates; maybe concomitant with that, given the "do-ocratic" nature of the club, the Board picks the top 5 ideas they are going to make sure get accomplished but also 5 ideas they're not going to make a big push to get done but "wouldn't mind if they got done by someone who wants to tackle them"; then subsequent checking in on the progress of the project/idea, at least monthly at the meeting if not more frequently.
OR, don't go with that idea - that's fine! I'm not going to be offended - but, for G*d's sake, let's do *something*! Right now some really great ideas which would actually make this club more efficient/better are posted and forgotten; which makes it seem that the ideas/projects that actually get accomplished are arbitrarily backed (or not backed) by the club.
I still like the idea/task/project tracker at the top of each committee's sub-forum. As Lucas mentioned, we could basically use the same thing that can be seen at the top of the brewhouse committee forum.
But, I might have a different idea of what that would be for than you do. The brewhouse committee projects often have a cost associated with them, so the board needs to discuss, prioritize, and approve. I'm picturing this idea box being more for cheap or free stuff, like things we want to add to the website, workshops to be planned, membership drive initiatives, etc. Those don't (tyipcally) have a monetary cost, but that's also the problem: they cost people's times, and that's not something the board can prioritize and approve (or delegate) when the labor is all volunteer.
Jim - With regard to the thread you mentioned, I had planned on bugging people at some point this week. I know people are busy, so I figured a few weeks to get things done was appropriate.
Oh... my... god. Why haven't we done this? http://thechive.com/2013/09/17/guys-rig-up-buddies-plumbing-with-beer-wh...
I get what you're saying Jim. Alternatively, you can just sticky a thread marked "[Membership] Ideas Tracker" at the top of your respective forum. ie: education https://www.chaosbrewclub.net/forums/education-committee
These should have some kind of membership backing behind them. I am not interested in board voting on every on the forums - like my chiller project that nobody seems to want to do.
(Vote for the chiller project!)
Brock, I respectfully disagree.
While I'm suggesting that everyone's ideas should be heard and organized somewhere so they are not forgotten, I'm also indeed suggesting that some ideas may not be ideal *at this time* and the Board should be the mediator. There's nothing wrong with the Board respectfully listening to the suggestion and then equally respectfully choosing to pass on some at this time (also remember I said that the Board could prioritize 5 or so that they are going to back as a club and then abother 5 they'd like to see done if people want to go after something).
This is a reduction to the absurd but I bet if I had ten gallons of pink paint at home not being used and I wanted to paint the brew house pink, you bet your a*s the Board or someone would step in and stop me. There have not been any ideas as bad as that, of course, but I think you get my point that some ideas (a) may indeed need some intervention to some degree; and, (b) may be more necessary than others (e.g., we need to the bottling equipment clean before we go spending hundreda of dollars on new jockey boxes).
It was also my gut feeling that this would encourage volunteering; that if someone sees their idea is at #8 on the priority list, they may be more inclined to help out with #1-7 so that the club would now be on their idea.
Sorry, will add one more thing: ultimately what we do is for the betterment of the club. If we have a do-ocracy because the Board is afraid of hurting pepole's feelings by prioritizing and taking into account the club's needs and goals while assessing ideas, that's not good. Some ideas are obviously going to work better and be more feasible at different times depending on the club's needs and desires.