Adventures and Experiences of a Gather Guide

When I first joined gather, I had no idea that I would be so involved with the site in such a short time.  As many of you know by now, I live in New Zealand.  I read an article about Gather on the New Zealand Herald.  It talked about the First Writer's Competition Gather was about to host.  I got intrigued and joined.  However, I found out later that the competition was only for residents of US and Canada. I stayed on nontheless and started to post bits and pieces, getting connected to people, reading other people's posts and soon the sight became a part of my daily routine.

When I first noticed MaryAnne's article about the launch of a new program, I was still a newbie on gather and did not know many people around here.  The guides role got me interested and I ended up applying.  Six (or is it seven?) months later I can honestly say that I am glad to have sent that spontaneous application in.  My time as a Founding Gather Guide has just been marvellous.  I have learnt so much in the process.  I have made friends, gotten involved with so many different things and discovered a whole new world.

Kevin and Susan are the original team leaders for the founding guides.  They share a large portion of the credit for whatever successes the guide program achieved until now.  I have learnt so much from both of them and will always continue to consider them as my mentors and the first two people to turn to for help.  Ofcourse Kevin only wanted to be with the program until it was properly established.  Faith replaced Kevin as the Team leader after his transition.  During Faith's term as a team leader, she has been great, a person with wonderful ideas for the program, a very good communicator and a wonderful friend. 

As guides we have tried to make Gather a very user friendly place for every gather member.  We made sure we personally welcome all new people joining gather and established a daily AidStation to try and help members with Gather related questions.  Of course we did not have answers or solutions to ALL of the questions but we tried our best and at least directed people to the right person.  We also started to tackle frequently asked questions by establishing the Guidebook.  We have also started working on many other exciting projects which I hope the next team of Guides would pick up.

Over our time we have hosted a number of competition in an attempt to get better acquainted with Gather members and to encourage creativity.  Of course it was all quite hard work and required dedication, but it was all very exciting as well.  There is always something extra in trying to build something up from scratch.  As the founding guides all eight of us were party to that extra bit of privilege and kinship.  The continuous support and encouragement we received from gather members made it all worth it as well.

Now as my time as a Gather Guide nears its end, I am feeling too many things at the same time.  I am going to miss being a Guide a lot.  I will specially miss all the conversations, fun, planning, arguments, disagreements, laughter and the occassional tears I shared with my fellow guides - Gloria, Cheryl, Krissy and Dan, not to mention Faith and Susan.  But I am also excited and curious to find out about the fresh new ideas that will emerge from a new team of guides.  I hope our initial hard work paves a smoother path for the new team. As founding guides we will always be available to the new team for any support or suggestions.

I believe being a guide is a wonderful opportunity.  If you are a member who currently enjoys being part of Gather and has some ideas to make the place even better.  If you are looking forward to networking with a lot of people with varied talents and interests and working with a group of people who will soon become as close as a family to you, I encourage you to submit your applications to MaryAnne.  To find out more about the position please visit MaryAnne's article - Gather Guides Program Launches into 2008

In parting I would like to say that I am absolutely blown away by the support we have received from all of you.  Thank you so much for all the kind messages you have left for us and those sweet emails.  We as the Founding Guides team are planning to keep working together as a group and hope to bring you many exciting new things in the future.  So keep your eyes open for us!

All the best everyone, and if you are applying for a Guide position, Good Luck!