While we're in the spirit of showing appreication for a job well done, i for one would like to highlight the excellent work done by those collectivly known as "The Bunkhouse Team".
Individually they are:
The full-time team ....
Cindy Glass
Jane Griscti
Madhav Lakkapragada
Thomas Paul.
and not forgetting (Because it seems in all the excitement, I did
)Johannes De Jong
The (always there when we need em) team
Marcela Blei
Randall Twede
As far as I'm aware this is the only official Project Team at the ranch, and I have the honour of managing it.
The really cool thing about managing this team is I don't have to do much because these guys know their role and they just get on with it.
It's hard to believe that once I used to manage everything to do with The Bunkhouse myself. I had tonnes of ideas, a redesign of the pages, the addition of a "Not yet reviewed" section to name just a few. What I and everyone else wanted though was more reviews and more updates. This I knew I could not do alone.
Then this fantastic team was formed, like everyone at javaranch, they aren't paid, they do it because they want to.
Jane deals with requests from reviewers for a book they fancy reviewing, she also liases with Carl to ensure that any books coming up for a Giveaway have a reviewer, she then passes on review request to Cindy, who contacts the relevent publisher and keeps the pressure on until the book is sent. She maintains a good relationship with the Publishers for us so they're extra nice to us.
Once the book has arrived on the doorstep of the reivewer they contact jane again and she starts the clock (Each review must be sent in within 2 weeks of recieving the book), if the review is late she hassles the reviewer until they finally relent and send the review (she is then responsible for making sure that any late reviewers are punished accordingly by imposing a ban on reviewing for a set amount of time), then the reviews are ready and sent to Madhav who updates the appropriate page, creates the links to amazon and makes sure it looks good.
While all this is going on, Thomas is keeping an eye on new books coming on the scene and constantly updating the "Not yet reviewed" sections, he is also responsible for keeping an eye on what is currently being reviewed and turning on the "Under Review" flag for that book.
Then Johannes adds the review to the Book Review forum and moderates people's responses.
Randall and Marcela are always around if a little tweaking needs to be done or if be decide to change the layout of the pages (again!).
Me, I now have very little to do but plan more changes and upgrades and upset the boat a little.
So, since I'm a great believer in giving praise where it is due. I would like to say Thank You and Well Done to everyone in the Bunkhouse Team, your work has helped turn this once small section of the site into one of the biggest and the best.
[This message has been edited by Angela Poynton (edited November 21, 2001).]