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“…the distinction between front of house efforts and back-office projects was obvious to me.”
Besty,
The main difference between a “back-office” initiative and a “front-office” initiative is financial resources.
There are precious few spending thousands and thousands of their hard earned dollars in order to help people just like you. They coordinate their activity and resources as much as they can, given the resources. Among other things, AAWA was to help consolidate some resources to provide a bit of relief to these not by reducing how much they donate of their own time and money but to augment that by providing a structure through which others could help.
“…[AAWA] chose not to build a proven, enduring structure in the offline world which could really help people…”
Offline? What the hell are you talking about? Cooperative associations of people have nothing to do with online or offline. People make the difference. Good people can make a good difference. The internet is a tool, not an end. And, since you apparently are unaware, the founders of AAWA spent considerable time “online” to form and birth a structure that was intended from day one to grow and improve from the start. But rather than pitching in to help directly the peanut gallery here was content to revel in its own preferential views and speculations.
Based on what you go on to write you don’t have the foggiest idea how to build a structure to support and grow an international collaborative of people in the form of an association.
Your initial premise is flat out false, and your newly concocted apologia for that premise suffers from the same disease.
Marvin Shilmer