Category: Site

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Big News About ASR Website!

Dear Azusa StreetRiders (and friends):

Very soon the ASR ministry will unveil a newly remodeled (actually rebuilt from the ground up) main ASR website (and online store). Starting now, you can already use our two main Facebook groups (see links below) to discuss all things ASR and especially anything related to ministry to lost souls. Please note: the newly rebuilt website will no longer have a built-in forum nor be designed “primarily” to facilitate discussion. It will be possible to “comment” on its public posts, but other than that, even after the new site is unveiled, dialogue will continue to be facilitated by the Facebook groups (see the following links). The ASR national board did not make such a decision lightly, and beneath the following links, I will explain why the decision was called for.

CHAT WITH ASR ON FACEBOOK!

ASR & Friends Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ASR.Friends.Group/

ASR Official Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ASR.Discussion.Group/

Technology applications can often be like “shifting sand” — certain choices, though well intentioned, can fail at being foundation-worthy for the long haul.  Finding a technology setup that can whether the tests of time is a challenge.

I’m Pastor Doug Joseph. I am an ASR and I serve in a completely volunteer capacity as the main administrator behind the most recent ASR websites and mobile apps.

Back when I was first approached by ASR Founder, Fred Beall, about taking over as volunteer web admin, ASR’s technical needs constituted a tall order. Because the needs were quite complex, it greatly limited our choices of what platforms could serve well or even halfway decently. I selected the best platform I could find that had the capability to meet all the complex needs, or at least be extendable so as to meet all the complex needs — as well as possible at the time.

Things were done right at the start of our ASR website, and the site served quite well for a time. However, after literally tens of thousands of fake “spam-bot” accounts were created on our site, and none of the anti-bot, anti-spam tools at our disposal proved effective, we had to change the site’s policy for new accounts over to an invitation-only setup. That was certainly less than ideal.

Also, over time, the software platform we had selected fell further and further behind the “state of the art” when it came to its CMS (content management system) features. Even at the time I selected it, the CMS features were crude. And as modern CMS products, including wonderful, free, open-source platforms such as WordPress, were providing better and better tools, such as easy, drag-and-drop, button-click simplicity, with “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” convenience, the archaic CMS features of the platform we were using, proved very limiting.

The ASR ministry had also, through me, hired an app-coder (who specialized in our selected platform) to create ASR mobile apps (both iOS and Android). However, as time went by, Apple’s deliberately frustrating policies — which are designed to intentionally force a cycle of obsolescence onto apps that have nothing internally wrong with them, forced our iOS app onto the ash heap of “unusable” apps. iPhone users beyond a certain generation of the iOS (operating system) found themselves blocked from using our ASR mobile app on their phone. Apple’s policies insisted we have a developer update the code and recompile the deliverable as a newer version. Without a site we felt comfortable with, and with our platform falling further and further behind, we did not pursue recompiling the app.

I was probably the last one to admit we needed to overhaul the site, due to two understandable reasons: (1) Because of all the major investment of hours and hard work I had put into the site, I naturally had a bit of emotional investment that made me more blind to the creeping shortcomings. (2) Because I knew how tall of an order the ASR’s complex needs were, I did not know of any better solution. This fact made me unable to consider an overhaul, as I did not know a way to do one successfully.

It was our former president, the original founder of the ASR ministry, Brother Fred Beall, that astutely suggested we consider lightening the load, by reducing the requirements, through moving the discussion forum off site. That one spark of genius was enough to help me reorient my thinking.

Many organizations I know, including some non-profits, use a similar setup: leave the dialogue/forum features to an off-site platform such as Facebook, and then concentrate on what remains, on the main “proprietary” site. After much deliberation, this is the approach the ASR national board has voted to take. I serve at their pleasure, and even though the vote means a mountain of work for me, I am in favor of the change. I think I can say on behalf of the board (and please note I am not a national officer): “We hope you understand why the changes were needed, and we pray you are blessed by the new site, and will join us on the Facebook groups for ongoing ASR discussion!”

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Your help needed! ASR Travel & Expense Fund

Expense Reimbursements for Azusa StreetRiders Board Members

The following appeal and info comes from our founder, Brother Fred Beall:

As most everyone knows, since its inception in 1999, not a single penny has been taken from the Azusa StreetRiders account to pay for any expenses incurred by any of our members. This means that all travel expenses (gas, tolls, flights, food, hotels, etc.) have been the sole responsibility of the member. All funds received, without exception, have gone to purchase motorcycles for Oneness Apostolic missionaries or direct organizational expenses (postal charges, display booth costs, etc.) Additionally, even for the products we sell (t-shirts, flags, motorcycle paraphernalia, etc.), all profits are re-invested into ASR to help promote/recruit so that we can be more effective in our outreach efforts. Don’t you wish this was the case with all “charitable” organizations? No “sleazy” relationships lining the pockets of friends! 

Because of this mandate (included in our bylaws), to serve in any capacity with Azusa StreetRiders is both an honor and a privilege that sometimes carries a tremendous personal financial burden. All parties interested in serving on the board of directors are apprised of the fact that no reimbursements are permitted and for this reason, highly qualified individuals are sometimes not able to serve. This is unfortunate as we want the best of the best to be in leadership positions throughout Azusa StreetRiders. 

For these reasons, unbeknownst to the current and most recent past ASR board of directors, several members of ASR discussed a possible way to “help” with personal expenses so that the National Board of Directors of Azusa StreetRiders can be at least partially reimbursed. This concept was introduced at the ASR Business Meeting at the National Rally and received overwhelming approval. Essentially, a separate bank account is to be set up for “donations” from anyone to be used to offset personal expenses in ASR travel related situations. The membership approved the following to serve as the first Travel Advisory board/committee:

  • Brother Mike McGhghy
  • Pastor Doug Joseph
  • Brother Fred Beall

These were tasked with getting the “Travel & Expense Fund” underway and creating the necessary policy, documentation, and forms for the new fund. To this end, we (the advisory board members) submit the following:

ASR Travel & Expense Fund (info for ASR members) (PDF format, 86 KB).

Info: Please donate to the ASR Travel & Expense Fund, a separate account to help our national board members to fulfill their many duties. This fund is independent of all other ASR accounts and disbursements require pre-approval from the Travel Advisory Board. Click for more details about this fund.

ASR Travel & Expense Reimbursement Policy (info for ASR national board) (PDF format, 81 KB).

Info: This document establishes policies and procedures for the reimbursement of travel and expenses incurred during the conduct of outreach and other approved travel for a Board Member of the Azusa StreetRiders. Click for full details.

ASR Travel & Expense Report Form (for ASR national board to submit) (XLXS format, 19 KB).

This spreadsheet form provides an easy way for a Board Member of the Azusa StreetRiders to document the needed details of a request for reimbursement.

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Happy New Year! Plus all-new gearings behind “Rumblings” newsletter!

ASR-Site

Yes, the amount of work we still have left to do is mind numbing, but look how far we’ve come already! Thank you, Jesus! Truly, if we had to get it all done in a hurry, the work still remaining is enough to drive a guy batty. So our sense of sanity and stability in all that is being undertaken is well summarized in a concept called kaizen—a Japanese philosophy of constant improvement. To put it more kindly: painfully slow, yet steady improvement. This is a microcosm of how the overwhelming goals of life can and should be handled.

Our local church in Clarksburg is now serving as a local campus for Purpose Institute (Bible college classes), and this holiday season our church undertook hosting a local instance of Financial Peace University (using video curriculum from Christian finance guru David Ramsey). The courses for both types of schooling have been tremendous. One story from David Ramsey illustrates how powerful a slow, steady improvement can be over the long haul.

He told of young man who learned how to be careful, saving and investing his money instead of going into debt. When he had finally saved enough money, he went down to the Mercedes Benz dealership and arranged to buy his dream car. He drove it home for a “test drive,” and his wife, friends, and neighbors all went bonkers congratulating him.

“You did it!” they shouted. “You’ve arrived!” they said. However, he finally chose to not buy the $40,000 car. Why? Well, when he started to think how much that saved money could become for him if he invested it instead, and when he considered that the car purchase would pretty quickly depreciate away the huge wad of cash, he chose to invest it instead.

Twelve years later (just 12, not 42 or 52), he saw a man driving the exact same model and make of car he almost bought. The car pulled up beside him at a stoplight. It had all the same features as the one he almost bought. It was in nearly mint condition for a 12-year-old Benz.

The man said to the driver of the nice, used Benz, “Excuse me, sir. Is that an ’82?”

“Yes!” came the reply.

“Nice!” he complimented.

“Thanks!”

“Would you mind to tell me what your car is worth right now?”

The driver of the used Benz went on to say that the car was in like-new condition, and he had just bought it for $4,000.

The man (who had chosen not to buy the same type of Benz when it was new) thanked the other driver, and went on about his business. He had invested the $40,000—he had socked it away in a mutual fund, with the dividends set to stay in the fund, for compounding of interest. He had never touched the money since.

When he got a chance, he checked on the value of his money then. The accumulated value, with interest? About $400,000. No gimmicks. Just time, and slight, positive improvements with each passing day.

I’m not just thinking about money. In the same way that we’re working to (painfully slowly) improve and enhance the ASR sites/programming, you can work daily to improve your life, your skills, your relationships, your finances, whatever. Maybe you need to lose some weight. Maybe you need to shed an addiction. The Apostle Paul once wrote of being able to withstand both failure and success, not being tripped up by either (see Philippians 4:13). It’s an important part of our life as a Christian. You can do it, in Jesus name! Anything can get amazingly better over time, with tiny improvements each day. As we enter this new year of 2014, let’s not just make a bunch of over-the-top “resolutions” (likely impossible deadlines for hard-to-reach goals). Instead, deliberately, carefully, intentionally make every day count, even if only by just the tiniest bit of improvement. God bless you in 2014, in Jesus name.