Kristin Bennett

After Laying Off 40% of It’s Workforce Ning Says Things Will Be Different

Yesterday after getting an email from my husband, who had gotten an inquiry from one of his colleagues about the ‘changes’ at Ning, I didn’t pay much attention. Said colleague was asking about alternatives to Ning because they were going to be charging soon, my assumption was that this was likely the result of going over bandwidth or something of that nature.

I was surprised later when I got the link to the creators community where the announcement was clear as day… no more free communities. More news to be released over the next two weeks, free community creators will have the opportunity to upgrade to an undisclosed payment plan or will have to begin their transition elsewhere.

Many of the replies to the thread where the announcement was made are full of anger, many creators have spent hundreds of hours creating their environments, others are bummed but acknowledge that it probably makes sense as a business decision. There are even some who have created many communities, over 20 in some cases, and their frustration about how quickly even a small amount would add up is understandable.

Most of the comments come to the same conclusion though, they are asking the question, “How much will it be.”, and this has not yet been disclosed.

As a Ning Community Creator I am hoping it isn’t too much, I have about 4 different communities the largest of which has an international membership spanning 6 countries bringing moms who have Multiple Sclerosis together. My hope is that the small premium fees I pay will be enough to keep it going, but I’m doing my research just in case.

Sources:

http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/ning-update?xg_source=msg_com_forum&id=4244211%3ATopic%3A151365&page=1#comments

http://www.fastcompany.com/1618615/5-things-ning-got-right

WADADS put on a Symposium today that was discussing the deficiencies in the Parent/Caregiver-Initiated Treatment for Minors Symposium.

My presence at the Symposium was as a survivor sharing parts of my story covering pieces of my experiences at Red Cliff Ascent and Mount Bachelor Academy in 1995. A wide variety of other perspectives and experiences were also shared including a mother and daughter who experienced positive things out of their experience which in ways was similar to mine except for my running away from the school and the parent involvement/family counseling afterward which they had and I did not. There were young women speaking about their inpatient experiences as well as parents who have or are dealing with struggles in getting the help they need for their children.

There was a lot of talk about the WRAPAROUND process, a kind of intervention model for helping to develop an individualized care plan and development of a child and family team for families that need help with their adolescents. Experts talked about the research leading to these evidence-based programs and so forth as well.

From what I understand this sounds like a huge improvement in that it gives more personalized case by case support that is taking the whole family into account. Often times I hear about situations where the child seems to be the scape goat for acting in response to the family distress and trouble they are all a part of creating.

I was very pleased when I learned that it was not black and white, the parents present acknowledged the importance of children to be able to seek treatment without their parents consent. Personally I believe the the most important thing is that the whole family is involved and evaluated and that any sort of treatment facility that is overseeing treatment is held to strict standards rather than seducing the families with their cult like tactics and abusing the children.

I’ve been away from the girls all day and am going to go spend some time with them…I’ll log back on and update this later if I’m able to get them to sleep early enough!

What a busy weekend!! Saturday started out taking a tour that for me was an interesting blast from the past at a church where my congregation is considering moving to. I lived in the neighborhood where this building is when I got my first apartment in Seattle as a single mom and also where I lived when I met my husband Geoff!! After the tour, we went to a dear friend’s 2yo’s birthday party which was fabulous, loads of fun…and much needed after a pretty intense morning.

Sunday started with church at the Masonic Lodge where we had a meeting after wards followed by a Christmas party where I took pictures of all the kids with Santa Claus!!

It was my first time photographing an event and it was a lot of fun, I wrote more about it here.

I have been taking a class through the Washington Business Center (used to be Women’s Business Center) it is called “Launch and Grow your ” and while it’s been interesting I have been flip flopping faster than any political candidate ever regarding ‘which’ business I want to focus/work on. In my mind I’m thinking about the book writing, community building, all the MLM’s I’m involved in, my volunteer roles and sooo much more, how can I focus on one?? Anyway, now that it is ending next week which is when I need to present a business plan, I have decided where I need to focus though in what regards I’m still not sure, though I know where I’m leaning. I think that what I have spent time on really shows my passions and what I’m most likely to thrive doing and that is working with Moms with MS.

I launched the community on July 1 this year after suffering my first bad flare-up since my diagnosis in 2001. I’ve watched it grow like crazy, we’re now over 90 members and it’s barely been 2 months and we are not yet listed in or supplied brochures at any NMSS locations or on their site aside from links on their facebook page. One member told me she found the site through google even which is fabulous, means we’re showing up in people’s searches when they are looking for what we provide.

At this point though we are ‘only’ a community. I have it being run through a (wonderful) ning platform which is great as a community but so much more is needed for this site!! I want to supply moms with information, help them promote what they are doing, feature people, have specialists contribute regarding cutting edge information that affects us MoMS and so forth. So as I told my husband a few minutes ago…I need to get started with a mindmap because for this topic my brain is exploding with ideas and even better, I’m getting loads of support and encouragement from anyone I talk to about this, whether they are affected/in the field or not.

Time to get started on that business plan…after the mindmap and find focus within this focus of course.