Still busy with the teams thing, cousins, but I'll be coming back to discuss this as a team member with you--as well as our racing schedules and (hopefully) mini-meets!
(Oh, FWIW, I'm more of a mind to bag the miles & minutes challenge for 'Ohana and operate like the Bots. But that's just me. Who's not good at consensus making.)
It sounds like there's enough support to continue to the teams, in some form another, this year. Lots of decisions to be made, though, so I'm hoping for some more input--specifically from team members:
I'm glad you (we) are seeing a general consensus in support of the teams, if it were otherwise I might respond with something simple like "if you don't want to be on a team , the don't be on one...but leave mine alone!", however since that's not the case I'll try to be more reasoned and less emotional.
Ohana is not the only team that has that family feel, although I do see it here more than on the other team threads, but that might be because I feel at home here. You guys are family to me, and are closer to me than some of my family, and I would hate for someone to try to take that feeling away from me (think, you wouldn't like me when you get between me and my family). You guys were here when I needed someone to talk with that I couldn't find at home, or when I needed an honest opinion on something; and when I was hurting you were here to just be there for me--and those are things you just can't find anywhere.
As the tracking goes, I was tracking my minutes and miles before Ohana and will continue to do so for myself, but even already doing that I was less than perfect about reporting, so do what you will with that portion because it is not a vital part of the team to me. I like the accountability, but I can be held accountable other ways (and even by other friends).
As far as the concerns about team posts being exclusive of over WISH posts, I seem to remember when the team formation was being discussed some posters griped about the boards having too many off-topic posts. Well, then where would our side discussions including sci-fi, books, and other multi-conversation asides belong. We all know the inside jokes here and feel they have a place here. For those who worry about cliques, I have two opinions, (1) they already existed pre-teams, the more frequent posters all knew each other and it took me over a year to start to feel comfortable with WISH--and I never felt really at home in WISH until after I was involved here in Ohana, and (B)sure some people will post primarily to teams,
but isn't that their choice, some people feel uncomfortable with larger groups (if Darcy was on WISH, she would never post to WISH, but would be very involved with a team).
I really like the idea of reviving the mixer, and maybe one of the best ways to to mix team and non-team WISH would be for one team to sponsor the Monday Mixer thread, on weekly rotation, on the WISH Events board. You'll get lots of cross-participation and I bet each team will try to represent their team well.
I am just coming off my first in person WISH meet, and I felt very comfortable right away with all of you that I got to meet. As much as we have chatted here, I already felt like I knew you and you each seemed in person so much like I would have imagined. I was at Pop just before the meet (I had a scheduling conflict with the meet) and met a few names I recognized from the boards, but it lacked that personal feeling I had with those of you here.
Maybe this is too rambling and lacking actual useful imput, but it comes from my heart, in which each of you has a place.