Corridor 9

As I posted below, I was interested in taking over the webmaster position for the Madisonville Fire Department. After speaking a bit with Chief Stewart today I learned that my understanding of the position was a bit off base. I had thought that the web page was an in house operation that he was primarily in charge of maintaining. He informed me today that while he did help post information, the city’s information technology consultants are actually in charge of the page, and that all information needs to be approved by the city prior to posting.

Because I thought that John was wanting to get rid of the position, now that he’s covered up by his duties as chief, I had approached him about obtaining the position. Now that I understand exactly how the web page works, I’m a bit hesitant about getting involved. Posting factual information about the department, city, and personnel is easy enough. Updating schedules and making sure that contact & training information is correct is also easy enough. However, once you start having to filter everything through a third party it becomes a bit hectic. Depending on how many people must approve the information, it could be like the whisper game; where Mary tells Jim something, Jim tells Jane, Jane tells George, etc. By the time it gets through 10 people the original statement is lost. After thinking about it over for a while, I think it’s best that this job stay with the city’s consultants.

My goal was to make it easier for the people of Madisonville, as well as the department members, to access information about their fire department. However, this is getting better than it has been, especially since there wasn’t even a MFD webpage a year ago. Things will continue to get better, and it will only take time.