eGullet Specialists

[Marlene]

Today the eGullet Society is pleased to announce a major expansion to its volunteer program and the creation of a new volunteer group: eG Specialists.

The Society could not function without its volunteers, who for more than four years have taken responsibility for everything from administration to content initiatives. Over time, however, many of our members have expressed a desire to contribute content but without taking on the administrative responsibility of forum hosting and moderation.

The eG Specialists program provides a way for members who have demonstrated a depth of knowledge and a commitment to the Society's mission to deepen their participation. As members, they have already contributed great content. The eG Specialists program recognizes and enhances these contributions. For example, under the eG Specialists program, a member who frequents a local farmers market might commit to writing a weekly market report. Someone with a great interest in local restaurants might take responsibility for a weekly report of restaurant openings, closings and chef changes. The opportunities are limited only by the imagination: draw a weekly cartoon, keep your fellow members apprised of sales and bargains in your region, help expand the scope of eG Calendar events listings, report on new book releases, or just about anything else that could work as a regular report, column, or service.

Specialist content is collaborative in nature, and specialists will work closely with eG Forums and other staff to bring even greater depth to the Society’s content offerings. In some cases, the Society’s resources are established, for example our team already receives many press release distributions that could be directed to a specialist interested in covering restaurant news. In other cases, part of the specialist’s role would be to develop new information resources and contacts.

Our food media digesters have already been contributing excellent, recurring content for years now. Our first move, then, will be to designate our digesting team as part of the eG Specialists program. We are appointing a leader for the digests group and will create a collaborative online workspace for digesters to share their ideas and approaches to the project. In addition, we will have specialist groups for Daily Gullet editorial volunteers, eGullet Culinary Institute instructors and research specialists, RecipeGullet specialists and eG Forums specialists.

Please join us in welcoming our media digesters to the eG Specialists team. In addition, over the next several weeks, we will be working to bring interested members into the other divisions of the eG Specialists program. Those who are interested in taking the initiative should contact Marlene Newell ("Marlene" on the eG Forums personal messenger system or mnewell@eGullet.org on e-mail).

What was a small group of food lovers is today a culinary arts society with thousands of members and many times that many readers around the world -- a virtual crossroads of the global culinary scene. We believe the eG Specialists program represents the next step in the evolution of the eGullet Society, and we hope all will benefit from it.