The International Game Developers Association has announced that Executive Director Joshua Caulfield will leave in August, as the organization "continues the reorganization of its infrastructure to better serve our members."
The Association, which had Jason Della Rocca as Executive Director for 9 years to 2009, named Caulfield to the post in July 2009. He will be leaving to become the Executive Director of an association for architecture students.
Speaking to Gamasutra at the time of his appointment, Caulfield noted: "The IGDA's mission has remained very much the same: That is, to support the professional game developer... to enhance the lives of game developers, to connect developers with their peers, and so on. Those [goals] have not changed."
However, a focus on more tangible takeaways for the association was one of the focuses of Caulfield's time, including a group insurance rate negotiated for members, in addition to regular discounts to shows like the Game Developers Conference.
The Board of Directors for the not-for-profit association, which currently consist of industry figures including Google's Mark DeLoura, Big Huge Games' Tim Train and Foundation 9's Jane Pinckard, also recently enacted a new committee system, "to better focus on the primary needs of the organization."
Each committee is chaired by a board member and they include Membership, Policy/Advocacy, Events/Sponsorship/Partners, Technology, Marketing/Communications, Special Interest Groups and Chapters. Members-at-large and other directors also sit on these committees, "allowing a broader base of game developers an opportunity to drive organization-wide efforts in these areas."
According to an official IGDA announcement, the Board of Directors will be launching a search for a new Executive Director immediately. “We wish Joshua the best in his future endeavors,” said the chair of the Board of Directors, Gordon Bellamy. “It’s absolutely an amicable parting, and we appreciate all the hard work and dedication Joshua has poured into being our Executive Director over the last year.”
“We’re going to come through this a stronger, better organization and we’re making our volunteers an integral part of the change,” added Bellamy. “We’ll keep everyone informed as these roles are filled in the coming weeks and as the IGDA continues to evolve.”
That SEVERAL chapters are dead, the site does not work, they acted in a moronic way twice in a row after directors did something to break the industry (Mike Capps and Tim Langdell if you are wondering), and the board keep acting secretive (did you knew that two directors quit? I discovered that by someone else pointing to me, oh, and what is one of the two that quit? Noone knows, only the IGDA board knows, they did not tell us)
I worked with IGDA too, but doing that made my reputation here plummet as the people watched IGDA do more harm than good (in fact when you are doing little good, any harm is more than good...), you get it now?
Btw: Visit the forums, after 10 minute waiting they will load, then take a look at the "Feedback" session, you will see a IGDA-bashing fest in several threads, and rarely someone shows up to explain the situation or say sorry...
You know, when Tim Langdell did what he did, we needed to oust him from office, because the board ran away from the case, we figured that we would need to contact everyone to do that, because the bylaws requeriments say: "you get elected even with no votes for you, but you only get out if everyone votes for you", this meant that Tim Langdell got "elected" (he was actually appointed) with 700 votes, but we needed 10.000 to remove him (or something like that the second number).
So, needing all those votes, we used the contact form on the site, and sent a e-mail to all members asking for help...
The directors than e-mail, saying to disregard the last e-mail (why? they did not want us to calling a vote to oust them?) and saying that the last e-mail was sent by possibily MALICIOUS HACKERS...
What sort of organization call THEIR OWN MEMBERS, Malicious Hackers? In a official e-mail from the board?
This is not to say all other minor problems (like a scandal relating to SIG creation, mailing list messes, infighting, directors insulting people...)
Seriously, 2 Exec Directors quit in a row, 2 scandals in a row, and board directors quitting without telling anyone in less than a year that they were elected, how this is not HUGE RED FLAG?
Would you mind clarifying what you mean with your remark?
Anders
That SEVERAL chapters are dead, the site does not work, they acted in a moronic way twice in a row after directors did something to break the industry (Mike Capps and Tim Langdell if you are wondering), and the board keep acting secretive (did you knew that two directors quit? I discovered that by someone else pointing to me, oh, and what is one of the two that quit? Noone knows, only the IGDA board knows, they did not tell us)
I worked with IGDA too, but doing that made my reputation here plummet as the people watched IGDA do more harm than good (in fact when you are doing little good, any harm is more than good...), you get it now?
Btw: Visit the forums, after 10 minute waiting they will load, then take a look at the "Feedback" session, you will see a IGDA-bashing fest in several threads, and rarely someone shows up to explain the situation or say sorry...
You know, when Tim Langdell did what he did, we needed to oust him from office, because the board ran away from the case, we figured that we would need to contact everyone to do that, because the bylaws requeriments say: "you get elected even with no votes for you, but you only get out if everyone votes for you", this meant that Tim Langdell got "elected" (he was actually appointed) with 700 votes, but we needed 10.000 to remove him (or something like that the second number).
So, needing all those votes, we used the contact form on the site, and sent a e-mail to all members asking for help...
The directors than e-mail, saying to disregard the last e-mail (why? they did not want us to calling a vote to oust them?) and saying that the last e-mail was sent by possibily MALICIOUS HACKERS...
What sort of organization call THEIR OWN MEMBERS, Malicious Hackers? In a official e-mail from the board?
This is not to say all other minor problems (like a scandal relating to SIG creation, mailing list messes, infighting, directors insulting people...)
Seriously, 2 Exec Directors quit in a row, 2 scandals in a row, and board directors quitting without telling anyone in less than a year that they were elected, how this is not HUGE RED FLAG?
irector-Resigns
Btw: That is also the ONLY source, most members don't know about this, and asking about it to directors result in no response.