MicrONEsia Milestones: Voyaging for 4000 Years

Guampedia Overview

Organizational Background

In its initial creation, the Guampedia community project was organized and developed under the guma of the Humanities Guåhan as a grant project in 2002 with the website going online in 2008. In 2009, Guampedia transitioned out of the Council and became its own nonprofit organization and affiliate of the University of Guam, establishing its guma. Like the two-set guma latte, Shannon Murphy as Managing Editor, along with its Board of Directors, served as the organization’s management and leadership support pillars; with editors, Tanya Mendiola then followed by Dominica Tolentino, to support website content alongside Nathalie Pereda serving as media editor and assist with website management.

In 2011, in an effort to promote and garner community support for the educational website, Guampedia’s Board of Directors brought on the Managing Director. Serving alongside the Managing Editor to build the educational website further through outreach and content development, along with the support of both the media and content editors. The management style and approach adopted was one of collaborative leadership based on consensus building for the wellbeing of the organization and the community it serves. Both executive managers collaborated on organizational matters and initiatives under the guidance of the Board of Directors. Over the course of eight years, this organizational two-set latte support structure, along with public funding and project-based assistance - from the Government of Guam, grant funders, researchers, writers, educators, artisans and cultural producers respectively, collectively achieved significant milestones with content development, audience reach and community support and engagement. Although Guampedia’s full-time Managing Editor retired in 2019 from employment status, as a founding member and project manager of Guampedia since its inception, Shannon Murphy transitioned to Managing Editor emeritus and service provider. With this transition in leadership, the Managing Director consults with and engages regularly with the President of the Board of Directors. In addition, management retained service provider, Marie Perez, as fiscal officer for the organization. This management framework provides the administrative support and internal check and balance system to replace the co-management system that was in place since 2011.