A Rant: Stirring It Up
OK, it may be bad of me but I've just stirred up a hornet's nest in an organization for whom I've done some work lately. The org had a big emergency with their website last July and I stepped in to fix things up. But while I like the President a lot and a few of the people, I don't really care about this org and I find that this particular bunch of groups here in AZ just aren't up to being adult and mature about their clubs. That is really all they are, clubs for enthusiasts. It isn't life or death stuff here, folks.
Anyway, we've had just one problem after another with the site. Technical problems that you need some technical savvy to even understand. The site itself is fairly primitive, nothing whiz-bang about it. No .NET or ASP or Java scripts, no Flash interface or anything beyond basic HTML and some nested tables. So this old biddy who has nothing better to do wants to take it over. Never mind that we finally just got a volunteer to update it and because of technical problems, she hasn't been able to do anything.
So enter said biddy and a bunch of political maneuvering, back-stabbing, etc. ending with her calling me this morning at an ungodly hour to get the password and login info out of me. I hung up on her. (Why bore my lovely readers with the ugly details?) I mean I wasn't not nice. Not until I hung up on her anyway. If you call that rude. It isn't like I slammed the phone down. I just pressed a button and disconnected from her. She couldn't wait for the President to let me know that she was taking over. She was on her way to her group's meeting and wanted to be able to crow about how she had to step in and take over the website, etc., etc.
After I hung up, I couldn't get back to sleep, damn her. So I got up and called the President of this group to let her know, gave her the gist of the information and that I'd been rude, and found out that the Pres had already given the passwords, etc. to this woman! She thinks she is so computer-savvy and she apparently couldn't get in even with the password!
So now I'm laughing. But I'm still kinda pissed at being sleep-deprived over this silliness. Especially since I've given them thousands of dollars worth of my time in web design and site maintenance. So I forewarned the President and my pal in these groups what I was going to do and sent out an email copied to the president of each member group as well as the people most nearly involved. I described the conversation and asked why they couldn't all be mature about this. I actually did name three people by name and ask them why they felt that political maneuvering was called for and why didn't they let the new people get on with building up the organization instead of running it further into the ground. I also proposed that it was ridiculous to even talk about raising the dues to the affiliated groups to $2 per each member of each affiliate since they don't offer any value and since the affiliates could put the money to better use!
I'm half tempted to get up before the crack of Noon and attend my affiliate group's meeting in the morning just to propose that they withdraw from the organization. But only half and only tempted.
You know, in any volunteer group there are phrases that should be verboten. At the top of the list is, "but we've always done it this way!" Wake up and get a clue, people. This is a flippin' club! It isn't life or death. It isn't brain surgery or complex mathematical calculations. For goodness sake, people, get a life!
And NEVER EVER NEVER call me before 10 a.m.! Got that?
Anyway, we've had just one problem after another with the site. Technical problems that you need some technical savvy to even understand. The site itself is fairly primitive, nothing whiz-bang about it. No .NET or ASP or Java scripts, no Flash interface or anything beyond basic HTML and some nested tables. So this old biddy who has nothing better to do wants to take it over. Never mind that we finally just got a volunteer to update it and because of technical problems, she hasn't been able to do anything.
So enter said biddy and a bunch of political maneuvering, back-stabbing, etc. ending with her calling me this morning at an ungodly hour to get the password and login info out of me. I hung up on her. (Why bore my lovely readers with the ugly details?) I mean I wasn't not nice. Not until I hung up on her anyway. If you call that rude. It isn't like I slammed the phone down. I just pressed a button and disconnected from her. She couldn't wait for the President to let me know that she was taking over. She was on her way to her group's meeting and wanted to be able to crow about how she had to step in and take over the website, etc., etc.
After I hung up, I couldn't get back to sleep, damn her. So I got up and called the President of this group to let her know, gave her the gist of the information and that I'd been rude, and found out that the Pres had already given the passwords, etc. to this woman! She thinks she is so computer-savvy and she apparently couldn't get in even with the password!
So now I'm laughing. But I'm still kinda pissed at being sleep-deprived over this silliness. Especially since I've given them thousands of dollars worth of my time in web design and site maintenance. So I forewarned the President and my pal in these groups what I was going to do and sent out an email copied to the president of each member group as well as the people most nearly involved. I described the conversation and asked why they couldn't all be mature about this. I actually did name three people by name and ask them why they felt that political maneuvering was called for and why didn't they let the new people get on with building up the organization instead of running it further into the ground. I also proposed that it was ridiculous to even talk about raising the dues to the affiliated groups to $2 per each member of each affiliate since they don't offer any value and since the affiliates could put the money to better use!
I'm half tempted to get up before the crack of Noon and attend my affiliate group's meeting in the morning just to propose that they withdraw from the organization. But only half and only tempted.
You know, in any volunteer group there are phrases that should be verboten. At the top of the list is, "but we've always done it this way!" Wake up and get a clue, people. This is a flippin' club! It isn't life or death. It isn't brain surgery or complex mathematical calculations. For goodness sake, people, get a life!
And NEVER EVER NEVER call me before 10 a.m.! Got that?
posted by Wabbit at
12:34 PM
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