Jeremy, I think your response was very thoughtful and diplomatic and I agree
with what you are saying. Are suggestions unwelcome if the one making the
suggestion is unable to do the "90%" of the work required to implement the
idea? If so, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. In this day and
age, people get paid big money for using their head . That is as it should
be. The unfortunate part of this equation is that those who volunteer to
run these events do not get paid. That does not make the ideas any less
valuable.
I don't feel that people resenting those who do not do "as much work" as
they do is a reason for people with good ideas and no means (ie., time) to
implement them to be summarily dismissed and chastised for being forward
thinking enough to suggest them.
Sorry for my long winded and unsolicited opinion...oh, not really ;~)
Debbie*who supposes she will be appropriately chastised for expressing her
opinion"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy Bergsman" <jeremybb@leland.Stanford.EDU>
To: <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2000 6:35 PM
Subject: Re: Three Runs
> "Grantz, Sherry" wrote:
>
> > Great ideas, Jeremy. You're hired. We (the 10% who do 90% of the work)
will
> > expect you to be at Oakland Coliseum next Sunday at 8 a.m ready to
conduct
> > the orientation and number the flag stations and maintain this log
> > throughout the day.
> >
> > Oh, you thought the 10% were going to volunteer to take this on, too?
Nope,
> > we're already busy doing the 90%.
>
> I am in the 10% in most of my endeavors (e.g.
> http://www.stanford.edu/~jeremybb/beerstuff/wow.html) and I always resent
> the 90%, so I endeavor not to be one of the slackers (and I will admit
here
> in public that I missed the first few minutes of my work assignment on
> Saturday). I hope my comments are being interpreted as attempts to be
> helpful and not grumbling. Of course typing in suggestions is not as much
> work as implementing them, but I don't see making constructive suggestions
> as a negative. Even if I never become one of the 10% I don't see how that
> reflects on the merit of the ideas. I prefaced the suggestions with the
> acknowledgment that they may not be good so why don't we concentrate on
> whether they are good or not instead of whether *I* will implement them.
If
> you think they are simply too much work why not say that and omit the ad
> hominem?
>
> > Since I don't seem to remember you being an event chair this year (or to
> > have volunteered for any upcoming events) and you want to contribute to
SFR
> > autocross, I don't see how you can refuse to accept our offer.
>
> Was it an offer? Well, if people think it's a good idea to run an
> orientation in the mornings (not my suggestion) I volunteer to do it when
> I'm running in the morning groups. I will also be willing to do it at
> another time, as I suggested. As for being an event chair you can be sure
> I'll be volunteering for that too at some point, but as a newbie myself it
> seems counterproductive for me to be an event chair since that will result
> in a much more delayed event than we experienced on Saturday. What I have
> been doing is volunteering for different work duties in an attempt to
learn
> them all so that I can be available to pick up slack where needed.
>
> > In fact, if a whole bunch more of you people who show up, run, work, go
> > home, and then helpfully type up all sorts of ways to improve events,
would
> > start putting in more time working at events we could probably run 275
> > cars/4 runs each and finish by 6 pm (which BTW is when we have to be out
of
> > the Coliseum lot).
>
> If members of the 10% could suggest ways outside of the work assignment to
> help out I (and I imagine others) would be happy to do so. As I've posted
> here in the past it is tough to know what to do/how to help out when you
are
> new. In fact that's the point of my orientation suggestion. A few events
> back I worked set up. When I offered to work the course in addition to
set
> up I was dismissed brusquely by the event chair. I'm still willing to
work
> extra but such experiences reduce the incentive for discovering the best
way
> to do so.
>
> I apologize in advance if I'm reading your tone wrong, but it seems as if
> you resent doing 90% of the work. If this is the case can *you* make a
> suggestion for how to change that? The only suggestion I can extract from
> your email is to volunteer to be an event chair. I don't imagine quashing
> well meaning suggestions is one of the best ways to lighten your work
load.
> --
> Jeremy Bergsman
> jeremybb@stanford.edu
> http://www.stanford.edu/~jeremybb
|