Re: Pending Projects, Guild Resources

At 09:34 a.m. 01/14/98 -0600, Matthew Wickline wrote:
>Frederick J. Barnett wrote:
>> I think that once the election is over, the GB should 
>> resolve to get these programs up and running within 3 
>> months. Considering how long these have been promised, 
>> that's not too short a time frame, but does still give us 
>> ample time to work them out.

>In addition to "resolving" to get services out in three months, what
>more concrete steps do you (any of the candidates) think the GB could
>lead the Guild in taking to make more efficient use of our available
>resources, or to increase those resources?

Thanks for this comment, Matt, and I think it's one that all
prospective and future GBers should be aware of -- simply
_resolving_ to get these programs up and running will do
nothing more than what's already been done.

The Governing Board has _already_ resolved that our programs
should be up and running; you won't fine a single one of us
on the Board who doesn't have a burning, passionate desire to
see our "promised programs" operational.

However, the Board can't just snap our fingers and have it
done; apart from members of the GB personally doing all the
work on a particular project -- which is _not_ the function
of the Board, and _not_ something that the GB should be
doing -- there's no way that ANY amount of GB resolve or
willpower alone will produce services.

Believe me, I've tried -- I personally have been resolved
to seeing these services delivered for months and months; if
my personal desires and drive were enough to get it done,
you'd have them all now.  But they depend on volunteer 
power, on people's schedules working on, on technical
matters, and a whole bunch of other things that are beyond
GB control.

I'm pointing this out because, frankly, it's easy to toss
around "campaign rhetoric" such as "I promise I will see that
all promises are fulfilled" or "I will instill a sense of
professionalism in the Guild", but the reality of the situation
needs to be addressed, and people should not be elected
merely on the strengths of claims they can't deliver.

No one GB member _can_ promise you the promised services; in
fact, if someone is _that_ serious about seeing those services
appear, you should ask yourself:  "Why hasn't _this_ person
volunteered to run/manage one of the lagging programs?"  You
can do _more_ to get services running as a volunteer/manager,
than as a Board member.

Food for thought.

(Fred is exempt from the above "food" -- as a manager of another
project, he's always done a good job with the logo program.)

--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn(at)hwg.org>
President, HTML Writers Guild
http://www.hwg.org/

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