From: jms@carat.arizona.edu (A virtually vegetal non-entity)
Newsgroups: comp.org.decus
Subject: Re: EXECUTION of DECUS Standards
Date: 16 Dec 92 22:29:00 GMT
 <1992Dec14.151045@mccall.com> <1992Dec15.143628.4673@spcvxb.spc.edu>
Reply-To: jms@Arizona.EDU
Distribution: usa,local
Organization: University of Arizona MIS Department - Mosaic Group
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In article <1992Dec15.143628.4673@spcvxb.spc.edu>, killeen@spcvxb.spc.edu
(Jeff Killeen) drones and then finally concludes...

>BTW - Yes almost all of DECUS's management structure is elected by leadership.
>However the final authority really is in the BOD which is elected by the
>membership i.e. the folks elected by the membership get to overrule the folks
>elected by the leadership.  Does it happen - no not really mainly because the
>1000 or so leaders really aren't that far out of the main stream with the
>10,000 or so active members.  If something flys with the leadership it is most
>likely is reflective of what will fly with the active membership. 

Au contraire, my good MC representative, responsible for supporting my
interests as a LUG member and speaker.  In fact, the highest levels of
DECUS leadership are strongly at odds with the consumers of DECUS products. 

Pay attention and you'll begin to figure it out: the largest product we
have, by far, is the national symposium.  We happened to have one last
week, in Las Vegas.  People go to these symposia for lots of reasons, but a
large part of it is attending sessions, exhibits, campgrounds, and
seminars.  However, the MC and the Board are in almost constant meetings
during and before the symposium week.  These people do not attend DECUS
sessions; visit DEXPO; take seminars; or visit in campgrounds.  They spend
their entire week doing "DECUS business."  In fact, they do so much
business that DECUS pays their expenses to come, because no sane employer
would pay a Board member to go to DECUS and learn nothing.  

Now, you can argue that spending a week in Las Vegas playing backroom
politics is a good experience.  It prepares you for the vigors of real
business, and trains you in the art of backstabbing, compromise, meeting,
and consensus.  However: this is not why the "10,000 or so active" members
come to the event.  In fact, once a DECUS leader becomes an MC or board
member, he or she is guaranteed to be so far out of touch with the rest
of the society that he (sorry Marg, for the gender problem) is guaranteed
to be out of touch.  

There are many leaders, myself included, who would be happy to take a
greater role in DECUS products---if doing so didn't require sitting on MC. 
The MC has so far forgotten what the goal of the society is that they
deliberately interrupt the REAL activities of the week for their own
business.  Witness the way a seminar speaker was pulled out of a
seminar---filled with PAYING ATTENDEES WHO WERE INTERESTED IN WHAT HE HAD
TO SAY---so that the MC could grill him in person.  Or the way a chair was
forced to spend an entire afternoon in MC meetings, fighting backroom,
secret politics---while the sessions he was supposed to give fell to
unprepared pinch-hitters during that time.  Sure, the PAYING ATTENDEES lost
out on an experience, but how could the MC relate to that?

Sure, MC could do all of their meeting after 5PM.  But why bother?  No one
in MC is missing that many sessions, and after 5PM is when all of the
DECUS-funded suites and dinners begin to start.  

Jeff, here's a challenge: "survey" the MC (after all, research is the new
methodology) and get a list of sessions they attended.  Or gave.  Then,
let's see who's out of touch with whom.

Joel M Snyder, 1103 E Spring Street, Tucson, AZ, 85719 
Phone: 602.882.4094 (voice) .4095 (FAX) .4093 (data)
BITNET: jms@Arizona  Internet: jms@arizona.edu  SPAN: 47541::telcom::jms
Yow!  I'm imagining a surfer van filled with soy sauce!