[Killietalk] RE: Killietalk Digest, Vol 15, Issue 63 -- Service, Secrecy and t he BOT

["Koran, David HQ02" <David_Koran at HQ02.USACE.ARMY.MIL>]

Service, Secrecy and the BOT

The basis of many of the idiotic comments on this list comes from possibly
the fact of some individuals having way too much time on their hands
expecting that others do also.  One must remember this is a volunteer
organization and I am pretty sure no one has become rich as a result of it.
Whether volunteering for a committee or to run for an elected office you are
committing your time for the good of the AKA.  This isn't a business and we
don't have a staff of hundreds or dozens.  Again since almost all of us are
not independently wealthy, we need to devote time and effort to our jobs,
families and our own health and well-being.  After that I would think that
we would like to spend a little time working on our fish which I think is
why we all got involved in the first place.  I have only known of one
individual who joined organizations because he was more interested in the
running of them than in his genuine interest in what the organization was
about.  Start subtracting from 168 all the hours that have legitimate
requirements and see how much time is left to do something above and beyond
the everyday.  Needing a "bonded" individual to tally the results now means
not just checking who votes were for and noting whether or not the vote was
valid but now tracking trends and setting up a spreadsheet to determine
where votes came from.  While it is nice to know, at what level is the
"secret ballot" concept violated, regional collation, state-by-state.  You
are asking that person to commit to another few hours to produce information
maybe only you want.

It always hacked me off when I received may be a two or three paragraph
response on a round of a BOT letter.  Even more discouraging was noting that
the individual didn't appear to read what was sent to him/her when making
their comments.  We have had BOT members think that this was some secret
society within the AKA where they would be privy to extensive list of new
and rare fish.  Often, and thankfully, many see the amount of work and
diligence required and resign.  You don't do things on the BOT when you feel
like it or even if you feel like it.  There are schedules to meet.."it's
hard work!!!!"  However, in order for the BOT's commitment to meet much of
the expectation we would need to go to the 8 or 9 day week.  Last year I
asked each candidate if they would respond to a few questions so members
might get to know a little more about where they stood on potential AKA
issues and have this information posted on the members only section of the
AKA website.  It was an all or nothing deal, only one person not agreeing to
participate would kill the whole deal.  You would have thought I was John
Ashcroft finding some new deviously level of application of the patriot act
with the response--it went from tepid to not over my dead body -- obviously
I was way too optimistic.  (BTW, have noticed how we have gone from "the dog
ate my homework" to "my computer crashed" as the universal excuse why
something didn't get done).  For a brief period of time my answering machine
had the following message:  You have reach xxx-xxx-xxxx, this better be damn
important so talk.....  Please consider that when you comment.

Dave

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