Re: MCM - Digest V1 #345

[Karen Randall <krandall@WORLD.STD.COM>]

At 03:12 AM 7/12/2000 -0700, Erik wrote:

>Could be, but it didn't seem that way when he talked or e-mailed about it.
>It seemed very clear that he didn't care under what conditions or
>agreements the announcement was printed; what was important was that the
>AGA was getting free plugs on his dime.  I beleive that he is reminded of
>the agreement, and explained that plugs are a good thing, then he could be
>talked down off this ledge.
>
>Karen told me she was going to talk to him if/when he called last weekend.  
>Karen, any luck?

Yes.  I had a LONG talk with Dave yesterday.  I was pleasant but firm, and
didn't pull any punches.  He did back down off his ledge, and even took my
criticism that he needed to improve his communication skills.<g>  In fact,
he told me that Diana had told him he needs to go to "Tone School"... (it's
not what you say, it's how you say it<g>)

To make a long story short, not all the miscommunication was on Dave's
side.  When Dave first made the agreement with Bob, the announcement had
not been made that TAG was dropping from 6 issues to 4 issues a year, so
"One year of TAG for one year of PAM didn't mean the same thing to both of
them.  I'm not sure he was aware at _this_ point that we'd dropped TAG back
to 4 times a year, but I made sure he knows now.

I told Dave that the Chattanooga piece was a press release that _he_
requested, and in no way constituted an ad.  He backed down immediately.
The showcase thing didn't get into PAM 2 for the same reason the PAM ad
didn't get into the last TAG.  A simple error.  It is my feeling that PAM 3
will be too close to the deadline for us to even bother beating on that
horse, so I told him to not even bother with it for PAM 3.  That took that
issue off the table.

I apologized for the misunderstanding and the ad being dropped from TAG,
but told him that these things happen, and that he _would_ get his 4 ads.
He agreed to that willingly.  We left it that our current agreement would
stand as 4 TAG ads for 4 PAM ads.  We would both _try_ to run the ads in
each issue, but would be understanding of mix-ups as long as in the end,
each group got their 4 ads.

I told him that _nothing_ but these 4 "standard" ads were part of this
arrangement, and that _any_ changes to that arrangement had to be approved
by the SC.  Any other promotional announcements of AGA events, etc, were
simply that, informing his readers of happenings in the hobby.

I said that at the end of this period, we could all look at where we stood,
and decide if we wanted to proceed forward on the same terms, and he agreed
to this as well.

We also had some philosophical discussion about "the hobby", and PAM's and
AGA's position both in the hobby and with each other.  He was _very_ clear
that he agreed with me that we should _all_ work together, and maintain
good relations not only for the sake of AGA and PAM, but MORE IMPORTANTLY
for the sake of the hobby.  

He also made the comment that he almost always will back down if someone
really strongly really objects to something he says.  I think that's
probably true.  When I think about it, he has caused us to get all up in
arms a number of times and he has pressured us to do things we weren't
comfortable with.  But when push has come to shove, when we have put our
collective feet down, he _does_ back right down, and in fairly good grace.
And he has not held _any_ of these disagreements against us.  We seem to
spend much more time worrying about what he "might" do to harm AGA than
dealing with anything he's actually done.

I don't think Dave could tick people off more easily if he tried.  He seems
to have a real talent for it.  But I think that for better or worse, he's a
part of the hobby too, and it is _our_ responsibility to learn how best to
manage him for the sake of the hobby.  Besides which, as annoying as he can
be, (and I was pretty peeved this time too) I _still_ like him.  I also
agree with Neil in that I believe him when he says he _does_ want the best
for AGA and the hobby as well as PAM.  He's just not always very good at
figuring out how to do it.  We, I'm afraid, are going to have to help this
bull steer a clear course through the china shop, whether we like it or not.

Karen