Re: Damaged books (fwd)

["Karen Randall" <krandall@rdrcpa.biz>]

Cheryl wrote:

> Is the BOD going to have a meeting at the convention? If so, will
> Diana be invited?

Typically, BOD/management meetings at conventions have been open to all
interested parties.  The whole idea has been to encourage participation and
hear new ideas.  So of course Diana will be welcome.

> Perhaps she should be, to air any concerns/problems and have them
> addressed, and to make her feel included and validated. The tone of
> her e-mail suggests that she is feeling put-upon by the AGA as well as
> by Greg.

Unfortunately, I am sure she is, yet again, slightly disgruntled with the
AGA, because again, we have added new people (you and Scott) to the BOD, and
not her.  The problem is, and always has been, Diana's propensity for just
this type of abrasive behavior.  She is a _REALLY_ reliable contributor to
the AGA, a solid aquarist and a very nice person.  But it was largely
because of so many lengthy and unpleasant go-rounds on the old AGA
"management committee" list that discussions on that list, and even that
model of management has been largely abandoned.  We have two people who fit
in this category... people who I think we all feel have some wonderful
qualities, but at the same time make it so difficult and unpleasant to be
part of AGA management that we felt that including them officially would
drive other good people away.  The other person is Dave Gomberg. To Diana's
credit, she has ALWAYS continued to be a contributing member of AGA, unlike
Dave, who for all intents and purposes, took his ball and went home. (Yet
another AGA history lesson<g>)

> I think she should be encouraged to make a list of problems
> or issues, no matter how small, and bring that list to the convention
> where we can work together to solve them. (After all, I have MY list
> going!)

Absolutely!!!! And again, this should go for everyone else too.  I think we
should decide whether we want the WHOLE meeting public, or whether we'd like
to go over the budget stuff privately, in a short pre-meeting.  But the best
way to encourage participation in the every-day running of AGA is to make
members feel that this is THEIR organization.

> I think this "problem" is actually fortuitous, giving us an
> opportunity to listen to Diana and to help her do her job. We don't
> want to lose her. Despite her occasional abrasiveness, it would be
> difficult to find someone who does the job as well as she does.

I agree completely.  But even more important, I think, than just the fact
that it's hard to replace her work-wise, she _is_ a nice person and a
valuable contributor, both to the AGA and the hobby.  I'm still feeling VERY
bad about what happened with Charlene, (I lost a friend as well as an AGA
colleague over that one) even though it was no single person's fault.  I
don't want to see it happen again if we can possibly avoid it.

Karen


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