Re: Damaged books (fwd)

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Sun, 2 Nov 2003, Karen Randall wrote:

> Cheryl wrote:
> 
> > 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.

Diana has, as Karen says, always been unhappy with the lack of 
communication to the other folks doing work but not on the board.  Two 
years ago, she sent similar "bad hair day" letters to people who wondered 
what had happened to their subscriptions... the people weren't even 
disgruntled, just wanted to know "what's up".  And she sent, if I recall, 
somewhat nasty implications that she didn't know what was up with the AGA.

I have always made it my personal task to make sure she's taken care of,
especially in the last year with the whole online sales (which added a LOT
to her job).  She has been mildly difficult at times, for instance...
asking me to change the site to reflect in multiple places that foreign
shipping is extra, then later asking me to consolidate all the wording,
then still later asking me to fix it so people could see it better (adding
it back in multiple places, so now it looks like the way we started!).  
But in other areas, she's been just plain worried that she's imposing too
much on me, such as my having to process the PayPal refunds (which I
actually am happy to do).  I beleive she *should* have her needs met.  
Now maybe this means just saying "send the angry customers to us."


> 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>)

Dave never made it to the management committee, did he?  He bailed on the 
bookstore before I set it up.

> 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.

Yeah, and the damage there has been pretty bad.  I had an e-mail exchange
with Valerie Grove a month ago when I has posted something on one of the 
DFWAPC lists, and it ended with something along the lines of "thanks for 
telling me what happened... I had only heard the other side of the story."  
She also indicated she thought that every decision that they had made was 
approved by the board.

I do not want this to happen with Diana.  I cannot afford mentally to fire
another person, and I don't WANT to fire Diana... she's a great worker,
she's been great, and this is a minor occurance.  You realize, she's the
only one not on the board doing work (except Kathy), right?  I will write
to Diana and the irate customer, if that's OK with you guys.

  - Erik

PS: Friday night for the meeting MIGHT work, if we limit it in time.  I
can see NO other possible time to meet, except maybe on Sunday during or
before the auction.

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com


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