Training Log Archive: randy

In 2 days OUSA decides if it is going to return to financial sanity. It is astounding that after nearly 8 years of financial recklessness and no (even negative) results in key metrics, that there is still resistance to defunding this failed experiment. In fact, this was astounding after 2 years. I thought it would fail from the beginning, before an individual was named, and told anyone who would listen this. No one gave me even the courtesy of engaging me and my points (mostly centered around lack of accountability, lack of a plan, analysis of the market, and lack of sponsorship opportunity), except one person, Mike Minium. I really respect Mike for taking 4 hours of his time to listen to me on the phone about this, and while I could not convince him, at least he was nice to me. Kudos Mike.

In retrospect, there is a chance it could have worked, had product and marketing ideas submitted by me and others been followed, but no effort was made over the nearly 8 years to try anything, it seems. Even the most basic thing, like change the name "Rogaine" could not be accomplished. In 8 years, and about 100K per annum in expenses, you can't get something that obvious, and that trivial done. Are you kidding me? And, it still remains the case that is a bad, non search engine friendly way to market that product to the desired demographic. The evidence that it could have worked was the apparent success of Meridian Geographics, which incorporates many of the marketing and product ideas that were suggested. Eric Bone is a success oriented guy, and you need that in executive roles to make the changes necessary for success.

The other thing that doomed it to failure was lack of accountability at the board level. There was never a plan for success here. Yes, a "5 year plan" document was written, but it was only that it name. What the document actually was was a "5 year goals" or "wishlist" document; simply a list of outcomes that was desired (e.g. increase starts by 10%), but no process or plan to achieve the outcomes, as if a fairy godmother was gonna increase starts by 10% if it was written down One would think the board would require the chief executive to articulate an actual plan to achieve these goals, or have a selfie of the fairy godmother on hand.

It was only at my insistence that quotas be put on all the goals in this document, to access if they were actually achieved or not. They were not, for the most part, as pointed out in a report (I believe authored by Mary Jones), and the board played on. No accountability at all. If this happened at a publicly traded company, that board would have been gone in 2 years. And, you try to be that activist, and you are put in your place. Two bad, and in the real world, you can just sell failures short and make a buck, and force a look then when your stock is getting pounded. Nothing you could do here, accept pound away and hope a new board finally comes along.

To me, it seemed like a vanity project, like my neighbor's Benz. It doesn't do much more than my Corolla, but it is cooler to look at, and the chiquitas are always gonna ooh and ah over the Benz. Looky looky, we have an ED, aren't we the coolest org on the block? The reason I say this is that there never seemed to be an effort to reach out to the market outside of the incumbent community. Simple things like a mobile and SEO friendly web site. Marketing on trail running, extreme sport, letterboxing, and geocaching web sites. These things are so bloody obvious even a bumpkin like me can think of them, and suggested them. I've had people in the letterboxing world ask me about orienteering, and get them pointed to the right place. I think I did more marketing for the federation than they did over that period. And the evidence for it being a vanity project comes from the fact that no one cared about doing these things, and the lack of success. People who buy Benzes around here drive the same roads and at the same speed as my Corolla, not 200 MPH on the Autobahn. If you are going to buy something overly expensive, you need to use the extra features you are paying for, otherwise it is simple waste and vanity. The features this expense was supposed to come with were never used, hence my opinion that it was simple vanity.

So, I did my best to save these people money and eventual illiquidity by my projections, and cut thru the BS while trying. In any case, with either path chosen, there is no need for me to stay around here anymore. Like sammy, I will fade to black (I wonder who sammy was; I wish Ken would disclose the IP at least, but he or she is entitled to their privacy).

So, on my way out, I was thinking of doing a feature. On my Facebook, I have a "song of the day" feature, which I think is fun (don't know or care if anyone reads it; I just love sharing my love of rock music, and if turns something on to something, cool) -- here I could do "O volunteer story of the day" feature. I have about 10 of them, I think, all negative, but really all unbelievable that people could be this way (one thing about being an aspie is that you tend to have an incredible memory, so somehow most episodes in life and their details just stick to me).

So, my overarching goal is to minimize overall suffering in the world, sort of from a "life cycle analysis" perspective, as economists might put it. So, the second best outcome would be offloading negative stories here that have made me angry towards O, and then no one read them. I reduce my suffering, and it is not absorbed by anyone (and while I personally believe the server has rudimentary consciousness, I do not believe it would suffer). Best outcome would be the above, but people laugh at them, or learn from them. Worst would be the negativity would spread. I dunno if I'll do it or not. If I can put a funny spin on them, maybe, but aspies are also known for dysfunctional senses of humor.

I will make an overall comment about volunteering, as I now volunteer for the Chester County Food Bank (haven't in a while due to time issues), so I can compare the experiences. They are just nice to you at the CCFB. They are generally grateful when you show up, they thank you, they follow up, without fail, with a thank you e-mail, and they have a party at the end of the year at a local craft brewery for volunteers. You have to pay for it, but it is still bonding and appreciation. These things are small beans in the grand scheme of things, but everyone feels equal and not taken for granted. When you make a mistake, they correct you politely, not yell at you.

O volunteering, there is the clique and the not clique. If you are in the clique, you volunteer cuz its fun. Its not actually volunteering, it is socializing. The motivation is prestige and social, not reducing the suffering of hungry people like at the CCFB. Yet, it is spun as virtuous to try to get you to do it, even if not in the clique.

When not in the clique, they want you to do it anyway; the sanctimonious chorus of "you should want to volunteer for orienteering" never stops. And I didn't mind doing it for a while; I know it has to get done for the sport to exist, but, ya know, they could show a bit more appreciation. A thank you e-mail once in a while, the party thing, whatever. Volunteers get beer (and don't think insurance or parks won't allow it; there is beer at almost every trail race I've done, and runners and volunteers are drinking it, and if not, take 'em out to a bar afterwards and jack race fees to handle it -- they've been jacked for stupider reasons). Volunteers are taken for granted and yelled at when not in the clique, usually by someone in the clique, and it got to be a miserable experience.

Why not give every volunteer free race vouchers? Its not about the money, its about the appreciation. In all the times I've volunteered, all the races I've run, I was offered a free race once. Maybe they are doing that now, I dunno. You would think after 8 years, they could have at least thought of that, but who knows?

Ya know, I would always try to thank volunteers and the MD when at races. I didn't always, but I tried, and did most of the time. This is common in the trail running community, and volunteer morale is high. If everyone tried to do this -- start at one volunteer, one race, even to the ones not in the clique, I think it would be a good thing.

But no, "you should want to volunteer for orienteering". Why? Its a bunch of mostly affluent people. They don't need my charity. They can afford race fees to staff races with paid staff if they are gonna treat volunteers like dirt. On top that, they say and this is almost a quote; I don't have a Rainman memory -- "Your time isn't enough, you need to donate money as well". Gee, that shows major appreciation for my time, doesn't it. And they say, "we know who can afford it" [almost quote]. Really? How? Hacking bank accounts? Just a miserable way to treat volunteers. Club had 80K in the bank at the time; ask them. My meager financial donations went to disaster relief (people suffering), not rich people running thru the woods. And BTW, when saving for your son's college, you can't afford anything. So many childless people in O telling me what I can afford and thinking my life with child is like theirs. They just need to get a grip on their sanctimonious attitude on volunteering. Volunteer at the CCFB, then do it that way.

So, they do have awards, but they are stupid. I even won one, after I begged for a stipend and got that instead (I'll write about it if I do my feature). They are stupid cuz they are singling out special volunteers, as if they are more important, or did more. They probably did do more. They are also probably well-connected in the clique. They also simply had more time or love the sport more. That is not award worthy. I guess the thinking is that having these awards will incentivize more people to want them, and thus put in more effort. Bad idea; it doesn't work. All it creates is a sense of "so, my work meant nothing". You are only recognizing 3% of the volunteers? How stupid is that? You win a race, you get a trophy. I don't believe all the kids on the last place soccer team should get a trophy, as is common now, but _all_ volunteers are special, and they should _all_ get trophies (and I mean that figuratively; no one wants an actual trophy or plaque. What are they gonna do with it?).

And just as a follow on, in one particularity egregious case of this, they give one of these awards to someone who has physically assaulted another human being over orienteering, routinely yells at other meetstaff, throws the F bomb around in a bad way, and so forth. Good grief. Who wants to volunteer in that milieu.

Well, that be alot of cruft. Will the server take it? Yes, it is offloading badness, but the illustrations are constructive maybe in creating a better environment. Maybe it has happened. Just sharing my frustration for something I used to enjoy.

Well, no spell or grammar or typo check, no reread or edit. FWIW, good luck to OUSA. I'll think about the individual stories if I want to do them or not.