Hi Bob,
I would agree with you on some of your points but I would have to say you _really_ missed the mark when you said "The issue in an all volunteer organization is not "what" needs to be done, but who will step forward and do it, not the"management and direction" but the actual WORK."
To effectively use precious volunteers you need to provide them with clear goals, objectives/requirements and the "very important realization" that their efforts are meaningful and contribute to the mission goals. Goals, objectives and direction come from "management". Whether you realize that your efforts were meaningful is determined by what the "management" does with your efforts.
Case in point. In 2007, the primary Eagle hardware effort was the building of the 70 CM receiver capable of working in a PavePaws environment. While we often belabor the point of not being able to get volunteers, _it turned out that getting very capable volunteers to sign up for the effort was not that difficult_. The team was assembled and despite lack of guidance/direction on several requirements and process issues, the receiver module was shown at Dayton in its early uncompleted stages. That module sits today unfinished, a year later, as a paper weight.
So what happened? We had a volunteer team in place to do the WORK. That surely wasn't the problem.
Well - I can give you many reasons relating to the 70 CM receiver. Maybe the most glaring one is the fact that the 70 CM receiver design was intended to work in a HEO. It is not the design for use on a LEO or GEO. But after years of promoting Eagle design objectives for a HEO, AMSAT management suddenly changed its "strategy" in late 2007 to pursue a Intelsat GEO "rideshare" opportunity, which today is a strategy very much in question. So any further effort on the 70 CM receiver was put on hold - until management could figure out what to do next,
Hence the "results" of the 70 CM receiver volunteer team effort is very uncertain to this day, two years after the build effort started. Not a good to way to treat the volunteers who were there to do the WORK.
I submit, that with uncertain or changing "management strategies" guiding volunteer efforts, I can see why it could be tough to get motivated volunteers.
Regards...Bill - N6GHz
Robert Bruninga wrote:
Again we see lots and lots of ideas of what "needs to be done"... And most of them are pointed at better "management"... Or better "direction" of what is being done (by others)...
The issue in an all volunteer organization is not "what" needs to be done, but who will step forward and do it, not the "management and direction" but the actual WORK. That requires volunteers with the knowledge, skills, time and energy, and thick skin, Especially under the hail of rocks and stones from the peanut gallery...
Counter productive to getting the work we need done (volunteers we need) is the attitude from the peanut gallery about getting in there and "kicking butt" and "better management"... You do that in an all volunteer organization and soon there is nothing left but managers and butt kickers and complainers.
This happens in every aspect of ham radio all the way down to the local clubs and all the way to the top. You'd think by now that the old-fuds who clamour for more effort (from others) have about 30 years of experience with how this does NOT work in ham radio. Progress is made by self motivated individuals who see a need and jump in to fill it.
It is very simple!
If you can contribute "work" then jump in and do it. Othwerwise "get out of the way" and contribute money, food, encouragement, and assistance to those that do. "Ankle-biting, naysaying, and complaining" accomplish absolutely nothing forward. If you don't like the direction things are going, then jump in and go another way and see if you can find followers (workers, not ditto-heads)... But get out of the way of those that are making progress in their direction... That's the only way progress is made in volunteer organizations...
This is surely what this old-fud has learned in the last 30 years... Bob, WB4APR
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