[volunteers] [svlug] Vote of no confidence in the current administration

[Paul Reiber]

On Jan 23, 2008 8:11 AM, Darlene Wallach <freepalestin at dslextreme.com> wrote:
> I concur with Marc, I'd like to call a vote of no confidence.

Ms. Wallach - would you please endeavor to get stuff right when you
say/do it?  The proper term is a vote of confidence, not a vote of "no
confidence".

I'll bet, even in the face of the fact that you're unaware of the
actual name for what you're asking for, and independent of whether you
as a regular, non-volunteer SVLUG member even have the
right/responsibility/authority to even call for SVLUG as an
organization to do or not do _anything_ in particular, ...I'll bet
that you are, and will continue to be, convinced that you do actually
know best or at least better-than-the-others how SVLUG should be run.

The blatant arrogance of your attitude is one of the more compelling
forces contributing to my current level of disdain toward SVLUG's "key
helpers" and "opinion sharers".  Whenever you can't
use/abuse/strong-arm others in a manner which gets things done
whichever way you personally prefer, you complain loudly until someone
else takes over for them, and resumes letting you have things your
way.

That's not being a team player; it's being an arrogant self-important
know-it-all disguised as a helpful volunteer.

Well... put up or shut up, dear!  Go get yourself personally used and
abused for a while, as the President of SVLUG.  By all means, give Ed
C. a run for his money!  Please!  Show us all what you've got!

Alternatively, please accustom yourself to closing your darn mouth and
FOLLOWING the leads of the elected and/or appointed officers,
independent of how/whether they manage to balance your priorities and
recommendations as opposed to those priorities and recommendations of
_other_ SVLUGgers.

Somehow, the climate at SVLUG has allowed you to get the idea into
your head that YOUR opinion actually matters more than any other
SVLUGger's.  [Can you imagine the chaos if 3 or 400 people all
insisted as you do on having their personal opinions heard by the
entire group?!?!?  What a disaster that would be!]

Somehow, you've gotten into your mind the idea that SVLUG's President
should do things however you personally prefer.  Worse still, somehow,
you've gotten into your mind the idea that you are actually a
qualified judge/ analyst/ overseer of the various SVLUG officers and
volunteers.

You seem to feel it's your place to speak, publically, loudly, and
interruptingly, whenever anyone within SVLUG doesn't do things how YOU
prefer they're done.  Witness anyone attempting to speak sans
microphone at the kernel walkthru events;  I've yet to see you hold
your tongue whenever any of these informed, capable individuals
_chooses_ to speak sans microphone. Most often, they can't even finish
their first sentence without the benefit of your interruptive advice
to use a microphone... even though we've specifically appointed
someone else to "Microphone Duty".

Well... going forward, I do hope you enjoy having your opinions heard
within SVLUG, Darlene.  You barged your way back into the SVLUG
volunteer team, by attending our coordination/governance meetings, and
there, voiced your arbitrarily-relevant opinions, shoveling the
one-line "consensus management" approach that Thomas suggested down
all of our throats, since no-one, myself included, had predicted
they'd have to defend against any sort of process-level nonsense.  An
exemplary bit of maneuveriving, yes... but in SVLUGs best interest?
...hardly.

I wish I had thought ahead sufficiently to have a copy of Roberts'
Rules of Order tucked in my pocket that evening.

To wrap up...  Ms. Wallach... May the SVLUG pizza lovers insist you
feed them meat-lovers pizzas...
May the moochers insist you get Google to let them treat it as their
very own checkout-free Safeway...
May the ornery volunteer systems administrators hold their powers over
your head, so as to ensure SVLUG does things their way and not yours,
even though you're its new President of SVLUG...
and may all of your future involvement with SVLUG involve actually
being in charge of things, so you can enjoy for yourself that
extra-special kind of abuse that will undoubtedly rain down upon you
as it has rained down upon past Presidents.

Good day, and good luck.
-Paul