Dec
4
Written by:
Southern Trails
4/12/2010 8:49 AM
There’s that story of four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was a job to be done and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.
It ended up with Everybody blaming Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done
I see a worrying trend developing in the Club. It became very evident earlier this year when the new committee was elected. Well, elected is probably the wrong word – there weren’t enough nominations for positions to be contested. In fact there weren’t enough nominations to fill the positions. There were no nominations at all for a number of key positions, positions without which the Club really couldn’t function fully. Vice President, Secretary, Publicity Officer. No-one had put their hand up. One of the General nominees agreed to accept the Vice Presidency, which sort of worked because it left the right number of General nominations. Assurances given to the Publications nominee were not forthcoming and he (and his spouse, a General member) resigned from the committee within a couple of days. So, within a week of the “election” we had an “elected unopposed” partial committee, with vacancies in the Secretary, Publications, Public Relations and General member positions. Everybody expected that Somebody would keep the Club running, but in fact Nobody came forward to do what Anybody could have done.
Some time later a new Club member was co-opted to the Secretary position.
Nobody has been very busy. With the year now largely gone, Nobody is still responsible for the Publicity Officer position, vital in maintaining and enhancing our public image and attracting membership and sponsorship.
Nobody also looks after Publications. Publications has responsibility for both Southern Trails and the website, a good concept, but far too big a job for one person to handle. The old website had virtually died due to lack of maintenance and ownership. (Nobody was looking after it!) Thanks to a great deal of work by Richard Brand and others that website has now been replaced by one offering improved flexibility and functionality (and importantly, one that works)! Hopefully it will not go the way of its predecessor. One of my worries with the website is that it can appear so powerful that it doesn’t need input, even from Anybody, so Everybody will assume that Somebody will do it and it will finish up being not done by Nobody.
As for Southern Trails, it was pretty obvious that Nobody couldn’t handle it, so three of us (Michael Patrick, Peter Henderson and I) have stepped in to assist Nobody. We’ve all published Southern Trails previously, so we undertook to see that it was published until Nobody could be replaced with a competent full time owner. Proposals have been aired to rely less on Southern Trails, more on the website; perhaps discontinue Southern Trails, or only publish it alternate months. While the website has its place, it’s role is different from that of Southern Trails and I’d be very disappointed to see Southern Trails abandoned in this fashion. I see Southern Trails as a very important part of what holds the Club together.
I am also concerned that interfacing with the website is taking the place of interfacing with fellow members – one can, for example, now book onto a trip with a few keystrokes without talking to the trip leader. No way would I lead any trip without talking to those who wish to participate and having the opportunity to assess their compatibility with the group, their level of experience and the ability of themselves and their vehicle to meet the challenges likely to be met. We’ve travelled extensively in remote areas and know just how vitally important it is ensure that vehicles are suitable and that companions are compatible and competent. (On one (non-Club) expedition into the Simpson Desert we experienced a situation where one of the drivers had a potentially serious mishap in a big manual 4WD. It then came to light that he had never driven a manual shift vehicle, let alone a serious 4WD. Much better to talk to participants and identify such surprises before going into a remote area!)
I note that in his column this month, Richard explains how some trips MUST be booked via the website, while training MUST NOT be booked there. He also notes that about 100 people are now registered to use the website; that’s only 40% of our members. Maybe I just like things the way they were, but I have little patience with those who expect me to rearrange my life to fit their websites and spreadsheets and databases! (I’ve done the training, been on serious Club trips and travelled extensively. I’m not listed as having done Basic Training though – so I guess the website would knock me back if I tried to book onto a trip anyway!)
Last month, for the first time in my experience, there were no trip reports in Southern Trails though there had been trips. We can’t fill the committee. Important functions like Publicity, which projects our image in the wider world and informs and encourages potential members and sponsors are being neglected. Publications, which helps to tie the Club together, is being neglected. I see trips being proposed without a trip leader. I see important matters such as health and safety obligations not being adequately addressed.
The Club seems to be losing its momentum. It is losing, no, has lost, some of the warmth and companionship that attracted people in the past. I hear of long standing and active members deciding not to renew their membership. Indeed we’ve given serious consideration to this ourselves.
Reminds me of another of those trite little sayings.
There are those who make things happen.
There are those who watch them happen.
And there are those who wonder what happened.
Seems to me that there’s a general shift from making things happen to watching them happen. It’s a small step from there to simply wondering what happened. Hopefully there aren’t any in that last category, …..yet!
There’s a new committee to be elected early next year. Let’s see some new faces, fresh ideas, a complete committee that covers all the bases and can take us out of the doldrums. Or am I just dreaming….?
I’d especially like to talk to anyone who’d like to take up Southern Trails. It is thoroughly worthwhile, a pleasant creative activity and deserves coherent ownership. The present editors would be pleased to assist you in coming up to speed.
7 comment(s) so far...
Trip booking requests
While I agree with a lot in John's article, I must correct a couple of misunderstandings on the use of the website for trip booking requests.
You can still make a request by phoning or emailing the trip leader as has always been the case - see CLUB > How to ... Actually it is easier because there are live links.
The only thing you 'must' use the website for is to get automatic email notification of new trips - if you want to wait for the magazine that's fine, but you may miss out on short-notice trips. Don't rely on Somebody circulating an email when there is an automated alternative!
Trip Leaders are finding it much easier to use the website to keep in contact with their participants. For example phone numbers are displayed - something trip leaders had to keep track of manually before.
Trip Leaders can also get a quick look at the experience of members wanting to join the trip. Previously they were supposed to phone the Membership Secretary to get current financial status AND phone the Education Coordinator to get their training experience. These now display automatically against each booking request. You can also see a history of trips already undertaken (provided participation has been recorded).
The website makes no decisions whatsoever on whether to accept booking requests - this is up to the Trip Leader.
Finally, training requests MUST be made by phone because that is the way the Education Coordinator likes to work. The downside is that we are not recording training participation as a by-product of the web booking process - Somebody has to make a special effort to do that. The training report in this magazine has no list of participants - something readily available for trips - and magazine articles have historically been our primary source for training achievements. Nobody thinks our training records are adequate - so Everybody has been invited to submit corrections - but Nobody will bulk update the website until the majority of the training records have been sorted out.
Overall it is a bit like banking really. In the old days you had to get yourself to a Bank between 10 and 4 on weekdays and you could chat to the tellers when you got to the top of the queue. Then ATM's appeared in shopping malls and outside Banks, and worked 24 hours a day. You had more choice on how you did banking. Then telephone banking came in, followed by Internet banking, and you could choose to transact from home or the office. I am reliably told you can still visit tellers in the bigger localities around Australia, but haven't you got better things to do with your time?
From Richard Brand on
5/12/2010 3:28 PM
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Committee Elections
It is very rare indeed for this Club to actually have an election for any committee position - I can only remember one or two. In part this is because of our weird nomination process, where a single nomination made for a position 10 days before the Annual General Meeting is automatically appointed unopposed. That is right - the Committee can be totally 'stacked'. In my opinion, it would be sounder to allow additional nominations from the floor to give the membership an opportunity to reject unpopular nominations.
As things stand though, I believe it is up to the incoming President in particular to ensure there are quality nominations for every committee position well before the 10 days deadline, and these nominations should be widely circulated so the membership is able to intervene with alternate nominations.
The worst possible outcome is to have no nominations at the 10-day cutoff, followed by unsuitable or no nominations from the floor. Several years ago, as Immediate Past President, I also took on the Events and Trips role because Nobody nominated.
So Everybody has been warned, and Anybody can do something about it.
From Richard Brand on
5/12/2010 3:59 PM
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Momentum
The committee might be down a cylinder or two, but the club is powering on. Our membership is steadily rising and our retention rate from year to year is probably higher than it has ever been (and now we have recent records to prove it). Anybody who wants to contribute, can. Nobody should leave feeling disgruntled!
From Richard Brand on
5/12/2010 4:14 PM
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Coordination Roles
John rightly points out that Southern Trails and the website are too big for one person to handle.
Many of our Committee positions have the name Coordinator in the title: Publications; Education; Events and Trips; Property; and Public Relations. The expectation set out in our Constitution and By-Laws is that these committee position will LEAD TEAMS to perform the function.
Everybody knows the phenomenal job our huge and highly organised Education Team does. The Events and Trips team is building a trip calendar around next year's training calendar especially for new members, and bringing on new trip leaders to run some of those events. Since we bought Talooge Park, Property has had several coordinating teams in operation.
This year, Publications has run as a virtual team though without a leader attending committee meetings, which could explain an apparent information-disconnect.
I personally think there should be a new Infomation Coordinator role, responsible for providing a systematic information framework to underpin the club's operations. No substantial business would dream of running these days without a Chief Information Officer or similar position. With the new website, and for the first time, we have the possibility of bringing together all the disparate 'single user' systems into a coherent 'single source of the truth' available to all members.
Think about it. Trips on the web needs membership on the web to underpin participant lists. Participant lists feed into trip reports for the magazine. Magazine reports contain up-to-date information on membership such as current vehicles which feeds back to membership. Training on the web would inform trip leaders decision making. A by-product would be a single electronic repository for the Club's records.
This picture is why I volunteered to be part of last year's Publications team which, after year's of stagnation with broken brochure-ware websites, brought in this latest-generation website. John is right though - this site will fail if Nobody provides input so it has been designed so Everybody can contribute and benefit. Please start by adding your comments!
From Richard Brand on
6/12/2010 6:14 AM
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Training Summary on the Web
The website did know John had done OziExplorer training (because a magazine article listed it) but there has been no similar record of John's Basic training as far as I know. Jim Raleigh is researching our old records.
To make it easier for members to see other’s training achievements, a single web field summarises all their driver training. I do not expect to systematically update this field until Jim has completed his research but happy to change it for individuals, especially if some supporting evidence is available.
From Richard Brand on
6/12/2010 6:29 AM
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Re: Editor's Rant - December 2010 - Training Records
The 'Official' record ot Training completed is currently contained in the Membership Database. The data that was contained therin at the time was 'dumped' into the new website during its development earlier this year. At the time it was known to contain many errors and omissions brought about by the fact that no such records were maintained before 1999 and even after that the records were minimal and even the capture of current records was not rigourously pursued. Despite this this it was the best available for the webmaster to use.
The new Membership Database is designed to overcome some of these problems. On completion of a course, the Training Coordinator informs the Membership Sectretary of the list of qualifiers and the details are immediately entered into the Membership Database. The data base functionality is then used to print certificates for presentation at the next meeting and to send an email to the Webmaster containing the details. This system has been working well for most of 2010 and should continue to make sure that our records are better kept.
To rectify errors and omissions in older records is more of a challenge. While extensive research through archived Southern Trails has revelealed a very large amount of relevant information, it is limited by two factors: not all training courses were the subject of a 'Trip Report' in Southern Trails; and many reports that did appear, unfortunately did not include a list of participants.
To further close the gaps, the pre-filled Renewal Forms for 2011 included details of what is currently recorded for all members along with the invitation to advise any errors or omissions to assist in improving the records. This has so far resulted in MANY up dates and I confidently expect that such updates will continue as we follow through the renewal process.
To asisst in this regard, the more specific the information you can provide the better. We do have what we believe to be a reasonably complete listing of the dates that courses were conducted, including whether there was a report in Southern trails and who wrote it, so we can assist in refining 'late 2003' down to a choice of a few specific dates to aid the memory. We have been able to track down a lot of details just from memory, of others who participated on the same course - we may already have a record for them, or you may be able to help close a gap in someone else's records. We can also identify others who may have been on the same course from photographs, which thanks to digital photography usually include a date, and we have even been able to identify participants from number plate recognition in photographs, provided they still have the same vehicle.
The bottom line here is that a lot of effort has been expended and will continue to be expended on rectifying the deficiencies in our training records. To complete the remainder we unfortunaltely need to have some input from YOU.
From Jim Raleigh on
6/12/2010 7:28 AM
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Training records
Thanks Jim for the huge effort you are putting in to get our records as straight as possible! A great example of Somebody doing it. When you are confident there is little more that can be added, I expect to be able to bulk update past training courses on the website with participants. Consolidating this into a single field for each member so that it can be easily looked-up is a little more challenging, but I'm sure Somebody will do it.
Just a reminder if you are trying to remember what training you did - all events including training for the past 15 years are on the website under TRIPS > Trip List.
From Richard Brand on
6/12/2010 9:50 AM
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