Log In

Home
    - Create Journal
    - Update
    - Download

LiveJournal
    - News
    - Paid Accounts
    - Contributors

Customize
    - Customize Journal
    - Create Style
    - Edit Style

Find Users
    - Random!
    - By Region
    - By Interest
    - Search

Edit ...
    - Personal Info &
      Settings
    - Your Friends
    - Old Entries
    - Your Pictures
    - Your Password

Developer Area

Need Help?
    - Lost Password?
    - Freq. Asked
      Questions
    - Support Area



Qem ([info]qem_chibati) wrote in [info]unfunny_fandom,
@ 2011-11-13 18:27:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Professional fandom
Apologies for the lack of backstory links, I'm typing this from a phone. I think that's the only comment I've made in what I'm linking other than maybe something about php and ruby.

Otw (organization for transformative works) elections are happening right now, and boy is it wanky.

It was going to be unfunny, as you might imagine when three of the six candidates mention volunteer burn out ( http://facetofcathy.dreamwidth.org/229943.html ) in their candidate statements and one candidate Naomi Novik, founding member says she hasn't noticed.

Well if she hasn't noticed it can't be true right?

http://renay.dreamwidth.org/236955.html

Oh. Oh dear.



Add in that Sanders the candidate of colour has kept her main fandom journal for elections, and has a similar platform to the others, is told that she is too angry and has her friends getting anon comments telling them to tell her to watch her tone.

Then shit blows up when they fuck up the skins for "accessibility" when the new default is grey on grey and lots of red. 

http://branchandroot.dreamwidth.org/1255716.html#comments

Apparently this was rushed to get the archive ready for Yuletide.  Only Yuletide isn't a otw project. 


http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/22095.html?thread=99563087#t99563087


But what really has me gobsmacked is this, 
from: copracat
Let me make sure I have this correctly:

The chair of the board has been told by someone/s to stop working on a strategic plan for the organisation because she doesn't have the authority to do so. 

I'm going to make a cup of tea now. 

-----
general-jinjur (the chair in question)


more accurately, i was told that i was dishonest, conspiratorial, and secretive because:

- i asked for volunteers to help gather info and work on preliminaries in an org-wide meeting (org-wide meetings are attended by a large group of volunteers and staff, including at least one representative from every committee)
- discussed how a strategic plan was on the horizon in at least two other org-wide meetings
- hired a staffer (one who, like all our staff, was unanimously board-approved) specifically to work on stakeholder surveys (beginning of 2011 term) as part of preliminary work (staffer wound up with international outreach, as they were best to start that piece). 

by doing the above, i secretly formed a cabal without ever giving anyone a chance to participate. also, i failed to do all the work (research and write-up of a proposal for the plan for the process) myself rather than involving anyone or doing any delegation.

just to clarify. (perspectives vary, of course. this is my perspective on events. i officially don't care to argue its accuracy anymore; i have just enough energy and time left to tie up loose ends and write up documentation of the stuff i did manage to accomplish (in 2010. i'm a little behind on docs).)


http://copracat.dreamwidth.org/596794.html?thread=2267962#cmt2267962


(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]lady_ganesh
2011-11-14 03:40 pm UTC (link)
It was in my experience, yeah. Though I don't believe you need someone particularly nasty-minded or manipulative to set up one, which is some of what issendai talks about there. I did a little managing and was pretty terrible at it, and some of it was just not having the perspective (or support) to step back and say, 'hey, wait, this isn't working well.' Which was totally on me, but I certainly didn't intend to set things up the way they eventually played out.

Good managers and good systems people are hard to find, especially in a non-profit that's not paying salaries. And with the amount of scrutiny the OTW and AO3 get in fandom, I can understand how people might be afraid to take a step back and take a long hard look at what is and isn't working. I just hope they can do it, because the organization has a lot of assets, still, and I still like having fics on AO3.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]notjo
2011-11-14 05:07 pm UTC (link)
Yes, I've been that terrible manager and it took me a while to realise it, and then I got out in a terrible way that left a lot of people hurting. it's one of my big regrets in my life. I think people don't get that managing is a skill that you have to learn.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]lady_ganesh
2011-11-14 06:21 pm UTC (link)
Exactly.

And I think it's important to say that too because people get emotionally involved in it. You don't have to be a bad person to be a bad manager, especially if there are systemic problems that reinforce your poor choices. I honestly think (and it took me a while to get there) that the manager who stabbed me, hard, in the back thought she was doing me a favor, because clearly someone else would be able to get two full-time employee's jobs done and also do the strategic planning for what my area was. She got caught in the system.

The fact is, for example, that a bunch of skins got rolled out, and they didn't work on mobile devices, and they actually made the experience of some people with vision problems worse, when they were supposed to be 'friendlier' to people with vision problems. And the worst part is that they didn't get rolled out with no testing and little work: they were tested, the designer put hours of commitment into them, and these substantial problems stayed, which just led to heartbreak for everybody.

I mean, I know I'm a Pollyanna about these things, but I'd like to think everyone could agree that having that happen is a serious problem, and probably not one that has a single, easy-to-solve cause.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


(Read comments) -

 
   
Privacy Policy - COPPA
Legal Disclaimer - Site Map