Re: Delinquent quarterly reports

["Greg Lindahl" <lindahl@pbm.com>]

Poster: "Greg Lindahl" <lindahl@pbm.com>

>    *Desirable* is not the same thing as *necessary*.  If a group's
> "Warm Body Persuivant" isn't providing the Heraldic services the
> group needs (whether or not he files a quarterly report saying 
> "I didn't do anything again..."), work *with* the group to find
> someone who *is* interested in the job -- don't kill the whole
> group!  And if the MoAS is so wrapped up in the Ren. Italian-theme
> evening for the group *and* the early music concert she's playing
> in next week *and* ... that she forgets to file a report on time,
> *don't* just whip out your bureaucratic club and threaten to 
> bludgeon everyone in the vicinity into submission because you didn't
> get your piece of paper!  And so forth...

I've never seen the KMoAS whip out a club because someone was a little
late with a report once.  Perhaps I'm living in a different kingdom,
but when I see a big complaint from a Kingdom officer, it's because a
local officer is many months late with a report, far longer than
"forgetting" because they're busy. And the local group seneschal has
not fixed the problem.

It's relatively simple for a group to find a "Warm Body Persuivant"
who files reports. I know; Isenfir sometimes has active heralds and
sometimes has warm bodies, and both kinds are pretty good about filing
their reports.

It's also simple for the group seneschal to monitor what's going on
and take local action if the reports aren't going in. The Kingdom
officers shouldn't have to ever call long distance when there are
plenty of responsible local people who can solve the problem.

In short, what we aren't seeing here is the failure of a top-down
system, but a large number of local failures which aren't being fixed
by the local people. It's true that filing a report doesn't say that
the local officer is or isn't doing their job.  But without
a report, do you reall expect the Kingdom Herald to call every
group which doesn't send in a report to ask them if they need
help recruiting a new herald? What other inexpensive way can
you suggest of figuring out which local officers are active?

Gregory Blount
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