Originally Posted by
porcia83
Here's my sagely thought on the issue. People love to whine and complain and criticize, and second guess too, all from a distance of course. People love to be in similar groups too, you know, birds of a feather. A conspiracy issue gets a good conversation going as well. Throw in some allegations of illegal activities and boom, we're off to the races. Worked out well for the last guy who predicated his candidacy on all of the above didn't it? Haven't heard much after that drubbing in the polls, but again...at least he tried.
As you know, anyone in a leadership role is going to get castigated no matter what they do. The complaint threads were there well before any of the recent MR issues, and they would still be here regardless. It's human nature to complain. They are going to be here well after we're both gone, because...well., we know why right?
But ya, take some time to go back and look at them, starting on page 145 I believe. Lot's and lot's of complaints, virtually NO action. No personal responsibility, no personal involvement, just complaints on a website. If the purpose of the threads are to vent, perfect. If they were to be used to affect change in either direction, well, that's definitely proven to be a complete failure. Lot's of complaints, lots of suggestions about what to do after the fact, lots of discussion about accountability...but virtually no action. One only has to look at the last slate of candidates to see who put their hand up...and even worse, the abysmal voting turn out. Does anyone wonder why the situation they feel is horrible hasn't changed?
And, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The discussion in most of these threads still don't show any specific suggestions about how to make things better, rather the focus is how bad things are. As close as it gets is that the AMA needs to communicate better. Great, fair enough, and yet a non specific rather generic complaint that can be made against any organization. (Gee, come to think of it I believe I was the one who said they could do a better job on communications, as well as their website...but let's move on).
Accountability is a great concept, it seems to be the buzzword now. Great...how is it applied? Specifically. Is the discussion about how to hold those in authority accountable now, for alleged malfeasance in the past, or what? Is it about how we hold them accountable for future decisions? Did I miss all the measures that have been suggested yet?
Communicating better - Could start with more transparency into the number of memberships by category, the yearly trend in each category going back as far as they have data, or even from this point forward. Seems specific, measurable, appropriate, reasonable, and timely. Not only does it directly affect revenue, but it also is a leading indicator of the future health of the organization.
Communicating better - How about posting the MR survey results AMA promised they would post two years ago? Data might provide some insight into the vote to pursue MRs. Given that the board spit evenly on the decision, with the prez casting the tie breaking vote, would be useful for members to know if the general membership was strongly in favor, mildly in favor, neutral, mildly not in favor, or strongly not in favor of the direction leadership took. If there's miss-alignment, then accountability might come with the next election.
Communicating better - How about cleaning up the website, update the information with something more current (i.e. flying site success stories PDF hasn't been updated in two years), fixing broken links, etc.? A deliverable of any communication plan these days is a website, and call me crazy, but I think most people expect them to be current.
There's three quick examples.