[Sigia-l] The Menace The How

[noreen whysel]

I do agree that the short list of member-authored books on the AIfIA site 
clearly should be expanded to include other works.  I believe there has 
already been a call to add more resources, if you can suggest any that would 
be of interest.

As for speaking engagements, in my experience it is not at all uncommon for 
professional organizations to plan conferences with members (even board 
members) as speakers.  A number of small real estate conferences I 
frequented in the early 90s were often exclusively member led.  And the 
smaller the organization, the more frequently I saw this happen.  As long as 
the speech was informative and not an overtly commercial sales pitch, no one 
complained.  Pitches were saved for the cocktail hour and everyone was in on 
it.  Am I just jaded, or isn't this simply the way professional 
organizations relate?

Another observation: from having led a small volunteer organization, I know 
that there can be a lot of communications misfires that need to be ironed 
out in the beginning before an organization can address the needs of its 
constituency.  The key to moving the mission forward is for members (and the 
interested public) to make constructive criticism (free of accusation and 
name-calling) and offer solutions and for leaders to listen with an open 
mind.

I hope this will be my last comment on this topic on this list, since I see 
everyone is getting tired of the discussion.  I'll be happy to discuss my 
experience with member organizations offline with anyone who is interested.

Noreen

>From: "Derek R" <derek at derekrogerson.com>
>Reply-To: <derek at derekrogerson.com>
>To: <sigia-l at asis.org>
>Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] The Menace The How
>Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 15:17:48 -0500
>
>
> >| As in many young fields, those who define it
> >| by publishing books that all of us in the field
> >| are buying, quoting and referring to as "bibles"
> >| have become industry leaders by the virtue of
> >| their being quoted by practitioners, interviewed
> >| by the media and invited to speak at various
> >| industry conferences
>
>
>Noreen, I think you are missing the point.
>
>This small group of people are single-handedly 'defining' the field all
>of us work in by publishing their *own* books as representative of
>everybody, quoting *each other* favorably on their book's back-covers,
>quoting *themselves* in communications, interviewing *themselves,*
>offering their *own* names as credentials, organizing their *own*
>conferences and selecting *themselves* as key speakers, etc etc.
>
>And again, I would point out that honest attempts at discussing
>gaping-holes in their core philosophies are ignored and scoffed at,
>sending out only lesser-demons in *their* command who deal only with the
>weakest aspects of the weakest charges.
>
>It is all very clique-like and disappointing. {sigh}
>
>
>Ziya wrote:
> >| In some professions like journalism, it would be
> >| considered a duty of everyone to fight against the
> >| emergence of an organizations that would selectively
> >| qualify who can and cannot be a 'member' of the
> >| profession.
>
>
>Amen to that!
>
>
>
>
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Noreen Y. Whysel
Information Architect
nwhysel at hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/whysel

Knowledge Management
Intranets and E-Communities

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