Hi Mark, Thanks for your comments and your offer to volunteer.
Why don't you contact me off line and we can talk about your specific interests. Regards...Bill - N6GHz Mark Lunday wrote: > Chiming in, after watching this go back and forth and feeling frustrated > here. > > The issue here is about holding volunteers accountable as if they were paid > staff. It's about expectations as well. > > Noone is questioning whether the volunteers worked their butts off. What > we're talking about is that the AMSAT community (at least some, anyway) have > an expectation of performance equivalent to what would be provided by > full-time paid staff. Well, as long as it's volunteers only, that > expectation is not reasonable (IMHO). None of the volunteers can provide > that kind of support day-in and day-out. Holding volunteers to that > standard is, in my opinion, a mistake. > > Having said that, what AMSAT volunteers have accomplished is SO FAR ABOVE > what a normal volunteer organization achieves, that it BOGGLES THE MIND. I > have been an AMSAT member for 18 months and active on satellites for about > as long. To see what has been achieved by volunteers, spanning across > geography, is AMAZING. The ability to ask ANY question about satellites in > general and AMSAT in particular on this BB, and get an accurate response in > a timely fashion is impressive. The collective intellectual capital and > horsepower is deep and very valuable. > > And THAT'S the issue! We're so accustomed to outstanding performance on so > many things with AMSAT that we start *expecting* above and beyond in all > cases. That's not always realistic. > > I had a few 1:1 threads with some folks about this over the past few days, > and I think we could address some of the problems if we had a paid position > or two. I understand that this is being presented to the ARRL in the near > future (additional funding support) > > Another side note: it sounds like more communication/interaction would help > clarify some of these questions and concerns. Regular status reporting on > progress for specific projects would help the community understand: > (1) the progress > (2) the risks > (3) the level of effort provided by the volunteers > (4) opportunities for additional input for addressing problems (leveraging > some of that powerful intellectual capital and horsepower in our community). > > > Meanwhile, as a project manager w/ PMP cert, Electrical Engineer, and a 35 > year ham with military background, I am raising my hand as a volunteer for > helping with the planning of future AMSAT projects > > Mark Lunday > WD4ELG > Hillsborough, NC - FM06kb > [email protected] > http://wd4elg.net > http://wd4elg.blogspot.com > > > > _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
