[Magdalen] This saying No is tough

Scott Knitter scottknitter at gmail.com
Mon Sep 22 14:58:16 PDT 2014


On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 3:39 PM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:
> One thing that often happens in organizations is that the person in a
> position will agree to stay "until they find someone." That, of course,
> provides no incentive for actually finding someone.  What I try to get
> folks to do is to say, "As of [date] you'll need to have another person for
> this job."  If they don't have another person, that's their problem, not
> yours. It actually works once people get up the gumption to try it.  And if
> no one steps up for a project, maybe that project needs to die. (I realize
> treasurer doesn't fall into that category...)

This is exactly right, Grace. It's what I need to do for the webmaster
role. Especially as I get another batch of urgent revisions for an
event that has just been brought up. What if I'm swamped on my job?
Urgent or not, the revisions will have to wait in that case.

I do need to decide on a date and inform the rector. A previous
maybe-volunteer wanted a whole series of thorough training sessions
first. Nope. I figure it all out, and so can they, and the parish can
pay the design/hosting company for one of their quite good training
sessions for the new webmaster.

When I said no to the newsletter role, the rector assured me that was
OK but asked whether I knew of anyone else who might be able to help.
I honestly don't, and I think the rector and wardens would be best
positioned to know who else is a writer type, or have an informal
network in which to ask around for leads. Or <gasp!> just ask in the
bulletin and announcements during Mass. :)


-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA


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