Posted by Adam W. in Question for all Candidates

Posted by AJ Paulson in Question for all Candidates
First off thank you for stepping up to the plate in running STF whether it’s an official capacity or not. My question is since the successful launch of Exodus how are you going to keep things running smoothly for 8mos?

Thanks for the question, A.J. And you’re welcome.

It’s certainly a little tricky making sure all the things that are supposed to happen at certain times occur, while also dealing with issues that pop up and pressing forward with the objectives of the term. At the same time the different areas of the club need to be monitored to make sure they’re staffed well enough to be functioning properly and they need to be both supported and held accountable.

Part of making all that happen is setting objectives that both will be meaningful when accomplished and be attainable. When I was Vice President for Linds I thought we did quite a good job acheiving all the goals she had set out for us. I put myself in a better position to assist in running the club by reducing my STF commitments, an approach I’ve decided to take this time as well. Also I thought Linds and I had great teamwork, which worked much better than putting it all on one person’s shoulders would have.

One thing I did a couple days ago was create for myself a draft of a month by month term outline. I expect that will help quite a bit to keep track of the tasks we want to do and the ones we need to do. Which, in turn, should help the term go more smoothly.

Adam
Adam W / Thomas B

I’m going to add to Adam’s response. I’m glad this question is being asked, because this kind of question is largely why I am attached to a ticket. In my term as President, we took a number of steps to stem the tide of the GM shortage, and some of those steps had immediate implications for the club. We knew, however, that those changes were the first step, and that further work had to be done to make the number of GMs sustainable within the club. Unfortunately, those steps were not followed up on in the following terms, and that problem swelled back up and had to be addressed again.

A recurrent theme throughout STF is a lack of consistency term-to-term. It’s very unusual to see an agenda survive past a single eight month term, unless the person is re-elected or perhaps a VP carries it forward. As others have pointed out, tickets tend to make themselves distinguishable from one another by highlighting their differences, and this is most easily done by pointing to policy differences. This is a reality of elections in STF, and this lack of term-to-term follow through and consistency is one of the many reasons that a “wait and see” approach to the club will always turn out poorly.

By being passive, we tend to become reactive. That means that we have to deal with problems that come up, and when we’re constantly reacting to things, we can’t really be proactive and prevent problems from manifesting. The MAC discussion is a good example of this. It would not be a good idea to sit back and see what happens with that, because it is likely something else will appear and demand the club’s attention. The MAC discussion is then forgotten, and without things followed up on and codified into our law, we lose a lot of progress. We know that MAC is currently an ineffective tool for recruitment - I demonstrated that in my post to Command during the discussion. We also have no real mechanism for retainment, something that becomes more and more important as our club’s population shrinks. Shifting the MAC to address these from a “if you build it, they will come” approach, addresses both.

It’s important that this sort of thing be addressed before it develops into a problem. It’s important for us to be proactive. TECH is a great example of this, as it is a very recent and truly major change to the club status quo. The kind of structure that TECH is hadn’t existed before, and the ideas around it weren’t super common throughout the rest of the club. I spent years working on TECH, and that work paid off very recently with the deployment of Exodus. Smart, thoughtful change is important. It allows us to be proactive and take control of our situation rather than being victim to fate.

Exodus’ deployment is a great event - and there are things that need to be adjusted now that we have modern technology to work from. These aren’t as dramatic as some people perhaps make them out to be - remember Exodus was designed in the context of STF, so it’s not like we need to tear everything apart and start fresh. Instead, it makes sense to make informed updates to our various parts to make sure we’re working as efficiently as we can.

These types of changes have to be thoughtful and well considered. As the primary writer of TECH, one of the people who worked on Exodus, someone who has a long history in the club and has been involved in the club’s government in various capacities for many years now, I feel like I have developed a good compass for these discussions. Continuity is important, and knowing how those discussions should flow, how to set attainable goals, and how to follow up appropriately, are very important. A President who bites off too much is going to cough through the term, and ultimately get very little done. A President who waits and sees will likely have a similar experiences as small problems grow into bigger ones. There is a middle path - and trekking it is our task.

Sorry it’s a long answer, but it’s a good question that deserves more context.

-Thomas B
–Adam W / Thomas B