[clue] Ettiquette and volunteers

[David L. Anselmi]

Crawford Rainwater wrote:
> When people started requesting "I want this...with CLUE." it was a nice to hear some "fresh
> ideas" to help enhance this Linux user group I said to myself.  I have been involved with CLUE
> since 2001 myself.  I even stepped up on a few ideas with running CLUE-North and the InstallFests
> for 5-6 years along with the server maintenance work for a similar time frame.
>
> Then it the requests started to become "I want this...and this...and this...with CLUE." which
> became a bit trying to even perturbing I must admit.

Thanks Crawford, for giving everyone a chance to reflect on how things get done in our community.

*HEY EVERYONE!*  Take a minute in between Super Bowl ads to reflect on what Crawford wrote.  Thanks!

It is the nature of organizations (volunteer or not) to have more good ideas than time or people to 
implement them.  There's lots of opportunity to fail to communicate, resulting in hurt feelings, 
wasted effort, and lost resources.  It's disappointing how often I fail, despite being aware of the 
risk.

Here are my reflections:

If you have a good idea (I want ...)

- Be patient.  It isn't going to happen over night.

- Don't be offended when someone says, "that's not what I want".

- Be proactive in learning what it takes to implement your idea, how you can do those things, and 
how you can energize others to do things you might not be able to.

If you're out doing things and people keep telling you what they want:

- Be clear about what you'll do and what you won't do.

- When people say "I want ...", don't take it as criticism that what you're doing is inadequate or 
unappreciated.  Don't feel like they're signing you up to do it.

- Be proactive about understanding what others want, what others are doing, and how your work meshes 
with those things.

On both sides, recognize that people get anxious about change, think about how your ideas and 
actions will cause change, and try to communicate in a way that helps the anxious people.

Thanks!
Dave