State of the Union?

Pure Rhetoric.

I thought the point was a report on where we are, not vague goal setting. Maybe I just don't get it. It is worth watching just for amusement. Where else can you see:

• Congresspeople doing up downs for an hour giving applause.
• A newly confirmed Supreme Court justice looking lost (not that I blame him after less than 12 hours on the job and the confirmation process).
• A great display of adolescent partisanship in which half of the audience gives a standing applause for what is said. The Republicans clapped a lot--no suprise. The high point was the sarcastic Democratic standing applause for defeating the attempt at personal accounts for Social Security. It shows just how partisan Congress is with the amount of one-sided ovations. What kind of example does our government set when it can't rise above political arguments to do their job? It's almost as good of a role model as T.O. or 50 Cent.
• Great facial expressions. None of these folks should play poker. McCain looked sleepy part of the time. Hilary is a B***h. The holier than thou, pitying look she had most of the time was utterly disgusting. Kerry had a similar expression, but I don't think he's capable of any positive expression. The only good poker faces were the senior military officers and Supreme Court justices.

As for content, it was long on ideas, short on answers. There were a lot of initatives. I lost track. My perennial question is how are we going to pay for all of these and cut taxes? If politicians are on these initiative where are the ideas coming from? They can't possibly be well-informed on everything to the point of being able to create a large list of options to evaluate. The energy policy is still underfunded and short-sighted. The environment was barely mentioned. No Child Left Behind is not something to be proud of. Shoot, I even voted for the guy and am less than pleased.

Counterpoint is that the Democratic response was about as short on solutions as the President, not that they have offered anything much beyond criticism lately anyways. The new governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia was a good choice. He actually seems like a decent guy--certainly more palatable than Hilary or Kerry.

As far as themes go, they both were good. I am 100% against isolationism and pulling out when we have made a committment (even if it wasn't a good idea). Democracy is a great thing to spread. One thing here is what to do when a terrorist group is elected to govern a nation (Hamas)? It will take time and a lot more bridge building, but is certainly a worthy goal. He did spend an awful lot of time on this topic.

The governor's theme of service was very good. If only that was what policitians at the national level practiced instead of infighting for a percieved short term political advantage. I would be interested to see a national platform built around that theme from either party with practical solutions not big promises. Certainly most non-profit organizations and the younger generations would buy into this.

I guess my thought on the whole thing is that there are a lot of challenges we face and can solve, but the political modus operandi is to make the solution so convoluted as to be nearly impossible to implement. I understand that the issues are complicated, but that doesn't mean the goal and plan has to be. It also does not mean the government needs to solve the problems. Perhaps it can provide a direction and facilitate programs through supporting laws, but it does not need to operate all of them.

The response and effect of the address will be interesting to watch. I hope there is a good choice of candidates in '08 for both parties.

Speaking Terms

I'm finding new things that can be considered part of my job that are a lot more stimulating than the run of the mill stuff. Last week I had two of the more enjoyable days outside of camping events that I have had on the job.

The first was my debut speaking experience at Lakeland College. I'm pretty sure I have mentioned the school before, but, as a quick refresher, Lakeland is a small liberal-arts college about 10 miles from me that has a lot of Scouters at it and hosts a non-profit management degree program (American Humanics). This program and its adviser (a Woodbadge-trained Scouter) are why I even investigated the school in the first place. Last week was the first (and definitely not the last) actual class that I "taught". That's somewhat inaccurate as it was almost like being interviewed by about 30 students at the same time. Currently they are taking a non-profit management class and as part of it needed to get a perceptive from someone in the field. Enter me.

I spent about an hour and a quarter answering a variety of questions about Scouting and how it handles marketing--poorly in terms of a coordinated plan. They asked some great questions and gave some good feedback. The only question that rocked me on my heels was if I had projects for students that could be completed within the term. I am always seeking volunteers, but that many at once is hard to swallow. The questions ranged across the board from organizational basics to how our mission has affected our ability to reach potential new clients. Overall, it was a lot of fun. I can't say that I am keen on public speaking, but that was easy and I thought effective. In theory, that discussion will be the topic of several student papers--those would be fun to read. I did happen to skim the textbook for the class and have a borrowed copy to read now.

The following day Brian and I had lunch with one of his past co-workers who used to be VP at Lakeland. The point of the meeting was to ask for help recruiting people for the committee. The fun part was not asking that, but having to respond to her objections about Scouting before she would consider helping. When I first started this job I did not enjoy getting quizzed about the political challenges we have faced the last decade or so. Now however, I kind of enjoy the opportunity to put to rest some of the demons the media created. I don't deny our policies, I just put them in perspective. In the end she agreed to help out. Brian did an admirable job as well, he's learning and we make a good tag team.

I guess the meat of it is that I get bored at times with the day-in, day-out FOS and membership stuff and need something intellectually stimulating every once in a while.

I so should be working...

I need a few minutes of down time though and it's been a while since I posted.

It has been a long week since I last wrote. There was the planning conference, a chamber event, a day of meetings, and some bad luck for a good volunteer and friend.

The planning conference was interesting. The drive was not scenic. I will not complain, much, about the stretches of nothing in my district. The westernmost county of his service area is like Ohio--there was one stretch of over 20 miles without a gas station on a well-used highway. The resort however was enormous. It was a bloody long walk from our rooms to anywhere else, especially the waterpark. That was huge, but I only went once on the continuing theory that I am not amused by amusement parks. We did get to spend some time getting to know each other better as a staff including an over-competitive scavenger hunt. Overall everyone gets along pretty well, certainly better than my previous experience, but I can see where if we were all in the same office regularly where some challenges would occut. By the time it was over, I was exhausted.

However, there is no rest and I got to attend a really boring United Way meeting first thing the next morning followed by a more interesting Chamber day on diversity. The most unique part of the day was the visit to the synagogue. I didn't know we had one in Sheboygan. The guys all were asked to wear skull caps (I can't spell the Jewish name) in the sanctuary. I also liked the segment on generational diversity--one of my favorite topics. I crashed hard that night after a charter turn-in session.

Overall, things are looking up all around. It seems that with the year-end pressure cooker off, my boss and I are getting along better--not that it was ever really bad, I just was frustrated. The seminal moment this week was talking to him on the phone about a pro candidate from DAC, whom the lodge guys know, that I never liked and only being able to describe him as a "turd". Not something I think my boss was expecting to hear from me. Our projections are doable across the board and we have a good group of folks to work on nominating new members to our team. I am so shooting for Quality this year and actually care this time as opposed to other times in the past.

The other notable event was a tragedy for one of my unit leaders. In an accident at work his right arm was crushed and had to be amputated. He is a really good guy that helps out a lot. He was actually the first unit volunteer to get my cell phone number. Brian and I stopped in to see him at the hosptial Saturday after a morning meeting and he was in suprisingly good spirits for all that he has gone through.

Otherwise, my car (still unnamed) and I are getting along well. She broke 1000 miles on Saturday and is a lot of fun driving on the curves on the Kettle Morraine drive. She also handles very well in the snow. Until I write again.

All is as Expected

The final items for the 2005 Year in Work finished up the last two days with first my review, then Brian's. Mine went well I suppose. I ended up with an Expected, my lowest so far, but not really a bad review considering how ugly the numbers were at year end. Despite having my review with the DFS who I can't say I always agree with and was apprehensive about, it was a very positive experience. I expect 2006 to end better than 2005.

As for Brian's review, that was interesting. He did fine, but it was a little disconcerting for me realizing that my perception of his performance has the potential to affect his career down the road. Stranger still was realizing that he was somewhat nervous about the review as we started. While I did reviews at the theatre, those had nothing on this. It was unique.

I mentioned before that the sun finally came out, it stayed out most of the week even through our snow-less Klondike yesterday. If the forecast is right it will be going away again for a while, but it was really nice while it lasted.

Tomorrow begins my second Planning Conference with this council. We are holding it at the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. It's some African safari themed place with a huge indoor waterpark, its own movie theater and a nearby casino. I'm really hoping that there is not a huge number of young'uns there. The actual work part of the conference doesn't look bad except that the evil overlord is participating through most of the conference. I despise that man. Hopefully we will accomplish useful things to make the time worthwhile.

And the sun came out...

I saw the sun today for the first time in about 3 weeks. It was glorious. When I got my car I had of course put my sunglasses in by habit which was good as the light was bright. It's nutty just how much a lack of sunlight can affect you. I didn't notice any vitamin deficencies, but I was most certainly getting to be cranky. A few days of even only partial sunshine would be great.

Thank goodness the 2005 Scouting year is over effective Friday. It had a rather odd ending. We spent the week chasing parts for a new unit and thought it was all put together and sent it in. I got a call Friday from the office saying it wasn't kosher since the youth apps were not signed by the parents since it was a neighborhood afterschool program and had a verification letter from the director there. I also discovered that he did not and would not put in the charters for the two afterschool programs in since the funding had not come through. What was odd about that is that we are more than financially stable, tried hard to find funds and have several areas that it could very reasonably be handled under. This ended the year 4 units less than I had projected and three were because the boss wouldn't put them in.

It's really weird having gone from arguing against having units and kids entered at CVC to arguing for them to be entered here. The office here seems unduly paranoid about membership fraud. Being vigilant is one thing, but this is nuts. If there was one thing I learned about this at CVC was the exact letter of the law on what was legal. Not to mention that I wouldn't submit something that I was not comfortable with. The last phone call on Friday with him was unpleasant and was the longest venting that I have heard from him thus far. I think it has something to do with having two open field jobs and my supervisor on maternity leave for at least the next six weeks. This will be an interesting back drop to my review with him. I am aiming for a strong Marginal or weak Expected at this point.

Also in the wide world of Bay-Lakes, I went to the OA Annual Dinner today. It was dull. The lodge chief is not a very good public speaker. There was no spontaneous singing. I was accosted about my sash having its moose pin and legend on it, by the Scout Exec no less. They also seem to have a weird idea about the Founders' and Vigil Awards. These usually, in my understanding, are awarded to a person with the Vigil first and Founders' later. The standard here seems to be the exact obvious. The immediate past lodge chief is still a brotherhood member, but received the Founders' today and one of the Vigil recipients was a past lodge chief and previous Founders' recipient. This baffles me. They have their own traditions, yes, but that doesn't mean I have to like them or keep me from encouraging members from my chapter to lobby vigorously for change. "..We're gonna have a revolution, hey, hey, heyyy..."