How often do we post about some of the crazier thinking that have been going on in society nowadays? How often do we comment about something going on in the world and how crazy and silly and stupid it is and move on with our own lives…

Better yet in the smaller scheme of things has anyone found themselves in the position of persuading a group of people as to why what they are considering is wrong and detrimental to the grand scheme of things and what would be the best course of action in the long term?

Yep… been there… done that… once… about seven years ago…

I was working in a completely different company from what I am doing now and the position that myself and six other groups members were a part of was on the chopping block and we were going to be folded into another group with our responsibilities shared to the larger whole. Meaning what we spent years specializing in was going to be shared across a group three times the size. Higher risk of error, higher risk of causing a major dent to the detrimental of the larger populace.

So my group was scheduled for a meeting with the administration to explain and plead our case. I originally had planned that day off for personal reasons (potential-beau at the time was visiting from out of country for he lived in the Netherlands) but after coaching the other members of my team various arguments, points, and reasoning as to why what the administration was planning was detrimental… it came to pass that the group would be stronger with myself there as opposed to away.

What ended up happening was that I “stood up” the potential-beau in favor of my job and in the end the position / group was cut and the people were folded into another group. And for what?

Well six months later… after I had left the company… the group was recreated due to our arguments and things were fine once again. Go figure.

So now another situation has arisen where the administration passed a rule that the membership would be required to abide to. However, unlike in the past situation where there was really no good reason to follow through, in this case I can understand aspects of what they may be trying to do.

Confused? Well… another way to look at it:
– in the short term considering recent events, I could see the whys of what they are wanting and trying to do…

However…

– in the long term chances are high that it will prevent potential new long term members from joining and over time the membership would dwindle. Not only that but it would deter potential new talent from wanting to be a part of the group for more than one show.

Don’t believe me? You’re not suppose to… because this was years ago… but I am about as thorough as you can get and as a friend of mine once commented:

This is why I like you… you can say something without making it sound like a cold slap on the face.

So who knows?

Granted there is a bigger issue at work here… much bigger issues… but I think I’ll hold my tongue on those for now.

So how does this affect me? Well I have been considering for the past year or so about whether or not I personally want to join the membership for the long term. There many people that I have grown to enjoy the company of, and the production value is rather high. However, what irks me is the direction that the group as a whole has been taking for the past several years.

Yes… years… because when I am weighing the pros and cons of a group I tend to study them from afar for years before deciding to dip my foot into the water. Acquiring information from those around me and the rumor mill, filtering what’s real from what’s not and looking at the good, bad and ugly. This particular group has a lot of ugly that is very overwhelmed from the good… or so it initially seemed, but with this latest twist (as it were) it would appear that “the ugly” is rearing its head.

There have been salvos tossed via Facebook starting from earlier in the month and has been continuing since… now the boiling pot is bubbling over and lines are being drawn as it inches closer to the planned membership meeting date…

I never liked tossing my hat into the ring… because I have a bad habit of over analyzing situations and being prepared for any and all potential outcomes and finding loopholes and flaws within documentation and either exploiting them or closing them up for it isn’t as free-flowing.

It is sad, really… that there wasn’t much in terms of transparency going on here and people are responding and acting upon either impulse, emotion, or the notion of “well if I could make it work then you can too”.

Life doesn’t work that way… expectations placed upon a group of people based on the (sometimes limited) view of a situation could only fuel conflict. If there was one thing that I have learned during my life time of floating via multiple jobs, positions, and skill sets acquired it is that you can’t assume, expect others to do something that you are likely to do yourself. It would only add more fuel to the fire known as bitterness.

This is a community afterall… and with a community you have to accept that the majority isn’t going to do what the most devoted of the group is likely to do. It doesn’t work that way… not likely anyway. But this is theatre… and what is theatre without a little drama? And this particular group is a family… so what is a family without a little conflict?

Oye vey.

So why do i feel the need to be an “advocate”? Because I can understand where both sides of the spectrum and other points of view are coming from… but (much like politics) everyone has to compromise and understand that not everyone is going to what you are going to do. Yes if Person A would just do Point B then it would be helpful… and I could go on…

However, with everyone running on emotions… I have a tendency to be a bit more detached…. just a little of that Vulcan / Borg mentality coming out… except in this case I am rather new… and to many people quite young, so what do I know?

Far more than I let on…