July 20, 1989
Dear Everyone:
Attack of the Killer Meetings.
Last week I attended nine (9) meetings in 5 days. So far, I’ve only had 4 this week. Monday I met with some ETD people about their files. They have a Central File Room which virtually no one uses. They have, officially, some 25 “satellite” file areas with probably as many “unofficial” ones as well. This is because everyone keeps their files in or near their offices. No one uses the Central Files because the people who work in Central Files can never find what the users need. The reason the people in Files can’t find what the users need is because the users never send anything to Files because Files can never find what they need. ‘Round and ‘round the mulberry bush…
You can expect to hear a lot about ETD in the months ahead. Just this morning, because I asked “Alma” a question brought up by one of my Monday meetings, we had a drop-everything-and-let’s-have-a-meeting-at-9:00 meeting to discuss (once again) how we’re going to approach ETD. It’s so big a department that three of us, “Melanie”, “Murray” and I, are going to be working on different parts of it. But we need to stay consistent and coordinated in what we do. So, at this point, “Alma” is sending a letter to ETD’s management, telling them that we need more cooperation (i.e., keep your office politics out of this) and a better overall view of the entire department before we can proceed. With any luck, she won’t get an answer until next week and I won’t have to deal with it until after my sorely-needed vacation.
Yesterday we had a meeting that started at 8:00 in the morning and broke up about 4:05 in the afternoon. We even had lunch brought in so we could continue with the meeting while we ate. This all started a few weeks ago when someone in “CITC” (pronounce sit-see) mentioned that it would help them help us (they’re our computer support people) if they had a better idea of what it was that we did. So, “Alma” decided that we would have a meeting in which each of us would explain a little bit about our primary job responsibilities. Then our new manager, “Chris Jennings”, heard about it and thought that this would be a great opportunity for him to learn about Records Management; so he decided to attend.
Suddenly our little meeting became a Major Presentation! Everyone was a bundle of nerves and by the end of the day, I had such a splitting headache that I elected to skip riding my exercise bike (7380 miles, still in China) and took a long bath instead. Surprisingly, my headache went away without so much as an Advil tablet.
But the good news is that here was so much food left over from the catered lunch that I am having a sumptuous feast today. Everyone else seems to have forgotten about all that food in the refrigerator.
In other news…
“Marshall” came up from Fresno last weekend. He and some friends went to a Giants game Saturday. Then Sunday, we all met at Fort Mason for “brunch” and a walk along the waterfront. The weather was perfect, blue skies, warm sun and a stiff breeze. The Bay was thick with sailboats of all denominations. We walked up to the Palace of Fine Arts where they were holding a Concorde D’Elegance of classic cars – Porches as far as they eye could see. Also Corvettes, Mercedes-Benz and a turquoise T-Bird, 1957, in mint condition.
“Marshall’s” friends, “Gail” and her sister, “Denise”, ran into a cousin of theirs from Los Angeles (small world department) and I got my first sunburn of the summer.
Only 14 days until Ashland!
Love, as always,
Pete
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