A week's worth

Hey all,

the election is not a hot topic anymore. Political issues are not discussed here anymore. Instead we now talk about the weather, and midterms, and papers due. I only have two midterms left, and they both should be easy. The workload is greater than it is in Australia, but the work itself is easier. I find myself cruising through classes. But I sleep less than usual doing the work in time. In time usually is the night before, or if it seems really easy, a few hours before the due time.

We have started our marketing campaign. Good Credit + Knowledge = Power is our slogan. We had our first event last week and thirty people came. That is thirty in five hours. And today we had our second event: I would venture that less people came today. Probably because I told less of my friends to come. The campaign is not going too well at this time. I am learning the hard realities of working in teams. Academically, I am sure that these people would perform. But when asked to accomplish real tasks, and to meet certain objectives, they freeze, afraid of taking an initiative. At the same time, they dislike being told what to do, and they resent not knowing what they should be doing.
A conversation I had with a girl in charge of Personal Resources today illustrated that. She started by bitching about the group coordinator micro-managing, and when I asked her why she hadn't done what she was meant to do, she talked about her heavy timetable. I asked her a few simple questions about her tasks, like "do you know what we need to do to send mass emails?" and she answered that she didn't. She didn't have time and so had done nothing, and yet was bitching about the coordinator, who herself was working at least two hours a day on the project, slogging through reluctant administrations.

The advertising department talks about cute animals and other images we could use. And when they didn't meet the deadlines we had set them, they stopped doing anything altogether. Their job, done by someone else to meet the deadline, was over, they seemed to think. Advertising is a little more than about creating cool images: it is especially about publishing the ads in time for events, and whenever appropriate. It is about finding where to advertise. They learned all that for the last test; have they realised that theories can be applied? The bottom line: no ads have been published…

But I am learning much from these small failures. Firstly, not everyone is suitable for a job. Selection is crucial. Secondly, managing a team requires certain skills. I work hard to acquire these skills. I would say that setting goals, establishing hierarchies, and involving members to motivate them, are important. Thirdly, expectations must match realities. I expect more of these people than they can feel they can do, and there is their limit. Not what I think they can do, but what they think they can do when confronted with a situation.

Enough said about that. On Saturday I again went snowboarding. I can truly push my board further than I can go. It is not the board which doesn’t hold, but me who can’t keep up with the board. This means that I see myself racing through trees and slaloming between boulders in the near future. I got stuck between two major boulders at one stage, and instead of pointing my board down and going with it, I slid down, and then kept on going. It was one of the last runs of the day; I was tired; but still next time, I will jump from the top of the boulder and hope for the best. I hope that next time, I will have a proper snowboarding partner, one that can follow me wherever I go and one that is not obsessed by jumps and rails.

I have met a girl who might meet this profile. Tonight she invited me to the movies. To the movies. I felt eminently American for a little while then. She has an American accent, drives an SUV, and goes to the movies. We saw the Incredibles; it was better than I thought it would be. It is a movie about superheroes coming out of forced retirements. It is part of the new wave of comedy, and is sensibly politically correct. Go see it if you want something light and amusing.

Well enough said for tonight, my eyes are burning of tiredness,

until next time,

Albert