My french is really bad since I'm from Nova Scotia and don't use it on a regular basis. I'm probably more likely to get fined for mangling the language, but Non, excusez-moi. S'il vous plaît obtenir votre propre raison. Eh!
Yeah, it use to be great to get a $100 USD check from my Mom in NC for my Birthday. I use to be able to get $140 CAD out of it after the bank took their "transfer" fees. Now I'm luck if I can get $80 CAD. You have to watch the currency closely. The news the day before I deposited the last check from my mom to my daughter said the dollar was around $0.95 then when I cashed the check the next day the rate was around $1.05. After the bank took their "transfer" fee the $100 USD ended up being closer to $85 CAD.
Although it was funny as hell when Mom came to visit, gave a $5 USD bill at the Tim's drive through for a $4.95 order and was told it wasn't enough.
If microsoft don't care about piracy, they've got a funny way of making their legit customers jump through ever increasing online activation hoops for shits and giggles.
Sorry to say, but based on the fact that DRM schemes only affect legit customers, since the first thing pirates do is subvert or strip out the DRM, nothing you said has anything to do deterring piracy and has everything to do with making it look like they're deterring piracy. Basically all it does is make it appear to legit customers and stock holders that there and DRM is a required solution, while only making it mildly difficult for pirates, until one person figures out the newest scheme, then booty ahoy!
CS6 hasn't even been out for a year yet, I know because I have a license for the Web premium package, and there is virtually no difference between CS5 and CS6, at least that I make use of, Photoshop and Dreamweaver work pretty much the same. For a high school or college student, they don't require CS6 to be up-to-date. If it doesn't already exists, I haven't gone looking since I have a license provided by my employer, give it time, there will be a work around for the current CS6 DRM, probably just in time for CS7 to come out. While to me CS6 would be a major expense personally, to my employer it's a drop in the bucket.
You do have an interesting perspective. I'm not really a windows user, WinXP is on my Work machine because my company provides the machine and OS. We're currently moving to Win7. The company plans on avoiding Win8 for a number of reasons.
1) We never use the first iteration of something right away and always only after its been out for awhile, so issues will have been found and corrected. We're not paying anyone, including MS, to be their beta testers.
2) People hate change, even the tiniest little things, of course you could say the devil is in the details and the small changes are the most difficult to get use to, like when a buttons location or an image icon is changed, these small things will drive people up the wall because they have to spend tons of time looking for something that was so simple to find before. Eventually people will get use to it and won't care anymore
We all know, even those of us that hate windows, that MS isn't going anywhere. If Win8 is a flop MS will announce Win9 is coming, I expect them to announce it by the end of next year, then they'll take what is working in Win8 for Win9 and throw the rest away. Hopeful companies like yours don't waste hundreds of man hours and small fortunes in developing Metro apps only to have Metro thrown out of Win9. I personally wouldn't be taking the risk and I'm positive Metro will be the first thing to go. The live tiles sound like a great idea, but IMHO it's a crappy, way too busy interface, that'll quickly turn into an marketing tool flooding peoples Win8 devices with crap ads, which will chew through data plans. People will be throwing their Win8 devices out because it'll be too hard to adapt too and will become a dogs breakfast for advertisers will not offering any real benefit to the customers that paid for the phone and the apps that will be streaming ads not stop.
I was about to say the same thing. It's kind of like how Adobe "allows" their photo shop suite to be pirated. They don't formally allow it and will adamantly deny it, but the truth is you get high school and collage students using the product for free, then when they get to the corporate world, where the money for Adobe really is, the corporations by the product that considered the norm for the field.
Right now MS is having a hard time pushing Windows 8 few individuals want to use it and there's no way any major corporate entity is going to switch because they don't want to spend money to buy a product that's probably going to need weeks or months to for people learn to use properly when the existing product works just fine. By having Win8 pirated a wider population of individuals will be willing to use and get use to using it, which will be beneficial and essential to having Win8 adopted by the larger corporate community.
Back up there Tex. You have to specify the complexity of your application and what version of IE you're supporting before you claim it only takes an extra 15 minutes of work. I work on a large site and up until two months ago I was required to support IE 6, 7, 8 and 9. I found out two months ago as of February 2012 we're no longer supporting IE 6 and as of February 2013 we won't support IE 7, IE 8 support is slated to be phased out starting in the fall of 2013.
Web apps, epically those that require javascript, can be very complex and supporting IE 6, 7 is not trivial for larger applications. IE 8 is not so bad, but still requires effort. IE 9 is better, I'm hoping IE 10 will get it right and I won't be required to code for everything, then re-code for IE. Although I'll still have to make modifications for IE 8 and 9
I can develop an application in Firefox and with no additional effort it'll work in Opera, Chrome and Safari, but the same application without modification will not work in IE 6 or 7, sometimes not in IE 8 and on more rare occasions not in IE 9. No web developer will agree supporting IE only takes an extra 15 minutes, unless they only support IE and even then there can still significant effort involved in porting to the other versions of IE. I've had clients tell me not to worry about IE once I told them what effort would be involved in porting a large application. Of course we try to support as many users as we can, but sometimes the amount of effort to grab that extra 20% just isn't worth spending double or triple the effort in development and testing.
Wasn't this the kind of crap MS tried to pull with IE6?
I'm sure their intention was to allow enterprises to develop applications for and using IE6, but it ended honorably for everyone and was the reason IE6 ended up hanging on for so long past it's expiry.
What I said was I'm disappointed in Google because I consider the litigation route to be the low road. Ok or not didn't factor into the equation, supporting lawyers whose only purpose is to stop competition and kill possibly good products, in general not from MS specifically, did.
However, at the same time I understand why Google is suing MS and I like to see MS get what's coming to them for a) using another companies unlicensed technology to make profit for themselves and b) because they're not shy about suing others for doing the same.
I've never owned an iPad, a Kindle or a netbook and I have no interest in the Surface. Sometimes I wouldn't mind owning an android tablet, but really have no use for it other than to use it as an e-reader, which my android phone does nicely anyway.
I think you've summed up the consumerism and how loosely the term innovative is thrown around these days. "But judge our product has rounder corners, it's innovative", "I know let's attach a keyboard as the cover instead of a kickstand.... Funny it looks like a netbook with a detachable keybard... that's supper crazy extra monkey balls innovative!!!! "
I agree, I'm usually on Google's side, but this time I'm very disappointed that they're sinking to MS and Apples level of stifling "innovative" products, if you could call the surface that.
Although I'm sure they're doing it as a "when in Rome" situation because they've been burned so many times by Apple and MS suing them over patients.
I both agree and disagree with you, it's situation dependent. My wife is looking for a new job, because the company she's working for has been migrating all of their office work overseas. In the last 3 years she's seen more than two dozen of her friends and several departments let go from her office. They told her she wouldn't be let go because they couldn't move her position, but then had the nerve to ask her to go to Manila in the Philippines to train someone to do her work. You know, just in case.
So she started looking for a new job because there's a good chance eventually her whole office will be closed.
What's the top question employers ask her! "So why are you leaving xxxxx?"
It's a hard question to answer honestly without seeming like she's bad mouthing the company she's currently working for. On the other hand if the answer to the question was, "because I hate my manager." I'd agree with you completely about it being unprofessional.
I would have read that as, If we're reading a post from a Slashdot user who has a girlfriend then by association all Slashdot users have girlfriends... Don't tell my wife. I guess by association that means all Slashdot users have wives as well and are cheating on them with their associated girlfriends. Since some Slashdot users are girls that makes some Slashdot users lesbians so we must all be lesbians by association... I wonder how I'm going to break that to my wife and daughter?
I think this is a great excuse to unfriend my mom. She's always posting copyrighted material from the dog shelter she works at and I wouldn't want to be guilty of associating with someone posting material advocating helping homeless animals without the permission of the humane society.
this Bob thing aggravates you enough to ask that something be done about it.
True, but only because I hate listening to people complain when we're all technical people and any one of us on the board could solve the issues. I think this is a boiling frog situation that just happened over a long period of time and no one wants to take responsibility for solving the issue for fear they'll become responsible. As I mentioned in another post somewhere the board members are looking to get off the board, but since there's no one to replace them they feel stuck so taking on additional responsibilities is not something they want to do.
It may be that you don't quite fit in with these people.
True, I'm not really far behind them in years, but I lack the experience they have. I've always been a see problem fix it person, the other board members seem to be more into delegating. That's probably why I'm still a code monkey and they're not.
You may want to leave. Or do you suspect you've been brought in to shake things up?
I like the people in the organization and feel we do a lot of good for the public interest. The problem is the membership is aging and no one wants to spend time on the board. It's too much effort for people that have better things to do. I offered to fill a position for multiple reasons one being no one else would and another one being the hopes that I can shake things up and possibly find a way to bring new blood into the organization. If I can't we might have another 5-7 years before our existing membership starts retiring and then we're done for sure.
You say you don't have the time to take over Bob's job yourself if he bolts, and I guess that's why it's so important to keep him.
Bob's experience and general attitude is why it's important to keep him. I have a way to get documents one at a time out of his system so if he did leave, with some help, I could migrate to something else. I started asking him questions about his system yesterday, which he was happy to talk about. I'm hoping when I have some more time he'll be willing to show me where and how to access the code.
You keep saying every single time how great Bob is (he reads slashdot, am I right?).
I'm not sure, I haven't asked. I think it would be safe to assume he does, most tech people I know do.
If he's so great, why does he need to be treated so tenderly?
Wish I knew, he seems friendly enough maybe he has a Mr. Hyde side I haven't seen yet.
Why is everyone agreed that his system has gone to heck, but no one wants to confront him?
I asked one of the other members yesterday and was told there was a bit of a clash about it a couple of years ago, but they didn't know all the details. There's probably a lot more history I'm not aware of yet.
Does he own the org's domain name?
No
Has he threatened to quit before?
Not that I'm aware of
Don't be shy. Tomorrow, ask at least 3 people why they themselves haven't brought the topic up with Bob.
Working on it, I haven't been able to touch base with the other board members.
You say you're usually direct, but you're here asking how you can finesse this thing all sneaky like.
If you're going to read anything in this post this should be it
I posted to Slashdot because overall I do respect the comments of a lot of people that post here. There's a very wide range of age, technical ability, experience and knowledge to draw on. I've received excellent feedback that has changed the way I was thinking about the situation and the direction I was headed in. I wasn't trying to be sneaky. This situation is new to me and I needed guidance and there's
I like Bob and he's way more experienced than me. I'm not looking to replace him I just want to make the system more useable and easier to manage.It's all volunteer, we're not paid and put in quite a bit of time to keep our organization running. So if Bob doesn't like the suggestion I eventually come up with I'd back down pretty quick and if the board want to let me go, fine.
Bob's more valuable, not just because of the system he's developed, and I know it.
Good points, but I'm not into selling BS. Bob's a good guy and I really believe no one has approached him with the issues yet, at least not in a "your system is great and we want to keep it. How about someone helps you reorganize the files to make it more efficient"
I don't think he's a "gatekeeper" as some have said and he's just a guy that did something good that got out of hand. I've definitely reconsidered my original idea that putting things in Google Docs is the way to go. I can do somethings with Google Docs, but ultimately Bob's system is really just disorganized files. I think if I offer to learn his system and help reorganize things he'll be receptive.
Some of the other suggestions here are a good start to avoiding the blow up.
Work with Bob to learn his system. He's a technical guy, I'm a technical guy. I'm sure he'd jump at a chance to show off his work, and I am interested in what he's done. I just don't have the time to maintain it if he was to leave. That being said learning his system would put me in a position to do something with it later, while building a genuine relationship with a brilliant well meaning person. The only downside would come if he sees me as trying to destroy his baby instead of wanting make it more accessible to people that should be using it.
Other posters have pointed out the issue may not be with Bob's system so much as with the fact that 20+ years of documents are disorganized and just need to be sorted to make the system workable again. Something I could and will certainly help Bob with if he teaches me how to use the system.
Great suggestion. Bob, along with the other board members, has already been president... several times. I'm the first new board member to step up in quite awhile and I only did so because no one else would and our board members want to move on, but can't because there are no replacements. I guess this is my "training" period so I can relieve someone some day.
I like the idea of having a committee specifically designated to finding new broad members from the organizations existing membership. Maybe serving a short stint on a committee or chairing a committee could be a requirement for new organization members as a way to integrate them into the organization and a way to avoid my current situation. Which is I know something needs to be done, but don't know how to go about doing it. I think part of the problem is the existing board has become a pretty tight knit group because they've been doing all the work together for sometime, so they don't know how to mentor someone and train them to take over.
After reading though the tread I'm thinking working with Bob and learning his system is the best approach. I didn't mean to come off as "Bob's system is crap and needs to be replaced". I'm sure most of the issues with the system stems for its disorganization, which is more of the whole boards fault for not having convention and using them than Bob's system not working.
Great suggestion. This brings up another issue. I'm completely in experienced at this sort of thing. I became a board member because no one else would. Our organization needs fixing and new ideas, but there's no "mentoring" per-say for people with ideas that just don't know how to properly express them. I didn't intended for my submission to come off as I'm going behind Bob's back. I'm willing to work with him to resolve the issues if that's what he prefers I was just looking for the best way to go about doing that without offending him.
I agree, Bob is a great guy and I don't want him to think less of me. Plus I don't like playing politics. I'm usually very forward with people and accept that they aren't always going to appreciate being blunt the way I appreciate people being blunt with me. In this case I 1) don't want Bob to dislike me because I fail to see the value in his system and 2) don't want him to decided he's had enough volunteering because he's unappreciated. I'm willing to learn his system and help improve it, but that would still leave the issue that when he leaves I don't have the time he does to put into maintaining the system and when I leave someone else has to learn it. Using a COTS product would solve the issue of requiring someone to maintain the system, but would require retraining as now Bob does almost all the work.
I'm just completely miffed the board has operated the way it does for so long with no plan for if Bob, and unpaid volunteer, decided to leave.
Slashdot Mirror
My french is really bad since I'm from Nova Scotia and don't use it on a regular basis. I'm probably more likely to get fined for mangling the language, but Non, excusez-moi. S'il vous plaît obtenir votre propre raison. Eh!
Yeah, it use to be great to get a $100 USD check from my Mom in NC for my Birthday. I use to be able to get $140 CAD out of it after the bank took their "transfer" fees. Now I'm luck if I can get $80 CAD. You have to watch the currency closely. The news the day before I deposited the last check from my mom to my daughter said the dollar was around $0.95 then when I cashed the check the next day the rate was around $1.05. After the bank took their "transfer" fee the $100 USD ended up being closer to $85 CAD.
Although it was funny as hell when Mom came to visit, gave a $5 USD bill at the Tim's drive through for a $4.95 order and was told it wasn't enough.
No, sorry. Please get your own reason. Eh!
FTFY
NO!!! It's our common scene and we're not sharing it. Start making your own Eh!
If microsoft don't care about piracy, they've got a funny way of making their legit customers jump through ever increasing online activation hoops for shits and giggles.
Sorry to say, but based on the fact that DRM schemes only affect legit customers, since the first thing pirates do is subvert or strip out the DRM, nothing you said has anything to do deterring piracy and has everything to do with making it look like they're deterring piracy. Basically all it does is make it appear to legit customers and stock holders that there and DRM is a required solution, while only making it mildly difficult for pirates, until one person figures out the newest scheme, then booty ahoy!
CS6 hasn't even been out for a year yet, I know because I have a license for the Web premium package, and there is virtually no difference between CS5 and CS6, at least that I make use of, Photoshop and Dreamweaver work pretty much the same. For a high school or college student, they don't require CS6 to be up-to-date. If it doesn't already exists, I haven't gone looking since I have a license provided by my employer, give it time, there will be a work around for the current CS6 DRM, probably just in time for CS7 to come out. While to me CS6 would be a major expense personally, to my employer it's a drop in the bucket.
You do have an interesting perspective. I'm not really a windows user, WinXP is on my Work machine because my company provides the machine and OS. We're currently moving to Win7. The company plans on avoiding Win8 for a number of reasons.
1) We never use the first iteration of something right away and always only after its been out for awhile, so issues will have been found and corrected. We're not paying anyone, including MS, to be their beta testers.
2) People hate change, even the tiniest little things, of course you could say the devil is in the details and the small changes are the most difficult to get use to, like when a buttons location or an image icon is changed, these small things will drive people up the wall because they have to spend tons of time looking for something that was so simple to find before. Eventually people will get use to it and won't care anymore
We all know, even those of us that hate windows, that MS isn't going anywhere. If Win8 is a flop MS will announce Win9 is coming, I expect them to announce it by the end of next year, then they'll take what is working in Win8 for Win9 and throw the rest away. Hopeful companies like yours don't waste hundreds of man hours and small fortunes in developing Metro apps only to have Metro thrown out of Win9. I personally wouldn't be taking the risk and I'm positive Metro will be the first thing to go. The live tiles sound like a great idea, but IMHO it's a crappy, way too busy interface, that'll quickly turn into an marketing tool flooding peoples Win8 devices with crap ads, which will chew through data plans. People will be throwing their Win8 devices out because it'll be too hard to adapt too and will become a dogs breakfast for advertisers will not offering any real benefit to the customers that paid for the phone and the apps that will be streaming ads not stop.
I was about to say the same thing. It's kind of like how Adobe "allows" their photo shop suite to be pirated. They don't formally allow it and will adamantly deny it, but the truth is you get high school and collage students using the product for free, then when they get to the corporate world, where the money for Adobe really is, the corporations by the product that considered the norm for the field.
Right now MS is having a hard time pushing Windows 8 few individuals want to use it and there's no way any major corporate entity is going to switch because they don't want to spend money to buy a product that's probably going to need weeks or months to for people learn to use properly when the existing product works just fine. By having Win8 pirated a wider population of individuals will be willing to use and get use to using it, which will be beneficial and essential to having Win8 adopted by the larger corporate community.
Back up there Tex. You have to specify the complexity of your application and what version of IE you're supporting before you claim it only takes an extra 15 minutes of work. I work on a large site and up until two months ago I was required to support IE 6, 7, 8 and 9. I found out two months ago as of February 2012 we're no longer supporting IE 6 and as of February 2013 we won't support IE 7, IE 8 support is slated to be phased out starting in the fall of 2013.
Web apps, epically those that require javascript, can be very complex and supporting IE 6, 7 is not trivial for larger applications. IE 8 is not so bad, but still requires effort. IE 9 is better, I'm hoping IE 10 will get it right and I won't be required to code for everything, then re-code for IE. Although I'll still have to make modifications for IE 8 and 9
I can develop an application in Firefox and with no additional effort it'll work in Opera, Chrome and Safari, but the same application without modification will not work in IE 6 or 7, sometimes not in IE 8 and on more rare occasions not in IE 9. No web developer will agree supporting IE only takes an extra 15 minutes, unless they only support IE and even then there can still significant effort involved in porting to the other versions of IE. I've had clients tell me not to worry about IE once I told them what effort would be involved in porting a large application. Of course we try to support as many users as we can, but sometimes the amount of effort to grab that extra 20% just isn't worth spending double or triple the effort in development and testing.
Feel free to tell me to get off your lawn.
Wasn't this the kind of crap MS tried to pull with IE6?
I'm sure their intention was to allow enterprises to develop applications for and using IE6, but it ended honorably for everyone and was the reason IE6 ended up hanging on for so long past it's expiry.
What I said was I'm disappointed in Google because I consider the litigation route to be the low road. Ok or not didn't factor into the equation, supporting lawyers whose only purpose is to stop competition and kill possibly good products, in general not from MS specifically, did.
However, at the same time I understand why Google is suing MS and I like to see MS get what's coming to them for a) using another companies unlicensed technology to make profit for themselves and b) because they're not shy about suing others for doing the same.
Something along those lines.
I've never owned an iPad, a Kindle or a netbook and I have no interest in the Surface. Sometimes I wouldn't mind owning an android tablet, but really have no use for it other than to use it as an e-reader, which my android phone does nicely anyway.
I think you've summed up the consumerism and how loosely the term innovative is thrown around these days. "But judge our product has rounder corners, it's innovative", "I know let's attach a keyboard as the cover instead of a kickstand.... Funny it looks like a netbook with a detachable keybard... that's supper crazy extra monkey balls innovative!!!! "
I agree, I'm usually on Google's side, but this time I'm very disappointed that they're sinking to MS and Apples level of stifling "innovative" products, if you could call the surface that.
Although I'm sure they're doing it as a "when in Rome" situation because they've been burned so many times by Apple and MS suing them over patients.
I both agree and disagree with you, it's situation dependent. My wife is looking for a new job, because the company she's working for has been migrating all of their office work overseas. In the last 3 years she's seen more than two dozen of her friends and several departments let go from her office. They told her she wouldn't be let go because they couldn't move her position, but then had the nerve to ask her to go to Manila in the Philippines to train someone to do her work. You know, just in case.
So she started looking for a new job because there's a good chance eventually her whole office will be closed.
What's the top question employers ask her! "So why are you leaving xxxxx?"
It's a hard question to answer honestly without seeming like she's bad mouthing the company she's currently working for. On the other hand if the answer to the question was, "because I hate my manager." I'd agree with you completely about it being unprofessional.
I would have read that as, If we're reading a post from a Slashdot user who has a girlfriend then by association all Slashdot users have girlfriends... Don't tell my wife. I guess by association that means all Slashdot users have wives as well and are cheating on them with their associated girlfriends. Since some Slashdot users are girls that makes some Slashdot users lesbians so we must all be lesbians by association... I wonder how I'm going to break that to my wife and daughter?
I think this is a great excuse to unfriend my mom. She's always posting copyrighted material from the dog shelter she works at and I wouldn't want to be guilty of associating with someone posting material advocating helping homeless animals without the permission of the humane society.
I don't know, with what it costs to train someone and how few people actually have the ability to be a seal it's probably not worth firing them.
this Bob thing aggravates you enough to ask that something be done about it.
True, but only because I hate listening to people complain when we're all technical people and any one of us on the board could solve the issues. I think this is a boiling frog situation that just happened over a long period of time and no one wants to take responsibility for solving the issue for fear they'll become responsible. As I mentioned in another post somewhere the board members are looking to get off the board, but since there's no one to replace them they feel stuck so taking on additional responsibilities is not something they want to do.
It may be that you don't quite fit in with these people.
True, I'm not really far behind them in years, but I lack the experience they have. I've always been a see problem fix it person, the other board members seem to be more into delegating. That's probably why I'm still a code monkey and they're not.
You may want to leave. Or do you suspect you've been brought in to shake things up?
I like the people in the organization and feel we do a lot of good for the public interest. The problem is the membership is aging and no one wants to spend time on the board. It's too much effort for people that have better things to do. I offered to fill a position for multiple reasons one being no one else would and another one being the hopes that I can shake things up and possibly find a way to bring new blood into the organization. If I can't we might have another 5-7 years before our existing membership starts retiring and then we're done for sure.
You say you don't have the time to take over Bob's job yourself if he bolts, and I guess that's why it's so important to keep him.
Bob's experience and general attitude is why it's important to keep him. I have a way to get documents one at a time out of his system so if he did leave, with some help, I could migrate to something else. I started asking him questions about his system yesterday, which he was happy to talk about. I'm hoping when I have some more time he'll be willing to show me where and how to access the code.
You keep saying every single time how great Bob is (he reads slashdot, am I right?).
I'm not sure, I haven't asked. I think it would be safe to assume he does, most tech people I know do.
If he's so great, why does he need to be treated so tenderly?
Wish I knew, he seems friendly enough maybe he has a Mr. Hyde side I haven't seen yet.
Why is everyone agreed that his system has gone to heck, but no one wants to confront him?
I asked one of the other members yesterday and was told there was a bit of a clash about it a couple of years ago, but they didn't know all the details. There's probably a lot more history I'm not aware of yet.
Does he own the org's domain name?
No
Has he threatened to quit before?
Not that I'm aware of
Don't be shy. Tomorrow, ask at least 3 people why they themselves haven't brought the topic up with Bob.
Working on it, I haven't been able to touch base with the other board members.
You say you're usually direct, but you're here asking how you can finesse this thing all sneaky like.
If you're going to read anything in this post this should be it
I posted to Slashdot because overall I do respect the comments of a lot of people that post here. There's a very wide range of age, technical ability, experience and knowledge to draw on. I've received excellent feedback that has changed the way I was thinking about the situation and the direction I was headed in. I wasn't trying to be sneaky. This situation is new to me and I needed guidance and there's
I'd give in.
I like Bob and he's way more experienced than me. I'm not looking to replace him I just want to make the system more useable and easier to manage.It's all volunteer, we're not paid and put in quite a bit of time to keep our organization running. So if Bob doesn't like the suggestion I eventually come up with I'd back down pretty quick and if the board want to let me go, fine.
Bob's more valuable, not just because of the system he's developed, and I know it.
Good points, but I'm not into selling BS. Bob's a good guy and I really believe no one has approached him with the issues yet, at least not in a "your system is great and we want to keep it. How about someone helps you reorganize the files to make it more efficient"
I don't think he's a "gatekeeper" as some have said and he's just a guy that did something good that got out of hand. I've definitely reconsidered my original idea that putting things in Google Docs is the way to go. I can do somethings with Google Docs, but ultimately Bob's system is really just disorganized files. I think if I offer to learn his system and help reorganize things he'll be receptive.
Some of the other suggestions here are a good start to avoiding the blow up.
Work with Bob to learn his system. He's a technical guy, I'm a technical guy. I'm sure he'd jump at a chance to show off his work, and I am interested in what he's done. I just don't have the time to maintain it if he was to leave. That being said learning his system would put me in a position to do something with it later, while building a genuine relationship with a brilliant well meaning person. The only downside would come if he sees me as trying to destroy his baby instead of wanting make it more accessible to people that should be using it.
Other posters have pointed out the issue may not be with Bob's system so much as with the fact that 20+ years of documents are disorganized and just need to be sorted to make the system workable again. Something I could and will certainly help Bob with if he teaches me how to use the system.
Great suggestion. Bob, along with the other board members, has already been president... several times. I'm the first new board member to step up in quite awhile and I only did so because no one else would and our board members want to move on, but can't because there are no replacements. I guess this is my "training" period so I can relieve someone some day.
I like the idea of having a committee specifically designated to finding new broad members from the organizations existing membership. Maybe serving a short stint on a committee or chairing a committee could be a requirement for new organization members as a way to integrate them into the organization and a way to avoid my current situation. Which is I know something needs to be done, but don't know how to go about doing it. I think part of the problem is the existing board has become a pretty tight knit group because they've been doing all the work together for sometime, so they don't know how to mentor someone and train them to take over.
After reading though the tread I'm thinking working with Bob and learning his system is the best approach. I didn't mean to come off as "Bob's system is crap and needs to be replaced". I'm sure most of the issues with the system stems for its disorganization, which is more of the whole boards fault for not having convention and using them than Bob's system not working.
Great suggestion. This brings up another issue. I'm completely in experienced at this sort of thing. I became a board member because no one else would. Our organization needs fixing and new ideas, but there's no "mentoring" per-say for people with ideas that just don't know how to properly express them. I didn't intended for my submission to come off as I'm going behind Bob's back. I'm willing to work with him to resolve the issues if that's what he prefers I was just looking for the best way to go about doing that without offending him.
I value your suggestion. Although, I don't like playing politics and I think there maybe a way to take over Bob's system with his blessing.
I agree, Bob is a great guy and I don't want him to think less of me. Plus I don't like playing politics. I'm usually very forward with people and accept that they aren't always going to appreciate being blunt the way I appreciate people being blunt with me. In this case I 1) don't want Bob to dislike me because I fail to see the value in his system and 2) don't want him to decided he's had enough volunteering because he's unappreciated. I'm willing to learn his system and help improve it, but that would still leave the issue that when he leaves I don't have the time he does to put into maintaining the system and when I leave someone else has to learn it. Using a COTS product would solve the issue of requiring someone to maintain the system, but would require retraining as now Bob does almost all the work.
I'm just completely miffed the board has operated the way it does for so long with no plan for if Bob, and unpaid volunteer, decided to leave.