Monday, October 29, 2007
How Things Change
Have you ever been to a meeting where a subject was discussed around and around and around, but nothing was ever decided and nothing was ever done about it? I'm sure you have. What those meetings often need is some hard data to break the loop of opinion and indecision.
So I'm going to attempt to gather some data. I will need your help for this.
For years, ARBA has been discussing what constitutes a show entry at Convention. This year, multiple announcements were made that if a rabbit were scratched, it had to be removed from the showroom. It was very disconcerting to many people. Folks were afraid to write scratch on the coops of rabbits for fear they might be ejected. I have no idea how many rabbits went before judges that might not have otherwise.
Those rabbits that were brought for sale and never were really intended to compete required a runner to bring them, the ramrod to keep track of them, the judge to evaluate them and comment on them, the writer to record repsonses, the breed chair to record their "no place," and someone from the hostclub to enter that piece of data.
Conventions are getting huge, so having a percentage of unnecessary work can really add up.
I wrote to Eric Stewart about my concerns. He replied that I should write a formal proposal. I'm not going to write a proposal just based on my own opinion, though. That's just more of the same. I want to collect information from a significant number of ARBA members and base my proposal on the views of the members.
I have created a Yahoo! Group just for the purpose of collecting information. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rabbit-surveys/. I am asking all ARBA members who have ever attended a Convention or who ever plan to, to join and answer the questions. They are multiple choice, so it's just a matter of reading the question, clicking on your answer, and then going back to the "Poll" section to answer the next question.
Please email all of the ARBA members in your address book and ask them to join and pass the word on. Take a few minutes to answer the questions.
You will need to provide your ARBA number in order to join. I will endeavor to approve memberships as quickly as possible.
In the future, if this endeavor is successful, I would like to use the polls to collect other information. Individual ARBA members are a wealth of information. We just need to collect and organize that information to the benefit of all ARBA members.
Laurie ¶ 11:19 AM
So I'm going to attempt to gather some data. I will need your help for this.
For years, ARBA has been discussing what constitutes a show entry at Convention. This year, multiple announcements were made that if a rabbit were scratched, it had to be removed from the showroom. It was very disconcerting to many people. Folks were afraid to write scratch on the coops of rabbits for fear they might be ejected. I have no idea how many rabbits went before judges that might not have otherwise.
Those rabbits that were brought for sale and never were really intended to compete required a runner to bring them, the ramrod to keep track of them, the judge to evaluate them and comment on them, the writer to record repsonses, the breed chair to record their "no place," and someone from the hostclub to enter that piece of data.
Conventions are getting huge, so having a percentage of unnecessary work can really add up.
I wrote to Eric Stewart about my concerns. He replied that I should write a formal proposal. I'm not going to write a proposal just based on my own opinion, though. That's just more of the same. I want to collect information from a significant number of ARBA members and base my proposal on the views of the members.
I have created a Yahoo! Group just for the purpose of collecting information. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rabbit-surveys/. I am asking all ARBA members who have ever attended a Convention or who ever plan to, to join and answer the questions. They are multiple choice, so it's just a matter of reading the question, clicking on your answer, and then going back to the "Poll" section to answer the next question.
Please email all of the ARBA members in your address book and ask them to join and pass the word on. Take a few minutes to answer the questions.
You will need to provide your ARBA number in order to join. I will endeavor to approve memberships as quickly as possible.
In the future, if this endeavor is successful, I would like to use the polls to collect other information. Individual ARBA members are a wealth of information. We just need to collect and organize that information to the benefit of all ARBA members.
Laurie ¶ 11:19 AM
