I sorted out the computer, said that if she had only being using MsWord, instead of Wordpad, she would not have lost her priory exhibition texts, I’ve even offered to help her learn how to use all the features of Word while helping to write her ‘reporting responsibilities’ document, that would have directly resolved’ the root of the original conflict.

The fact is that she only even talks to me when its convenient for her, ie when she needs something, before her computer issue I don’t think she has said more than 3 consecutive words to me since last October.

Even at the opening, there were times when Me

I do not wish to continue the proscribed process as outlined in the action points of the last committee meeting regarding my grievance with Meg. It seems obvious that with Meg’s abject refusal to even attempt to redress the problem that any process will fail to effect change without putting the museum directly into a potentially destructive process.

Please find the attached document ‘Complaints.rtf’, which outlines the processes that are notionally in use, I must stress that this is a draft, and should not be considered anything more than my personal notes on the problem. Please circulate as appropriate.

Because there has not been a coherent effort to document this, until now, what has not been noticed is that this is a system which requires command and control structures that don’t, and can’t, exist within a totally voluntary organisation. This power vacuum is a natural consequence of the fact that, increasingly, we are all volunteers, thus among other inconsistencies, the required level of perceived authority to execute this style of system where one volunteer has to exert speculative control over others does not exist. This can be seen in the question of ' which hat am I wairing' and the confusion generated where direct reporting and operational lines are combined into one person with two 'hats'.

To extend the argument, I think since a hierarchical system is failing to manage with grievance and complaints, the idea of a more communal arrangement is worth some consideration, ie there have been two complaints recently, incidentally both of which can be directly linked to Meg’s interference.

In this communal environment, if a complaint can not be resolved informally, it passes to a ‘committee of the whole house’ type meeting for all volunteers and management to ask the questions of all concerned and to vote on a consensual solution.

As a by product of this thinking, I would seriously recommend that management committee meetings be opened up to all volunteers, and the formal directors meetings reduced to the circulation of written reports, effectively reverting to a more passive entity, ie as things were before committee members were actively getting involved in operations.

I don’t want to teach people how to suck eggs, but my situation doesn’t give me much choice in the matter as I have a unique insight into the workings of the museum, and I would hate to think that this painful episode has not produced anything of benefit to anyone.

With kind regards,

----------

Dear committee,

It has been 3 weeks since the last committee meeting at which, as I understand the situation, Meg was ‘asked’ to informally make some ‘attempt’ at ‘resolving’ the ‘personal’ ‘issues’ between her and I. Please excuse the excessive use of quotation marks above, my feelings as to the failures of the past should be obvious - that is not important as we look to the future, continuing in the same way. Nothing happened, or even looks like progress, I don't know what to do now, was hoping for some advice at the opening.

Well, I’ve gone out of my way to give Meg reasonable opportunities in which to start what ever process was indicated, including fixing her computer which had malfunctioned the day before the meeting, (heat retention damage to her most recent files) in fact while leaving, that same meeting, she asked my dad if he thought I would help her sort it out.

I sorted out the computer, said that if she had only being using MsWord, instead of Wordpad, she would not have lost her priory exhibition texts, I’ve even offered to help her learn how to use all the features of Word while helping to write her ‘reporting responsibilities’ document, that would have directly resolved’ the root of the original conflict.

The fact is that she only even talks to me when its convenient for her, ie when she needs something, before her computer issue I don’t think she has said more than 3 consecutive words to me since last October.

Even at the opening, there were times when Me

To extend the argument, I think since a hierarchical system is failing to manage with grievance and complaints, the idea of a more communal arrangement is worth some consideration, ie there have been two complaints recently, incidentally both of which can be directly linked to Meg’s interference.

In this communal environment, if a complaint can not be resolved informally, it passes to a ‘committee of the whole house’ type meeting for all volunteers and management to ask the questions of all concerned and to vote on a consensual solution.

As a by product of this thinking, I would seriously recommend that management committee meetings be opened up to all volunteers, and the formal directors meetings reduced to the circulation of written reports, effectively reverting to a more passive entity, ie as things were before committee members were actively getting involved in operations.

I don’t want to teach people how to suck eggs, but my situation doesn’t give me much choice in the matter as I have a unique insight into the workings of the museum, and I would hate to think that this painful episode has not produced anything of benefit to anyone.

With kind regards,

----------

Dear committee,

It has been 3 weeks since the last committee meeting at which, as I understand the situation, Meg was ‘asked’ to informally make some ‘attempt’ at ‘resolving’ the ‘personal’ ‘issues’ between her and I. Please excuse the excessive use of quotation marks above, my feelings as to the failures of the past should be obvious - that is not important as we look to the future, continuing in the same way. Nothing happened, or even looks like progress, I don't know what to do now, was hoping for some advice at the opening.

Well, I’ve gone out of my way to give Meg reasonable opportunities in which to start what ever process was indicated, including fixing her computer which had malfunctioned the day before the meeting, (heat retention damage to her most recent files) in fact while leaving, that same meeting, she asked my dad if he thought I would help her sort it out.

I sorted out the computer, said that if she had only being using MsWord, instead of Wordpad, she would not have lost her priory exhibition texts, I’ve even offered to help her learn how to use all the features of Word while helping to write her ‘reporting responsibilities’ document, that would have directly resolved’ the root of the original conflict.

The fact is that she only even talks to me when its convenient for her, ie when she needs something, before her computer issue I don’t think she has said more than 3 consecutive words to me since last October.

Even at the opening, there were times when Me

In this communal environment, if a complaint can not be resolved informally, it passes to a ‘committee of the whole house’ type meeting for all volunteers and management to ask the questions of all concerned and to vote on a consensual solution.

As a by product of this thinking, I would seriously recommend that management committee meetings be opened up to all volunteers, and the formal directors meetings reduced to the circulation of written reports, effectively reverting to a more passive entity, ie as things were before committee members were actively getting involved in operations.

I don’t want to teach people how to suck eggs, but my situation doesn’t give me much choice in the matter as I have a unique insight into the workings of the museum, and I would hate to think that this painful episode has not produced anything of benefit to anyone.

With kind regards,

----------

Dear committee,

It has been 3 weeks since the last committee meeting at which, as I understand the situation, Meg was ‘asked’ to informally make some ‘attempt’ at ‘resolving’ the ‘personal’ ‘issues’ between her and I. Please excuse the excessive use of quotation marks above, my feelings as to the failures of the past should be obvious - that is not important as we look to the future, continuing in the same way. Nothing happened, or even looks like progress, I don't know what to do now, was hoping for some advice at the opening.

Well, I’ve gone out of my way to give Meg reasonable opportunities in which to start what ever process was indicated, including fixing her computer which had malfunctioned the day before the meeting, (heat retention damage to her most recent files) in fact while leaving, that same meeting, she asked my dad if he thought I would help her sort it out.

I sorted out the computer, said that if she had only being using MsWord, instead of Wordpad, she would not have lost her priory exhibition texts, I’ve even offered to help her learn how to use all the features of Word while helping to write her ‘reporting responsibilities’ document, that would have directly resolved’ the root of the original conflict.

The fact is that she only even talks to me when its convenient for her, ie when she needs something, before her computer issue I don’t think she has said more than 3 consecutive words to me since last October.

Even at the opening, there were times when Me

With kind regards,

----------

Dear committee,

It has been 3 weeks since the last committee meeting at which, as I understand the situation, Meg was ‘asked’ to informally make some ‘attempt’ at ‘resolving’ the ‘personal’ ‘issues’ between her and I. Please excuse the excessive use of quotation marks above, my feelings as to the failures of the past should be obvious - that is not important as we look to the future, continuing in the same way. Nothing happened, or even looks like progress, I don't know what to do now, was hoping for some advice at the opening.

Well, I’ve gone out of my way to give Meg reasonable opportunities in which to start what ever process was indicated, including fixing her computer which had malfunctioned the day before the meeting, (heat retention damage to her most recent files) in fact while leaving, that same meeting, she asked my dad if he thought I would help her sort it out.

I sorted out the computer, said that if she had only being using MsWord, instead of Wordpad, she would not have lost her priory exhibition texts, I’ve even offered to help her learn how to use all the features of Word while helping to write her ‘reporting responsibilities’ document, that would have directly resolved’ the root of the original conflict.

The fact is that she only even talks to me when its convenient for her, ie when she needs something, before her computer issue I don’t think she has said more than 3 consecutive words to me since last October.

Even at the opening, there were times when Me

I sorted out the computer, said that if she had only being using MsWord, instead of Wordpad, she would not have lost her priory exhibition texts, I’ve even offered to help her learn how to use all the features of Word while helping to write her ‘reporting responsibilities’ document, that would have directly resolved’ the root of the original conflict.

The fact is that she only even talks to me when its convenient for her, ie when she needs something, before her computer issue I don’t think she has said more than 3 consecutive words to me since last October.

Even at the opening, there were times when Meg just came over and started talking to whom ever was there, as if I didn’t exist, once while talking she moved from where she was standing so as to literally exclude me too.

Anyway, I believe Meg is not ignoring or just not trying but is actively not accepting any problem even existed, I can only assume she is having difficulty as an ex school teacher, but that’s no reason to hide her head in the sand. What sort of behaviour is this for an adult women? What sort of an example is this for the younger generation?

I think Meg wants all this to be forgotten, putdown to bad luck and then all will be right again, either that or she ‘believes’ that she has resolved the problems, maybe since I fixed her computer, it her mind, that counts somehow. :-)

Well indeed the memory and the emotion fades – but the understanding gained will not so easily, enlightenment itself does not – not completely. What does this teach me? It teaches me that I am who I was, and will always be, and so will Meg, she didn’t even write her final dissertation (she gave notes to her friend who organised and typed it up). Still I wonder about how it is that this terrible and terrifying thing called human society allows the truly stupid, reckless and dangerous to flourish.

So then logically, if I am to survive in this world, in the midst of this society, then I too can just go around floundering helplessly interfering with things I don’t understand, aimlessly not knowing or caring for the reason to do so; barking orders & acting unilaterally, just as long as I say what ever is politically convenient at that time so people think I’m actually competent!

With kind regards,

-------------------

Dear committee,

I see your version of the covering note section on your reasoning is ‘stronger’ than dads original.

I like it, as you imply that Meg/Sheila didn’t know there were other considerations, other than simply a matter of permission fromVestry Hall, and just because they didn’t think it would be a problem, that noone else would have anything important to say on the matter & it is not in anyone’s interest for this to continue.

The sad fact is that, there was debate at ' committee level ' (you may remember a 'committee' ad hoc meeting in our garden last year when I was present, let alone more formal ones where I was not) about the possibilities, including that of a permanent sign, however the point that once we have permission to mount such a sign, there MUST be committee consultation has been (conveniently) lost.

Indeed, at that initial (informal) stage, the details of implementation weren’t important enough to warrant any real consideration which, sadly, means that Meg/Sheila could argue that they ‘didn’t know they needed to know anything else’ thus due to their limited understanding, they feel no committee consultation was required.

I don’t think this works in practise, ignorance should not be a reasonable defence, assuming they generally didn’t believe there would be any problems, should volunters be able to act unilaterally?

I think Meg/Sheila could argue that, ‘You unilaterally put up the WVF signs without committee consultation, this is no different’.

In the first instance these are te