Cool, but not cold, and certainly as damp as can be. We had morning fog/heavy mist/early morning low clouds Friday, and in some places on Saturday. We might have some again today. After that, it was gorgeous Fall weather.
I did my non-prepping hobby meeting and quarterly swapmeet yesterday morning. I hadn’t had a lot of sleep, and the meeting went long, with a long Board meeting afterwards, mostly related to the web site and regularizing some stuff that had grown organically and was as krufty as 40 year old software. Volunteer organizations are manned by volunteers with different skills, experience, and levels of commitment.
Often, if something works, even if just barely, there is a LOT of momentum and resistance to changing. In this case, it’s been over a year since I moved our web stuff to a modern host and platform, but I hadn’t touched the related IT of payment systems. I’ve been paying for the hosting because it’s easier than just about anything else, and isn’t that expensive. The guy who handles our credit card machine and processing has been doing much the same, even though he’s not the Treasurer. The paypal account is ‘owned’ by a guy who moved across the country, and we can’t change passwords or anything else related to the account because the email addy or phone number for the 2 factor authentication has been long lost. People have been using their personal email accounts for org business, and those Board positions change every year…
I was a bit surprised how resistant people were to the simple idea of having dedicated emails for board positions, that would move when the positions change hands, and could be used as the official point of contact for new paypal and credit processing accounts. It’s a change in the way they are used to managing, and they didn’t want another email addy to check. In the end, we’ll be doing a limited number of new emails, and the Treasurer will establish new Paypal and CC accounts linked to the new emails instead of individuals.
I think it’s sensible and straightforward, especially as all the online services are moving to 2 factor, and it captures all the email chains for official business. From a business continuity standpoint, it makes more sense too, as we’ve already experienced what happens when someone personally tied to the infrastructure leaves the group. I must have done a poor job of communicating the issues and benefits because it took far longer and more talk to get the changes approved than I expected. Herding cats comes to mind.
Meatspace baby. Interacting with other people definitely has challenges and costs, but the rewards are there too. It’s a bit intimidating that whatever solutions I put in place or cause to happen will probably still be in use a decade from now, just like the current kludge-fest that I want to replace has been.
This place has and had something similar happen when Bob got sick. I don’t think we’d be here today if Bob hadn’t already set up my (and a couple of other peoples’) access, and given us permission to participate on that higher level. It’s been my privilege to do so and to continue to do so.
As this year winds down, take a look at whatever organizations or communities you are involved in, and think about continuity. Maybe make a plan, or let some other people know the things they might need to know. Do the same for your personal life. At a minimum, a list of accounts, passwords, and their relevance to you should be accessible to the right people.
Whatever can’t continue forever, won’t. And that includes us and the things we participate in.
Do some stacking too. Whatever might ease a transition…
nick
