Revolt gets second wind

[altivo]

Double about face today. Apparently the large library we absolutely must have with us in order to pull off a successful secession hasn't yet backed down. As of Monday, I thought they had. But today they held a staff meeting and the vote was unanimous for bailing out of the Big Messed-up Consortium. Then I heard from their tech guy this afternoon, and he says they've concluded that the financial impact is about a break even either way. They're going ahead with forming the plan, still pending the outcome of the Delegates Assembly later this month, but I think that may not matter by then. My boss met with one of our two boards tonight, the one that controls our endowments, and they backed us either way. They'll foot the bill if we decide to jump ship. The option is still open and looking viable at least.

It was a hectic night. I've mentioned that my long time partner for Wednesdays changed her schedule and is no longer there when I am. The boss is taking her place for now because she doesn't want to train someone new on our present software package and then have to retrain them. But the board was meeting, so she had to be with them. Two circulation staff were in as well, but they were there for the book club meeting, so I was *it* for two hours from 6 pm to 8 pm. Normally after 7 it gets really quiet, but that didn't happen tonight of course, so I'm pretty much melted. At least the news from the board meeting was positive.

It is windy as heck here, and not warm. There was supposed to be a chance of snow tonight, but I think it's too windy. The sky looked clear when I was driving home.

Finished Twelfth Night and borrowed an FM transmitter gadget from the library to try to listen to the rest of Redwall while driving. And that's all the news because I'm too tired to make more.

Comments

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

I bet you're looking for a return to somewhat less interesting times, huh?

I don't feel that I can say much, but I hope the whole contract and consortium thing works out to the best advantage of the libraries, staff, and patrons. It seems that the dissenting libraries have options, and see that they have options, and that's always a plus.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes, we still have options. I was afraid we didn't. It's unfortunate that I couldn't get a few more directors to open their eyes sooner, because they've now waited so long that it will cost a penalty to escape. I'm guessing the overall cost may be as high as $60K. Not just peanuts. That's divided among perhaps a half dozen institutions, so it's still feasible, but had they made this move even one month sooner, they would have saved that cash.

Interestingly, the director of a nearby library who has often been my nemesis, at least in terms of demanding the impossible from the catalog (certain things can only be one way or the other, you can't have it both ways) was the one who caught on first and has really pushed to turn the bus around before it went off the cliff. She was the only one who managed to campaign herself into a really high position in the Big Messed-Up Consortium, and as a consequence she was privy to things they were keeping hidden from us. We have been lied to repeatedly, and often knowingly. As I suspected, it was dishonest from the beginning, and the face they put on about negotiation and adjusting to match the needs and culture of those who were being "absorbed" was pure sham.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Gah - all that makes me shudder uncontrollably. It seems that our society has bought into the "need" to create bigger and bigger organizations, ostensibly to gain benefits, but mostly just to perpetuate bigger organizations as if that's some good end in itself. So you get the kind of behavior like you've described and that many of us see every day. If someone was rolling in piles of money somewhere, I guess I could see the point of dishonesty and deception, but it's a library consortium so I know there aren't piles of money anywhere.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, in this case money is not the primary motivation. It's just power, though I suspect that the executive director and his immediate subordinates got nice raises when they moved from being in charge of a system with 80 members to a new bigger system with 220 members.

The argument was made that 1) the state, which does subsidize some consortium operations to a small extent, wanted to reduce the number of groups it was dealing with in order to save money and time; and 2) there would be Big Savings in having only one set of staff and one headquarters office.

It turns out the the money involved in (1) is insignificantly small. And it was quickly concluded that the new group, sprawling as it does from the Indiana line to the Mississippi River and beyond (some Iowa libraries are members) and extending from the Wisconsin line down to Joliet and Davenport, Iowa, was geographically too large to be served from one center, so all three of the old central offices have been retained. As for staff reductions, yes, a number of officers were induced to take retirement, including all of those who served our group. We learned recently, though, that the buyouts used to pay off those retirements were huge, just as in a corporate takeover. There has been no financial saving, and in fact, I suspect a net loss.

The big mistake made by the CEO and his cronies was assuming that they could disenfranchise my subgroup, since it was the smallest of the three in the merger, and all our officers had been eliminated. It almost worked. We have been ignored, trodden upon, and shouted down. The largest of the three factions includes many tiny libraries in small rural towns over the western part of Illinois, and they have voted as a block, always doing what their former director, now CEO, advises. That outvotes us every time. The backlash has finally awakened, and has at least an even chance as of this morning of walking right out on the mess.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

This sounds utterly awful, especially for the libraries in your group. It also sounds exactly like what happened in Louisville when the three public radio stations merged under one operating group, which turned out pretty poorly for the station Dave worked for. They finally got rid of the founding executive director (or whatever his title was) last year, but so much had already been done that can never be undone. And all because the former manager of one of the stations wanted a bigger-better organization (and more power, I suppose).

I'd offer you shining armor if I had it. I'm sure you can find the white horse. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

My horses are gold, actually. I have the figurative armor, though a lot of people insist on seeing it as black rather than white.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

A nemesis in one matter is not always an enemy in another :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snort* You sound like a budding Aesop, you do.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Mix Confucious with Aesop and that's me baby :)

I have a little book of sayings I've written down somewhere.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*sings*
"We shall fight for library freeeeedom,
and hold our heads up hiiiighhh"

*runs into the winter palace, standing on tables and waving bits of paper at everyone*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Forget the bits of paper. I'll give you a plan of the Rockford HQ and you can sneak in and steal our server and backup tape unit so we don't need to buy a new one. The Big Messed-Up Consortium has no use for that equipment but has already declared that they will junk it rather than return it to us if we split. Talk about dogs in the manger, there they are. Rabid ones at that.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

What a bunch of horse apples O.O (no offense intended to you)