Administrative Update

The Co-Chairs have made it through the beginning of the semester, but not without some moments worth blogging about. Where to begin? Well, we appear to be a perfect team. We had been feeling this when we got through our first unpleasant meeting with a faculty member at which we played off each other and although faculty member left disgruntled, s/he was still on speaking terms with one of us (it wasn't yours truly as you will understand in what follows). This was highlighted in a meeting last week with a handful of the full professors. We have them meet as an advisory committee since each of them has more institutional memory than the two of us combined. It can be helpful, but also really grim. After this particular meeting, F said, "I thought that went pretty well." To which I replied, "What? Well? They called you "too sensitive" and me "Mussolini"... exactly how did that go "well"?" Well, I guess it did underscore our yin/yang-ness. (I think my siblings might empathasize with the Mussolini characterization.) Perhaps I should say what motivated the comparison. F and I subscribe to the wacky view that faculty members should attend departmental meetings and the yearly retreat. We realize this is 'out there'. After all, people are drawing a full-time salary and there is one meeting a month... but, hey, we think participation is in fact part of our jobs. So, after the retreat, we sent letters to all the absentee faculty noting their absence and hoping to see their full participation in the future. This did not go down well. I was reminded of my equally heinous record-keeping last spring when I kept track of who came to the job talks by our external chair candidates. One of the senior folks was heard to say that he wanted to "do something about the letter". Now, I'm wondering, perhaps he should go to our Dean to complain that we pointed out that he isn't doing his job and he is upset about this.
Other fun items.
Learned that one or our senior faculty members encourages a donation of a bottle of wine in return for writing a letter of recommendation....this came to my attention when the Mormon receptionist appeared holding a bottle at arm's length saying "what should I do with this?"
We see more clearly the ramifications of having no written by-laws or procedures. We cannot in fact vote on anything because we literally do not know how. What is a quorum? Do we vote by ballot or show of hands? Can people vote by proxy? By email?
Our working slogan is: Inventing the wheel, one spoke at a time!