Say it and I'll let you know.

Arguments ensue on every board. Life isn't a cotillion with its contrived proprieties.

I have no idea what universe people live in where they think a lack of dispute is desirable or productive.

Three to Five years ago, we all being told the most insane things and told that it was bad form to even question them, let alone dispute them. We should have learned from that.

When somebody tells me it's ok to go to Walmart with hundreds, but the Pizza place down the street must be shut down, I'm going to dispute it-even if it came from an Ayatollah with an MD.

When somebody tells me that a new hire doesn't have the ideal qualifications because they don't have some kind of museum experience when all the predecessors have been pulled from that pool and have presided over three decades of decline, I'm going to dispute it.

Worse, I did a little research; he's been involved with the USS Cleveland Foundation as a director and that ship is intended to be a museum, if I read the "about" correctly and so he's not without any knowledge of historic preservation-and in this case he's planning for the future. Excellent.

There are times you have an opening; and you are trying to fill it with specific technical skills that simply don't exist all in one person-then you have to think "outside the box" and look for other skills that might be transferrable-or personal qualities that indicate an abiding interest or aptitude that will ensure OJT development.

When I hire new accountants, I like to ask questions that tell me about them-my favorite is "how do you put your shoes in the closet". Not only does it get past the HR Karens, it tells me how a person responds to a curveball. Most importantly, if they say "I organize them according [to any reasonable way]"; I have a candidate. If you'll organize your shoes, you'll be careful with journals, ledgers and spreadsheets.

The key thing for the new Superintendent going to be vision, organization and perseverance. Dealing with the NPS bureaucracy is unbelievably frustrating and dispiriting.

An example: At one point, ten years ago, we became aware of the "self-guided" tours that you can do at Gettysburg. You would load an app on your phone; and as you would drive, the app uses/used your GPS to link to a URL that would present relevant content about your location. You could drive around in your car, with your family eating Cheetos at your pace. I assume it still exists and is better now, but I don't know. What a cool idea.

We presented the idea of having a stand placed next to a few of the static exhibits that would have a QR code (avoiding any loss of GPS signal or mistakes due to the precision limits of the sensor) that one could use a phone or tablet to get relevant information about the exhibit. We wanted to pilot it on something like the IC 790 which sat in the "core complex" as a static exhibit.

By the time Superintendent Conway got done explaining that this would require the NPS architects to be involved and approve the design and dimensions and so it would be a long involved process, I was left thinking how the hell is this organization every going to be able to do anything with these new technologies to improve the visitor experience. All we wanted to do have a code with a message "scan here for more information", and yet this meant descending to Dante's lowest levels of a fresh hell.

It became more frustrating when you realize "ad hoc" signs are everywhere; usually telling you not to climb or enter-or why something was closed or is out of service. I'm fairly certain the architects didn't review or approve those signs, especially when they were 8 1/2 X 11's run off a laser.

That incident marked the first time I though my thousands (about 3500 when I left) were like routing for the Cubs.

Maybe people should send him a book or something to help fill in the gaps. I think a SEAL is probably well versed in identifying and exploiting useful assets.



















 

Superheater,

It would be great for you to have a leisurely lunch with "the new guy"-- just the two of you, conversating. That could be very interesting.

Howard P.

I’m in for $20 toward the tab.

If I can be there, I'll pick up the tab for you both. Including the beer.

Ross, Howard, Wes, Overmod:

Appreciate the sentiments. Wes,Overmod appreciate the offer, but that Chinese AI induced tech swoon last Monday was fairly profitable for me, so send a donation to your favorite restoration project, please.

I'm not opposed to the idea, but..

At least one other former long time volunteer would like to meet with the new Super and is more committed to doing so than me. The thought is to give him some time to "settle in" and then make the request. If successful and there's outreach to repair the damage done by the former Superintendent, that will be a gauge on receptivity to outside opinions.

I'm also mindful that I'm more Carolina Reaper pepper than vanilla ice cream and some people don't find 2,000,000 Scoville Units palatable.

From your last post, I guess that "superheater" has more to do with spice than temperature. Moving forward to an earlier post by you...
I am reminded of how any organization can be Dilbertized. Hopefully the operation by the new superintendent of the NPS Steamtown site can avoid this syndrome and actually be effective in using given staff, negotiating necessary regulation, and utilizing available volunteer support teams. Viva 3713! Break the mold!
O. Anderson

One thing you learn about government is that its essential mission is to be the last remaining thing. Hence the idea about stuffing a few hundred people under the Greenbrier Hotel that could run "a government" while the rest of the county was a smoldering ruin from a hypothetical full scale nuclear attack. They really thought if they were the only survivors of a full scale exchange; there would still be a United States and we would have "won" the battle of radioactive hellscapes.

Too accomplish its goal, government limits the span of control, restricts the volume of work imposed on any person or group, is organized around functional authority, and has plenty of duplication and redundancy built in-unfortunately this makes agility, (both in speed and novelty of response) difficult.

That also results in different reporting. If you're low on sleep meds; here's a Government Accounting Standards White Board "White Paper".

https://www.gasb.org/page/ShowPdf?path= ... 4Different

In some of its functions, that's a good trade. You want to be able to go to the courthouse and get a document-you don't want to hear we can't find it Bob died or it was lost when we changed locations. If your deed is retrieved slowly or it costs money-you don't really mind the tradeoff.

As to your supposition about the pseudonym-it was more an homage to the idea of superheating in a locomotive than my love of spicey food.

I've really only encountered two things that were too hot. One was the hottest wings at a wing shack called Rich and Charlotte's in Harvey's Lake PA (former home of Hansen's Amusement Park where the Lehigh Valley ran trains underneath the wooden coaster-and the park's amusement train still survives and is owned/operated by former Penn State wrestler Zain Retherford's family near Benton, PA.)

I'm also fairly certain that I heard Retherford say he appreciated his father juggling getting him to tournaments while working for "the Railroad" on a podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eS35Bw1DIo

It's now an homage to his nickname the Zain train.

The other attack of heat was the Chili Colorado at El Canelo in Frostburg Md, at the end of the WMSC.

At El Canelo, I was warned "it's hot", but dismissed the warning. I've never sweated from my eyebrows before or since.

Try with caution.