Phone Trouble

by Uriel Wittenberg (uw@urielw.com)

 

It was agreed in the first committee meeting, on June 21, that Linda Cottes and I would together arrange a new meeting date suitable to all. However, this turned out to be surprisingly difficult.

Shortly after the meeting, I emailed Linda a flexible range of proposed dates for the second meeting. Nevertheless, in the ensuing email exchange with Linda, it proved remarkably difficult to schedule a date. The email timestamps tell the story:

From: "Cottes, Linda" <Linda.Cottes@YMCA.NET>
To: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 8:13 AM

Uriel, the week of the 10th is best for the committee. Thursday the 13th is not good that week. Please let me know asap, as our schedules fill up.

My response came 3.5 hours later:

From: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
To: "Cottes, Linda" <Linda.Cottes@YMCA.NET>
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 11:50 AM

Any of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the week starting July 10th should be good, around 6:30 PM or thereabouts.

At this point, 4 people -- Ed Dewar, Sean O’Brien, Peter Higginson, and I -- were holding 3 dates open, waiting to hear back from Linda. But she appeared to have gone into hibernation.

Three days later, I emailed Linda:

From: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
To: "Cottes, Linda" <Linda.Cottes@YMCA.NET>
Cc: "Rich Bailey" <Rich.Bailey@ymca.net>;
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 12:02 PM

I haven’t heard back from you, and the four of us can no longer keep the dates proposed below open at this point. Please let me know the email addresses of the other committee members and I will be happy to organize a new meeting date that’s acceptable to all.

Again, silence. Then, the following week:

From: "Cottes, Linda" <Linda.Cottes@YMCA.NET>
To: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2000 8:26 AM

That won’t be necessary. The last committee member confirmed on Friday, and the committee is available to meet on Monday July 10th, at 6:30, same location.

Please let me know if this date still works.

But at that point, Ed had an out of town commitment on July 10:

From: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
To: "Cottes, Linda" <Linda.Cottes@YMCA.NET>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2000 12:30 PM

In fact, I’m afraid it does not.

There really should be no difficulty promptly designating a date that suits everyone. I urge you to give me the email addresses so we can get this done, as we intended when we last met. Please provide a phone or fax # as well for anyone who won’t be reading email at least daily.

Linda responded that it’s not as easy as it seems. Committee members sometimes find themselves in places where there are no telephones:

From: "Cottes, Linda" <Linda.Cottes@YMCA.NET>
To: "Uriel Wittenberg" <uw@urielw.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2000 1:46 PM

It is unfortunate this date no longer works for you. As much as we would like a prompt response from all, this is not always possible. I am certain, like you, the committee members have very tight schedules, and their work, like mine, takes them out of the office and out of town, away from email and in some cases away from the phone.

As in the original email, the week of the 10th is the only week that all committee members were available. Summer holidays will impact on individual availability.

Will the 11th or 12th work. Again, I will have to confirm the other committee members schedules to ensure these dates are still workable.

In the end, after I pointed out that a meeting could only happen if the committee made itself available, we finally settled upon the date of July 12.

 

Please address comments or questions to Uriel Wittenberg (uw@urielw.com).

Toronto YMCA Mismanagement: Escalation