I gave myself a few days on this issue to let the flavors mellow. It’s Saturday morning, it’s been a good week at My Place Of Work, it’s been a good if challenging personal week (Lil’ Brown-nose co-presented on research methods to her MFA lit class, and they loved it) and I’m ready to tackle this topic with some grace and humor.
Here’s what happened–names munged to protect the guilty. Last November, Very Big Library (not in Bay Area or Peninsula, btw) invited MPOW to do a one-hour presentation for VBL’s staff. Oh, we love you, they’d learn so much, we’ve heard it’s great staff development, etcetera.
MPOW loves to give these talks, and does them often. Ms. Boss thrives on a good crowd and loves to interact with her peers. MPOW never charges for in-state presentations and it’s always a Really Big Shoe, as Ed Sullivan said–one not limited to basic use of MPOW but far-ranging toward blogging and RSS and usability and marketing, oh my. So MPOW said oh indeedy, let’s!
The Thursday before Christmas, MPOW learned that the budget news for the following year might be bad. (5 p.m. that Thursday, just in case you wondered.) The bad budget news arrived February 24. Since then, Ms. Boss has been very busy adjusting MPOW to the new reality, developing revenue models, working with stakeholders to get said models approved, planning to implement steep cuts on July 1(including her own hours)… all part of the job.
Two weeks ago VBL reminded MPOW of the presentation and added a nice note that VBL was sorry about MPOW’s budget situation. MPOW thanked VBL, then added that due to the new budget situation, MPOW had to pass along travel costs on these talks. It would be a day trip, MPOW said, with the costs kept to the absolute minimum.
When charging, Ms. Boss does not even pass along mileage to the airport, the cost of the half-caff grande low-fat caramel macchiato she will get before boarding Southwest, or that lame salad she will gobble down at 1 p.m. while waiting to fly home. MPOW does not charge for the time spent presenting to staff, or travel time, or preparing for the presentation. If it’s local, MPOW just takes the whole Really Big Shoe out of her hide–time that simply gets absorbed in longer work days.
But MPOW can no longer afford to absorb all costs associated with presentations. Financially, as VBL observed, MPOW is on the ropes.
VBL cancelled the presentation.
I’m bothered by this in two directions. I’m bothered to learn almost by accident how little this library thinks of my organization’s time and talents. I’m also bothered that VBL thinks so poorly of its own staff that out of its immense budget it cannot cough up a round-trip ticket on Southwest, the Greyhound bus of airlines, for a morning of staff training that earlier was so important to VBL. In other words, that’s how much the staff isn’t worth to VBL: one round-trip ticket on Southwest. (Oh, o.k., and six hours of parking at San Jose Airport.)
Here’s one more tidbit. In fact, MPOW has presented to some of VBL’s staff, in other venues. Ms. Boss’s assessment is that the staff at this library would greatly benefit from as much staff development they can get, particularly in the area of new technologies. VBL should be investing in them. To paraphrase an observation of Roy Tennant’s from some time ago, all too often we take the most expensive resource in any library (staff) and invest in them the least.
Oh, and thank you to all the libraries that have stepped up to cover MPOW’s travel costs for these presentations. I know you’re on tight budgets–but where MPOW is now puts new meaning to the word “tight.” We’re all in this together.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Library Journal Design Institute, Denver - 2012
- Pew Quiz: What's your technology temperature? - 2007
- Diary of a Mad Grant Writer - 2005
- Good for You, Microsoft! - 2005
As I understand it, you have had knowledge of possible budget problems since December, known budget problems since February 24, and the way you chose to inform your client (VBL) was to “add” the statement of new costs of the workshop to a reply to a reminder about the workshop.
Perhaps their would have been a happier outcome for you and that library staff that will be deprived of your wisdom if YPOW had done a review of all of your upcoming commitments and tried to renegotiate current deals (do you not have contracts?) starting as soon after February 24 as you could get the list together.
But instead, the VBL decided that instead of the change they would cancel the workshop. Then when they did not accept the new “deal”, you reacted by “outing” them on your blog. (I’m assuming that many of your users will know exactly what library you mean.) This seems unethical to me. And you attributed their decision to a value judgement of their staff not being “worth” an airline fare. Are you trying to bully your other clients?
This one post to your blog has given me a real skepticism about your work both on the blog and at YPOW. I’m just an old retired librarian with no dog in the hunt, no affiliation ever with California libraries or any on the west coast, and no involvement any longer in the profession. I routinely read your blog and others to keep up with the technology that I think will impact our lives and our libraries. But now when I read yours and look at the items in the lii I will always have a question about what motivates your decision-making.
Well, I thought long and hard about this post (and there are so many big libraries out west that as long as I don’t unfairly tag a library in this area, I’m posting within reason). I figured someone would say what you said. I knew some would call my judgement into question. That’s ok.
Regarding contracts, no, there’s generally an informal agreement–in fact, it is the revealed subtext of that informal agreement that bothers me. It’s generally a conversation like this: Can MPOW come speak next spring? Absolutely. And in truth, I always ask the library following up to confirm the presentation, and it’s not a go until that happens–and until they also agree to provide a professional, functional environment (projector, live Internet connection, etc.). I block it out on the calendar, to save the date for them, but any talk goes on more than a verbal, if less than a contract.
I did indeed make quite a few changes and decisions, first in late December, and then in late February. In fact, the first thing I did was advise another VBL that we couldn’t present. But the other VBL had been very conscientious about this arrangement, following up periodically, and also understood our situation.
Let’s set aside the question of contracts and agreements and planning, and talk about the fact that VBL has a budget that is huge compared to MPOW’s. The VBL also has known of MPOW’s budget crunch since late February. Let’s also consider that many libraries routinely offer travel costs for MPOW, or agree to them if requested. In fact, in some professions, it would never be expected that an organization providing staff training would deliver it for free, let alone underwrite the costs of this training.
It’s also not a question of bullying anyone. We don’t have any plans to present, having fulfilled our engagements and having none on the docket–an intentional part of my plan. We don’t have the money or the time. Short of a miracle, as of July 1, our staffing is decimated and I go 3/4 time, also assuming more editorial functions. Any presentations will have to be cost recovery, and that means not just the travel costs but the time to our organization.
I am envious of that phrase “retired librarian” because as a contractor in my late 40s I feel I am sliding backwards financially and will be working until my 80s, at a lower and lower standard of living. I pay my own medical benefits, SS, retirement, etc. This will be harder to do after July 1, when I have fewer hours and my spouse’s job ends. But then, I have had to cut or eliminate the hours for everyone in this organization, and they’re all contractors too. We’re in pain.
Incidentally, on “outing,” it’s interesting how whenever this happens other people emerge to describe their own experiences. I saw that happen when speakers at the latest PLA reported that they were asked to pay speaker fees. I’ve had that happen in this situation, as well.
What stings most to me here is the feeling that we’ve always given one thousand percent and then some, and then, when we need help, “our brother’s keeper” is no longer the rule. I run a tiny organization on a shoestring and we all work below market rate to make it happen. I feel, after all we’ve done, that we have been taken for granted, and this underscores that feeling. That’s where I’m coming from.
You said: “What stings most to me here is the feeling that we’ve always given one thousand percent and then some, and then, when we need help, “our brother’s keeper” is no longer the rule. I run a tiny organization on a shoestring and we all work below market rate to make it happen.” I certainly understand how that is true. I worked in a large organization on a shoestring and we all worked for years below market rate. It’s tough to be under-appreciated.
I do think that clarifying the way in which you work, and maybe instituting contracts that spell our which presentations are basically marketing for YPOW and which ones are in-depth, full-bodied programs as you described, then setting approprate fees and remimbursements for each would be a very good idea to prevent this kind of situation from re-occuring. You might have been selling yourself short – a sure way to ensure that others will too.
I still think it was somewhere on the continuum from un-businesslike to unprofessional to unethical to use the VBL as the whipping boy. I hope this budget crunch will help to crystalize your goals for your presentations and maybe the staff training services that you offer could become one of your best-selling services – and at a fair market price! (and with a contract).
I agree that contracts are a good idea; in the past we’ve had a gentleperson’s agreement among libraries, which is not, by the way, how I run my personal business, where I learned early on to get it in writing. But MPOW has also been evolving from a more informal project to a real service, and that is not something that could happen overnight. Contractual agreements for presentations are certainly in its future.
It is a good lesson that I know from every other area in life: informally or otherwise, get the assumptions out of the way ahead of time. I’ve been concentrating on other areas of MPOW that needed to be fixed, upgraded, eliminated, streamlined, codified, improved, expanded, or reduced. Naturally, what bit me is that which had not been addressed, though up to now I haven’t needed to address it.
VBL isn’t a stalking-horse for larger issues; but you are entitled to your opinion, of both me and my decision, and I have left this discussion open for the reader’s interpretation. That is why I posted your comments I don’t agree with most of your points, but you provide the other point of view, and you do so intelligently.
Oh, and here are a few alternative responses VBL could have provided–many based on creative responses I have done here at MPOW and at PPOWs (Previous Places of Work)… it’s all a question of how bad you want to get to “yes” (or at least a “no” that isn’t too depressing):
* We don’t have wiggle-room in our budget right now, unfortunately, but we might be able to fund travel for a talk next fall/winter/spring
* How about a live skype/AIM/Yahoo chat session?
* Can you walk one of our librarians through the free handouts you’ve provided?
* Can we webcast/videocast/teleconference?
* We can’t fund it all, but can we pay for your hot dog/latte/parking?
* Or even, this is awful, just awful. I am so sorry. I totally understand, and this is our loss. I wish it could be different and we appreciate that you were willing to contribute time and talent to our staff development.