University of Arizona group organizer here; everything you’ve talked about are things that we have tried to reconcile with. But, having not yet faced a lot of those extreme changes in leadership, significant burnout, etc I believe we are struggling to fully internalize the consequences. And just because the symptoms haven’t been made readily apparent, doesn’t mean that the same underlying conditions aren’t there in our organization.
The largest thing we have tried (and to a large extent, I believe failed in) is prioritizing the organizers themselves as an end. We have always had the strong beliefs that our organizers were going to be some of the most impactful members of the club; but the allure of new members and the demands of organizing have (i believe) put our priorities in a biased order. This semester has been much better, and I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts, they will play a role in how we move forward into our next semester and potential culture/workload changes that need to be made.
Ironically I have only been talking about our student club and not really myself. I am likely going to not be organizing next semester, but it is because I will be working on a riskier, more demanding, and very grandiose project for much of next semester (the irony is staggering). Your thoughts have definitely given me pause in regards to this new project, but I strongly believe it is something that I want to/should. That being said, it is really nice to hear this from another student doing organizing, and I’m no hyper-agentic organizing savant (far from it) and so I will keep your words and thoughts in the forefront as I move forward. Thank you very much,
Thank you for the thoughtful comment! I appreciate that my experience has informed your decision-making, but in the end it’s just my experience, so take it with a grain of salt. I also appreciate your caution; I would say that I’m also a pretty cautious person (especially for an EA; I personally think we sometimes need a little more of that).
I will say that big and risky projects aren’t necessarily a bad thing; they’re just big and risky. So if you’ve carefully considered the risks and acknowledged that you’re committing to a big project that might not pay off and you have some contingency plans, then I think it’s fine to do. I just think that sometimes we get caught up in the vision and end up goodharting for bigger and more visionary projects rather than more actually effective ones (my failure mode in Spring 2023).
It definitely has helped me think over some things (albeit taken with that grain of salt), and I’ve definitely internalized the size and risk of the project, so I’m nervously excited. Always great to hear from another organizer. Keep hopes high, don’t expect too much, and good luck in your endeavors.
University of Arizona group organizer here; everything you’ve talked about are things that we have tried to reconcile with. But, having not yet faced a lot of those extreme changes in leadership, significant burnout, etc I believe we are struggling to fully internalize the consequences. And just because the symptoms haven’t been made readily apparent, doesn’t mean that the same underlying conditions aren’t there in our organization.
The largest thing we have tried (and to a large extent, I believe failed in) is prioritizing the organizers themselves as an end. We have always had the strong beliefs that our organizers were going to be some of the most impactful members of the club; but the allure of new members and the demands of organizing have (i believe) put our priorities in a biased order. This semester has been much better, and I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts, they will play a role in how we move forward into our next semester and potential culture/workload changes that need to be made.
Ironically I have only been talking about our student club and not really myself. I am likely going to not be organizing next semester, but it is because I will be working on a riskier, more demanding, and very grandiose project for much of next semester (the irony is staggering). Your thoughts have definitely given me pause in regards to this new project, but I strongly believe it is something that I want to/should. That being said, it is really nice to hear this from another student doing organizing, and I’m no hyper-agentic organizing savant (far from it) and so I will keep your words and thoughts in the forefront as I move forward. Thank you very much,
Best regards,
Leopold
Hi Leopold,
Thank you for the thoughtful comment! I appreciate that my experience has informed your decision-making, but in the end it’s just my experience, so take it with a grain of salt. I also appreciate your caution; I would say that I’m also a pretty cautious person (especially for an EA; I personally think we sometimes need a little more of that).
I will say that big and risky projects aren’t necessarily a bad thing; they’re just big and risky. So if you’ve carefully considered the risks and acknowledged that you’re committing to a big project that might not pay off and you have some contingency plans, then I think it’s fine to do. I just think that sometimes we get caught up in the vision and end up goodharting for bigger and more visionary projects rather than more actually effective ones (my failure mode in Spring 2023).
Best, Kenneth
It definitely has helped me think over some things (albeit taken with that grain of salt), and I’ve definitely internalized the size and risk of the project, so I’m nervously excited. Always great to hear from another organizer. Keep hopes high, don’t expect too much, and good luck in your endeavors.
Peace, Leopold