Re: Cost of ATBI
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 13:41:58 -0400 To: Qboyd@aol.com From: pick@pick.uga.edu (John Pickering) Subject: Re: Cost of ATBI Boyd, Many thanks for your words of wisdom and calming voice. I wish more were like you. You should know that Frank Harris will be taking the reigns of the ATBI. I've stepped aside from the Chair. I want to focus more of my time on writing, doing science, and teaching. Hope all goes well and that we'll see more of each other in the coming years. Cheers, Pick >Folks, try not to get in a bind about this. E-mail discussions are fine, and >it's true that seeming to try to stifle them is a mistake. But Keith is >right about the need to have a face-to-face about the realities of costs >(and, I think, whether expectations of support are realistic, and who >benefits from what). If you don't think the NPS wants to get all they can >from you by providing you with support that may include only limited $, I >think you've heard your inner voices better than their outer ones. > >I just heard Dr. Ivie talk very persuasively about the inclination to neglect >things less than megafauna -- and didn't hear much about things less than >arthropoda . Also heard about microorganisms in thermal waters, but not a >mention of those elsewhere in the ecosystem, from another great person (I >mean it). I mean, we all have our biases. Point is, you're dealing with >some of a very small handful of enlightened NPS managers, less blinded than >almost any of them with biases of their own; so try handling with care. > >Talk all you want on e-mail. It's not a medium noted for the wisdom of its >participants (witness this), generally, so why not let it all hang out? But >it sure sounds like it's time to take stock, and see if you can avoid being >perceived as participants in a feeding frenzy, without realistic assessment >of the extent of the food source. > >I spent a lot of years dealing with some ignorant and a few enlightened >managers (I was each, at different times) and a mix of, on the one hand, >great, and on the other, hopelessly arrogant and naive, scientists. I saw >some great results, where "them and us" was kept under control, and people >really listened; and I saw some good things die, where it wasn't. Talking >together works better than venting into the ether. > >The enlightened part of enlightened self-interest depends on listening. >Listen, or lose it. > >So now I've vented. But I'm old, and I get to do that. > >Boyd Evison
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