[NCUC-EC] BA Travel

[Tapani Tarvainen]

On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 01:35:26PM +0000, Milton L Mueller (mueller at syr.edu) wrote:

Ed> We need to strike the right balance between formality and
  > informality, collegiality and structure.

> Indeed. The idea that there is "no policy" on many of these things
> isn't actually right.

Yes. I did say there's been no "formal policy", i.e., nothing properly
documented, just as you say:

> All kinds of policies and precedents were set through discussions
> just like the ones you are having now. The problem is that those who
> were not involved never saw them or even if they were involved don't
> remember them properly. So it is more a matter of documentation than
> one of not having a policy.

Exactly. Lack of institutional memory, which we've spoken of before.

> And you can't document every single thing you do,

Of course. If you attempt to do that, you'll end up swamping
the important stuff under all kinds of all-but-irrelevant gunk.

And the stuff you do document should still be not just written
down but also organized in such a way that it is easy to find
what is needed when it's needed, most important stuff standing out.

> so you _will_ have to leave some things undocumented or poorly
> documented,

Yes. But you don't have to do that at random, some things are
more important to document than others, and in many cases
their importance can be determined in advance without too
much effort.

> so there is no guarantee that some Tapani-of-the-future
> won't complain again.

I'll take that as a compliment. :-)

> So balance, indeed.

Yes.

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen