Dear Jay,
To answer your question directly, no I do not know if and when my wife will work on the brochure.
I am torn-up at the moment. When I interviewed for the program director position, I pretty much put myself out there and to not even get a second interview has been a tough reality check for me.
At the interview and in my cover letter, I acknowledged that I felt the job was basically full time and knew that ! I would have to resign my current job so I could work full time with SEA..that I had management, marketing, computer, sail training, maintenance background, I had participated in all the fundraisers over the years, worked with my wife Tina on the brochures and marketing for the organization, that I had many creative writing experiences, had worked with youth as a canoe instructor and camp counselor; and while sail camp staffing might be a challenge, I would go at it full time with your help and that that of Liz and Sandor..
I am aware of the fact that it is your and committee.s job to make the decision on the PG position. That you want to move in a new direction is certainly your prerogative.
But it then causes me to question my level of participation. I cannot help but feel in no small way that I am being used.both in doing sail training and in the production on the brochure..
After honoring my commitment for the intermediate and Intro training sessions, and the considerable time involved in putting it all together; I will be reducing my involvement with SEA, which at this moment looks! to be limited to teaching an Intro Class this fall. I will ask Tina to forward the brochure file to your attention, so you can have it completed.
Regards,
Gary Harbison
Gary,
I'm quite amazed and certainly angry about your email for a couple of reasons, not to mention that I've always felt we've had good rapport.
Firstly, I don't understand why you would email everyone except me with your concerns. I'm the president of the organization, and I think I have some interest in what goes on with respect to filling this important position. You had ample opportunity to speak with me at the instructor workshop, and we exchanged a number of emails prior to that day. I am quite accessible via email and telephone on a daily basis. You never mentioned anything about the subject nor did you even hint how much you wanted the job.
Secondly, while I'm aware of and appreciate your continued participation with SEA, it seems like you've decided to hold us hostage with respect to the brochures and future efforts. You must know how important the brochures (specifically) are to our program, and yet you seem to have deliberately delayed their completion while you waited to hear about getting the job.
As far as I recall, no one has ever forced you to participate in workshops or events, or insisted that your wife work on the brochures. Presumably you and your wife have volunteered for these things. To claim that you're being used is outrageous.
Despite your high level of participation and your excellent qualifications, this doesn't mean you are guaranteed to be selected. It was the consensus of the board not to ask you to return for a second round at that time. Perhaps this might have changed. I can't see how this would change now, given your email and despite having strong advocates like John Paul (who recently wrote us a letter advocating that we hire you).
Perhaps there are several facts of which you are not aware:
1) We found someone who we thought would be an excellent candidate. We thought that she would bring a lot of fresh ideas to the position. Unfortunately, she was not able to accept the offer of employment, thus we are continuing our search, and have identified a couple of people.
2) We very recently changed the requirements of the PD position from part-time to full-time. Very few people knew about the change, and I would very much like to know when and how you found out about this. And, I for one, was unaware of your willingness to give up your current job for a very low-paying one.
3) We have a couple of other candidates who appear to be well-qualified for the job. They certainly don't have your institutional knowledge of SEA, but things have and will continue to change, so I and the board are not convinced that this kind of history with SEA is of primary importance.
Thirdly, I would like to remind you about your resignation from the board in recent times. You claim in your email that you know you would "have to resign your current job." What assurance do we have, given your previous resignation, that you will honor the commitment?
Finally, if you had returned for a second round, I would have asked you about the previously mentioned situation. Also, I would have asked you about how you view the role of Program Director with respect to setting policy vs. implementing policy. This is an important area of concern to many on the board, since we've had the situation in the past where program directors were deciding policy rather than implementing policy. We saw this with Claire as well. My concern (as well as others') was that someone who has deep institutional knowledge would have trouble making the distinction, and I would have asked you to address this concern.
If you have additional comments, feel free to give me a call. I don't think it's appropriate to continue this via email.
Sincerely,
Jonathan
All this could have been sorted out in second interview. I guess that is the real gut punch that I was not even considered.. and I am sorry you are upset, but surely you must understand my situation, as I have had a real passion for this organization..Either way the die is cast and I wish you well.
It was not and is not my intention to hold anything over your head on the brochure, it is just that Tina has no heart for it either, and it can be completed easily, since you have the existing art work on a disk in the office. I will be sending you the disk when Tina digs it up..the class scheduling has changed from what you gave Tina before anyway, with the addition of workshops so you will need to correct that.