Sigh. This is why I *don't* LJ often. Please bear in mind that the entry you read was posted within hours of a confrontation with the individuals in question.
Secondly, I wasn't at all upset by the fact of the questions. I was upset by a number of other things:
1. The person asking the questions was a recent addition to the membership of more than one of our *own* teams, and he chose to air his questions in a public forum and in an alarmist manner.
2. The person asking the questions was basing his questions on privy information that he had no right to broadcast to the public. Even had he and his cohort not left the team in a huff, they would have been fired in a short span of time for their breach of confidence.
3. Despite repeated attempts to address his questions in a reasonable manner, he became increasingly belligerent, repeating his points without any regard to the answers we supplied, supporting his arguments with false information, baseless accusations, and increasing hyperbole.
4. He caused a disruption that took multiple days to resolve, diverting other members of the team from other valuable work they were trying to do in order to ensure that his concerns would have no validation.
5. The backlash, again from within the team, seemed to indicate that the three months of work we'd already put into the symposium had been to no good--the intended audience, for whatever reason, believed the symposium was not actually aimed at them, nor would it include the things they wanted--when in fact that could not be further from the truth. In short, I was frustrated also by the tendency of college-aged people to Not Get It--in fact, to Not Read the CFP and to Not Understand that the programming will be what they make it--and that if it doesn't include things of interest to them, they have no one to blame but themselves. As I said on the planning list at the time, I absolutely cannot run every single session on every topic myself. Can't do it.
I'd also note that while the LJ is far from a truly private venue, it is still a different prospect to vent here than it would have been to vent in the same forum or direct comments to the individual in question. Those reactions would have been unprofessional, I certainly agree.
And in retrospect, now that my initial reaction to the embroglio is passed, I will say that the discussion on the planning team list did bring to light some marketing opportunities and corrections that we could make--and are making. For example, tonight's chat on fandom culture programming is an excellent opportunity to talk with the fans, especially younger fans, and let them know how to make the symposium all they'd want and more.
Re: Professionalism
Secondly, I wasn't at all upset by the fact of the questions. I was upset by a number of other things:
1. The person asking the questions was a recent addition to the membership of more than one of our *own* teams, and he chose to air his questions in a public forum and in an alarmist manner.
2. The person asking the questions was basing his questions on privy information that he had no right to broadcast to the public. Even had he and his cohort not left the team in a huff, they would have been fired in a short span of time for their breach of confidence.
3. Despite repeated attempts to address his questions in a reasonable manner, he became increasingly belligerent, repeating his points without any regard to the answers we supplied, supporting his arguments with false information, baseless accusations, and increasing hyperbole.
4. He caused a disruption that took multiple days to resolve, diverting other members of the team from other valuable work they were trying to do in order to ensure that his concerns would have no validation.
5. The backlash, again from within the team, seemed to indicate that the three months of work we'd already put into the symposium had been to no good--the intended audience, for whatever reason, believed the symposium was not actually aimed at them, nor would it include the things they wanted--when in fact that could not be further from the truth. In short, I was frustrated also by the tendency of college-aged people to Not Get It--in fact, to Not Read the CFP and to Not Understand that the programming will be what they make it--and that if it doesn't include things of interest to them, they have no one to blame but themselves. As I said on the planning list at the time, I absolutely cannot run every single session on every topic myself. Can't do it.
I'd also note that while the LJ is far from a truly private venue, it is still a different prospect to vent here than it would have been to vent in the same forum or direct comments to the individual in question. Those reactions would have been unprofessional, I certainly agree.
And in retrospect, now that my initial reaction to the embroglio is passed, I will say that the discussion on the planning team list did bring to light some marketing opportunities and corrections that we could make--and are making. For example, tonight's chat on fandom culture programming is an excellent opportunity to talk with the fans, especially younger fans, and let them know how to make the symposium all they'd want and more.
Gwen