[Harp-L] Re: Spah IS help!

[David Fertig <drfertig@xxxxxxxxx>]

SPAH's a non-profit volunteer-driven effort, a milieu I'm too experienced in.  Richard Hunter's and the other insights are very smart and thoughtful, as usual.   There are always more great ideas than people to follow them through, never enough time, and always room for improvement.  

  SPAH has vast human resources in terms of ideas.  And without someone offering a meaningful amount 
of time to work on 'em they are like to remain just ideas.  


SPAH's non-profit volunteer model is burdened by demands of time, distance, money, staffing, coordination and inevitable political and "board approval" issues, as compared with business models that often have more agility, fewer constraints and more easily defined goals.  

And the politics and process of SPAH are not irrelevant, as they define the efforts' focus, which from my exp at Sacto last year seems more aimed at getting grass-roots players and harp newbies to mix and learn and share,  keping flexibility in shifting programs and changing events, rather than maximizing income, genral attendance (e.g., bringing in mass market music fans to shows), and being more business-like.    

Anyway, after more than 50 years (yeah, I'm only 54, but...)  working in non-profit organizing, I tend to let "those who do the work, make the decisions."   

-Dave "Saul Alinsky" Fertig