[Harp-L] SPAH leadership

[Slim Heilpern <slim@xxxxxxxxxx>]

A lot of what's being discussed over the last few days with respect to SPAH leadership is related to style, simply put a "can do" vs. a "might not be able to do" approach. 

I learned a long time ago that when making announcements to customers, or in this case members of a reasonably large mailing list, keeping expectations reasonably low is often the smart thing to do, as lack of achievement of a stated goal, even if unachievable, will be perceived to be failure. Having been involved with a couple of different startup companies that eventually failed, it's easy for me to be put off by the "can do" attitude -- it only works once in a while, and can lead to a very abrupt demise when it doesn't.

With specific respect to SPAH, I would not like to see its limited resources (be they volunteer time or money) be spent chasing after things that are unlikely to succeed. Tossing ideas around is wonderful, but before any money is spent or any in depth research on a particular idea is taken on, it is important for leadership to decide which things _seem_ to have a reasonable chance of success, and then dig deeper into those things. 

My attitude might be different if I thought that SPAH was in danger of demise if it did _not_ act swiftly and bravely, but I don't see any evidence that this is the case. It seems to be doing reasonably well, and that is no small feat in this economy.

- Slim.

www.SlideManSlim.com