Snerk.

September 22, 2008

1. Sagittarius (11/22-12/21)

   You are in a very open-minded phase, where you could do something that isn't necessarily good for you --temptations will be strong, today.
   
   No, Stupid. That was Saturday - when I spent money on fabric at Eddie's Quilting Bee with the Guyz.
   
   
   So the best way to avoid spending too much, eating too much or doing something else you will regret later on is to keep busy! And if your plate is empty, then ask your friends, family members and coworkers if they need help with anything. Idle hands are not good things to have today, so even if you have to resort to cleaning the house, you should.
   
   Wrong again, that was Sunday, at mamapduck's, packing down her kitchen.
   
   Is it any wonder I don't believe in horoscopes?
    

Is it just me?

Thursday 8/28/08:  I contacted the A&S collegium coordinator for GWW to ask about offering a class, namely, the survey of period Japanese clothing that I did for CostumeCon 26. The Late Class submission deadline (in other words, it doesn't make it into the gate book), was 9/15/08.
I waited, realizing that I'd just sent this at the dawn of a major holiday weekend. Fine, no problem.

Tuesday 9/16/08: Labor Day has been and gone and then some and there was nothing. I re-sent my original email with the notation: "Follow up - original message dated 8/28/08."

Wednesday 9/17/08: I finally received: "We will be making up signs to post regarding your class.  It was the only one to officially be in touch for a late addition.  Thanks for the update."

That's it. That's all she wrote. There was no indication of what day or time it's going to be. 

OK, I waited several days and checked to see if anything had been added to the schedule on the event website. (As of this evening, it still features plenty of empty slots on the dates that I will be on-site, even with a number of double-period classes on the schedule. Friday, Saturday AND Sunday. PLENTY.)

Monday 9/22/08 (this morning), I wrote "If at all possible, could you give me a heads' up on the time slot you've scheduled? That way I can publicize it properly on the Japanese special interest lists well in advance of the event."  [Seriously. Is this unreasonable?]

This afternoon, I received this: "Gentle Sir, I am not ignoring you, but am having to adjust for space (in addition to working some overtime tonight).  I will try to have your info to you first thing in the am.'"

She's not ignoring me - NOW. Perhaps that's because I mentioned I was waiting for more information on the JML group last night and a fellow member who knows her offered to get in touch on my behalf. (I declined with the provision that I might take her up on it if I didn't get a response in a reasonable amount of time, but she evidently went ahead and nudged.)  I wrote back "That would be wonderful, thank you very much," and didn't embarrass her by pointing out that her guess on a name for which she had no linguistic gender clues (yep, the Japanese one) was wrong.

You see, I've done this job. I served as emma7926's scheduling deputy when she was West Kingdom Collegium Chancellor. I got back to my prospective instructors on the date of contact to let them know I'd gotten their message. Within no more than 24-48 hours I let them know what time slot(s) I had for them on their preferred day (and time if at all possible) and requested confirmation from them that the time slot did, in fact, work for the instructor.  First come, first served, no exceptions - and I was still able to accomodate my instructors' scheduling needs.

If the deadline for classes to go into the gate book was 8/10/08 and I am the only person to "to officially be in touch for a late addition,"  how hard is it to plug me into a single open class period on any of three days that I will be onsite? Or tell me there are no more slots so I could proceed with alternate arrangements with the nice people in the Guzel Merkezi enclave (sasha_khan  leading the press gang) or teach it out of The House Of Cheerful Monkeys? 

Perhaps I should offer teach a class on how to do scheduling for a multitrack collegium.