[conspire] Fwd: Housekeeping, again

[Edward Cherlin]

Another one got away from me. This time I noticed which key I pressed
by accident, so maybe I can stop fat-fingering it.

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 1:01 AM, Christian Einfeldt <einfeldt at gmail.com> wrote:
 > hi
 >
 > On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 12:42 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
 > >
 > > I find that the general principle for handling clueless geeks is to
 > > Tell Them. Ahead of time, on-site,
 >
 > Also, maybe getting them to sign up to do dishes at a certain time might be
 > good, too.  Rick makes a really good point here.  He has hosted CABAL long
 > enough.  He shouldn't have to put up with this messiness after all of these
 > years.  We should really organize this better.  Maybe we could have someone
 > other than Rick take responsibility for organizing periodic (once per hour)
 > sweeps of his house and pick up stuff and someone else wash dishes, so that
 > it is not all left to the end for Rick to do.

No, Christian, not to organize. To TELL THEM so that it Just Works. No
sign-ups. Everybody does it, all the time.

According to my observations, Rick would not appreciate dishes being
left for an hour, nor would he appreciate others taking over his home
in this way.  Wash your own dishes. Tell others to wash their own
dishes. Wash dishes that you find left in the sink, and bring empty
dishes from elsewhere in the house to be washed. Leave nothing for
Rick to be unhappy about. And don't complain. Consider apologizing on
occasion. Ask Rick how it's going, and mean it.

And use plates when eating, and wash them afterwards, and put your
bags on the porch.

Oh, and read the signs. Don't put non-microwave-safe anything in the
microwave. Don't touch the server or its power circuit.

Anything else, Rick?

 > If no one wants to help Rick to do the clean up, maybe we should just take
 > up a collection from everyone who comes, and hire someone to do the cleaning
 > for this event.  We could just divide the cost of that person's services and
 > divide among the number of people who show up.  We could estimate attendance
 > based on people who show up for the prior CABAL meetings, and get
 > collections.  We could also have a kitty ahead of time, so that the person's
 > wage is funded before the day of the event, so that Rick is not left holding
 > the bag for that person's expenses.  Rick has kept us all together all these
 > years by hosting this event, and IMHO we should chip in, or else Rick will
 > burn out and then we will have lost the benefit of a fun and consistent
 > meeting.

This entire paragraph is swatting flies with a sledgehammer. It is
much less work to do the dishes than to set this foofaraw up.

-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay