Ignorance is Strength

Here's a suggestion: Why not prohibit CHCA executive committee members from sitting on any other committee? How much diversity of opinion can we really expect if the same people -- i.e. Piotrowski, Keintz, Hitchcock, Remus -- are involved with so many committees? The CHCA board has 50 members. Surely, someone else can step up.

Oh, and regarding the search for a publisher, the board would do well to invite as much Local participation in the process as possible. We call on those board members who want to try out for the job to immediately recuse themselves from any committees dealing with the paper. The conflict of interest policy may be a toothless mandate, but that doesn't mean certain board members rumored to be seeking the publisher job shouldn't show their cards (e.g. operations VP Dina Hitchcock, who is rarely prepared to present a report at public meetings despite holding one of the most important posts in the CHCA and whom I wouldn't trust to manage my assets in a game of Monopoly let alone a publication whose mission she doesn't seem to understand).

Oh, and another thing: The CHCA might want to take their new intellectual property policy into deeper consideration. 1.) We pay people $10 a picture. Asking them to forever forfeit the rights to their work would be tantamount to extortion.

2.) The CHCA doesn't own any of the Local photographers' cameras, mine included. I was not hired to be a photographer, but I must take more pictures in Jimmy Pack's absence. I'm happy to help the paper, but I'm not eager to let it own my photos without proper compensation (i.e. a raise or royalties).

3.) Few people will want to buy our photos and put them on T-shirts and mugs. Jimmy had lots of great shots, but the CHCA intellectual copyright policy cannot legally be applied retroactively.

4.) I've heard that some CHCA members fear they'll be mocked if we post videos of public meetings on You Tube.

4a.) It's a public meeting.

4b.) If they don't want to be mocked, they should be better behaved.

4c.) Chestnut Hill is neither a police state nor an internment camp.

4d.) Deal with it.

That concludes today's lecture.