SCIP / Frost & Sullivan?

[Kieran Michael Brown]

So, what do we think about this? I've got no dog at all in this race, just sincerely curious about what others think.

[Chris Hote]

I love your reply. lol

[Claudia Clayton]

If this information was known, it should have been shared before the vote.

[Avner Barnea]

I feel very sorry that in these discussions, I do not hear the voice of SCIP leaders/ board. It is essential that they will come on board and will take an active role in these efforts to restructuring SCIP. I'm calling them - take an active role in the discussions and challenge us withy your ideas.

[Mark Johnson]

Most of the current SCIP board are members here, including: Martha Gleason, Adrian Alvarez, Erik Glitman, Kelsey Hare, and Jens Thieme. Former board presidents Martha Matteo and Joe Goldberg are also members. I'm guessing the reason they are not speaking out is that the opinion of any one of them is not the opinion of the board as a group. There is an obligation when one is a board member not to air the internal conflicts outside the boardroom. If a compromise is negotiated, and one party later goes out and talks about that idea and/or discussion, then other parties to the conversation can rightfully feel betrayed. They have to work together and have to trust one another or compromise becomes impossible on other issues.

While it's easy to see Frost managing the money as an instance of misleading the membership, I would submit that it is implicit in the term "Shared Services". When two organizations adopt a shared services approach, one of the parties will be taking over functions which previously were done by both parties separately. It is a cost saving measure that allows the party with the greater expertise or efficiency to improve the operations of the less experienced/efficient partner without increasing cost...or at least increasing cost in such a way that overall project efficiency is improved.

Since SCIP is the entity with the bloated cost structure, it is likely that any shared services will result in F&SI taking over more functions.

It's obvious that SCIP did a crappy job of communicating the details of this deal. It was in the interest of F&SI to keep their cards hidden. It is also possible that SCIP did an INTENTIONALLY crappy job communicating the details, using non-inflamatory code words rather than laying out details that might cause elevations in emotion and conflict.

We still have to come up with a path forward. If someone decides their trust has been violated, this discussion will help explain fuzzy details, but otherwise, we just need to decide what we want from SCIP and plot out our path forward.

[Carolyn M. Vella]

But we have to do more than just have a discussion. We have to have a discussion that leads to actions.If we don't help ourselves, we just continue to be led by an ineffective association and we blog endlessly our complaints about it. Let's do something that helps us. We don't have to let them lead us. Carolyn