Monday, January 06, 2020

It is Monday and Still

Things with RWA remain bad. It's hard to quantify worse when so many of the things happening are all fruit of the same tree. All these things come from folks who are sure that they are not the bad people, the mean people, and who resent being told they might have done anything harmful to anyone ever. 
I confess, I took the weekend off from reading most of my email. 
I sent a follow up to the RWA board. Unless they answered me somewhere like the forums, it seems doubtful answers have been provided. I know some people have gotten some responses, and I am well aware that the volume of messages is likely very large right now, but I find the silence discouraging.
I usually like to wait a little between requests, but given the Guardian (in an article I am not linking to because the person not harmed in all this does not need more airtime), it is clear that the least possible amount of due diligence was done in investigating the purported claims of financial harm. So I am adding a request for apology to my list.
(Previously I did advise the board that learning about restorative justice would be beneficial. I am trying to be more explicit in my requests now.)
-RWA has not clarified what the purported gap between procedure and policy they found was.
-Given the Member Code of Conduct specifically excludes social media, they have not clarified what standard they are holding members too.
-They have stated there will be an audit. I did hear there was some info provided in the forums on this, but my concern was without parameters or a stated timeframe, saying someone somehwere will look into something is not transparent.
-And honestly nothing being done so far appwars to be much more than a fork against a flood.
-My list of suggestions to the board was longer than this. But my hope for useful execution dwindles. I read a book as part of a public relations course eons ago that looked at cases like Johnson and Johnson's handling of the Tylenol cyanide scare. I heard that the PR guy hated that they are held up as a good example because their voluntary adoption of safety seals was totally self interested. If they didn't do something they knew the government would step in.
But here's the thing, if a huge problen occurs and your answer is basically the shrug emoji? Well, the company that adopts safety seals starts to look like a leader.
Because that's where we are. It isn't that there was a problem. It's that RWA is showing no interest in fixing it.