This year, I'm serving on the department's personnel committee. Over the past year, I've gotten involved with personnel issues more than ever before. Last fall, the MSP decided they had to start paying attention to non-tenure track faculty (or "contract faculty" as they decided to call us. I prefer non-tenure track, because "contract faculty" sounds like a weasel word to me. Like calling someone who's short "vertically challenged".) I served on a working group for "contract faculty" to identify what issues we had that the bargaining team could negotiate to improve and we got most of what we were looking for. (Of course, now the Governor is stalling on moving our contracts to the legislature to get funded.) In the spring, the chairman asked me to convene a committee for non-tenure track faculty to talk about how our performance is evaluated by the department. And now I'm on the Personnel Committee. It's been fascinating but also very stressful. The committee is challenged with trying to fairly compare things that aren't really comparable. It's like trying to compare apples, oranges, and billiard balls in terms of taste, value, and utility. Some things just don't apply -- or apply so poorly you have to wonder whether you should try to apply them or not. Other things apply, but in such different ways that it's very hard to rate the two things fairly. And there aren't just apples, oranges, and billiard balls: there are pebbles, lampreys, noodles, kitchens, and rock-climbing walls too. It's kinda like watching sausage being made. On the one hand, you'd really rather not know what goes into it, but at the same time, it's nice to improve your ability to recognize the sausages you really shouldn't eat.
I was the one who took Daniel to Cub Scouts this evening. It was rather horrifying to see all the little boys running around in uniforms and being given the trappings of rank: badges, pins, patches, cards, etc, all within a ceremonial context. And, of course, horrifying to me to see it all tied up with gratuitous statements of religious faith. The people all seemed nice, however, and the kids had a great time. They had a couple of great little presentations: a paramedic talking about the equipment he uses (ropes and pulleys) to gain mechanical advantage for rescuing people and a science teacher setting up some demonstrations with dry ice. The kids had a blast.
StevenBrewer