[6276] in APO Printshop
Re: idea to help journeymen with training
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Leonard H Tower Jr.)
Sun Jan 30 20:06:11 2011
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 20:06:08 -0500 (EST)
From: "Leonard H Tower Jr." <tower@alum.mit.edu>
To: Joshua B Oreman <oremanj@mit.edu>
cc: Kristin Kuhn <kkuhn@mit.edu>, apo-printshop <apo-printshop@mit.edu>,
Melissa Piper Hunt <wings@mit.edu>, apo-president@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTimyo_bwJA3YHmfxo2Hf1N+sNQhg0ZQNy6OCT9xP@mail.gmail.com>
Hi Josh, Kristen et al
Kristen: Thanks for this email.
* Interesting idea. My initial reaction is that the system we have in
place has served AX well for four decades. And the problems are
elsewhere.
I have also found that K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple - is wise. (That
is, Keep It as Simple as possible.) As some of you know, people
like Einstein and Newton agree. ; - }
Some of the problems:
* The earlier in the term pledges are offered press training, the more
do it. Under the current way things run, the Press Shop Manager, an
active appointed by the President, is suppose to do this. The Press
Shop Manager often doesn't get to it until too late in the term.
Even when reminded, the reminder has often had to be repeated.
We use to have a system where the journeymen shared the
responsibility of running the Shop - doing the tasks that active
Press Shop Manager is now responsible for. In terms of the health
of the Shop, it worked much better. Now it varies immensely
depending on how well the Press Shop Manager does that job.
* Another reasons we don't have more journeymen, is that little
printing is being done in the Shop. Barring genius (and we haven't
had one come through the APOster Letterpress Shop yet ; - ) a fair
amount of decent quality printing has to be dome, before someone
knows enough to train or qualify, i.e. become a journeyman. We look
for other things: e.g. some ability to teach, a clear understanding
of the safety issue, having set an good example as a press
operator, especially with regard to safety issues, etc.
It is the responsibility of the Press Shop Manager to lead the
effort to get MIT organizations to order printing. Few Press Shop
Managers have much at all here, and clearly not enough.
* Our best journeymen really enjoy printing, and found ways to do
many jobs each term. It's a joy when this happens. We really like
asking a brother his second or third term @ MIT to become a
journeymen. A few times a decade, and even so, it's been a while.
* One option would be to rename the PSM to Press Shop Treasurer, and
just have them pre-approve any purchases, chase down debts, and be
the formal link between the shop and Exec Comm.
And go back to the model where the journeymen and press-ops share
running the shop.
Comments on Kristen's proposal:
* When a press op becomes a journeyman, we have generally asked them
to just do training runs for a while. To give feedback when
qualifying runs happen. Even so, we haven't found significant
problems. We're careful about who we ask, for many reasons
including those Kristen mentioned.
* There is only one case in the last six year where a pledge or an
active asked for a training run, and it didn't happen. The request
came later in the term, when neither Lori nor I were immediately
available.
Even so, it's best for a press op to have different journeymen do
their training and qualifying runs. They learn more.
Kristen:
I offered to come in and help with the Reg Day job, if you asked ...
Just feeding the press is a joy (I've mentioned this to you often enough).
Sincerely,
Leonard Tower Jr.
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:02:37 -0500
From: Kristin Kuhn <kkuhn@MIT.EDU>
To: apo-printshop <apo-printshop@mit.edu>, Melissa Piper Hunt <wings@mit.edu>
Subject: idea to help journeymen with training
Maybe this is a dumb idea - feel free to shoot it down kindly if it is. I
know there are many aspects of the Press Shop of which I am unaware.
But an email of Piper's sparked an idea in my head, that could maybe help
with the strain that the 2 active & local journeymen are experiencing with
training new press ops.
What if someone *less* than a journeyman could *train* a press-op, but only
a journeyman could qualify them?
This person "less" than a journeyman would be somewhere between a newly
qualified press op and a journeyman. Maybe a press op who has done a minimum
number of jobs, or has sufficiently proven themselves in some other way. An
oral exam going over the important things with a journeyman? A written test?
It could be whatever the journeymen felt comfortable with.
This way, the number of people who could help out with the press would
increase. The Reg Day job could be a little party - not the lonely 6-hour
exhaustion-fest it is now. Also, more people would get to interact with the
press, which would hopefully increase chapter interest. Right now only 3
actives are press ops, and only two of those have done a job in the past
year. And, we are both graduating this semester. Most of the time, people
barely even remember about the press... I feel like if more people were
involved with it, it would come up more often, and more people would want to
be trained!
Ok, so all these good things would happen. But! The journeymen would still
have ultimate control over who could do independent jobs. These
non-qualified press ops could only help out with jobs - someone qualified
would have to be there as well. Thus, I don't think safety would be
compromised. Nor would the power of the journeymen be decreased.
I am interested to hear the opinions of those on this list. I do not wish to
"oust" the journeymen in any way - I think that having such a firm hierarchy
is what keeps the quality and safety of the press shop high. But I also
think that the press shop has been dying for many years, and I kinda want to
do something about that! I am also open to any other ideas that wiser folks
may have.
thanks for reading,
Kristin
