[burpg] BURPG Elections
- From: Armor Harris <armorharris@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 14:52:31 -0500
Ladies and gentleman,
If you don't want to run for anything, you don't have to read this. Just
show up to vote on Feb 24.
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If you want to run for something, please email me about what you are
running for before Sunday night at midnight (verbal doesn't count). I will
email out the list of candidates to the whole group by Monday morning. We
will hold elections on Monday, Feb 24.
We are required to do elections and to submit the official officers for
next year in February so we will do this on Monday.
Right now Drew is VD, Sindel is Finance, and Mehmet is Secretary. These
titles make basically zero sense for what we do, but I'll outline my vision
for these roles below. I'd like you to consider the thoughts below before
you decide to run and what position to run for.
*Director/President:*
I guess if anyone decides that they have a totally different vision for the
team and wants to take over, we can vote on kicking me out haha.
*Vice Director/Vice President: *
Drew's role has been the most like what his title actually is, as I consult
him on basically everything and he has the next best grasp on how
everything fits together. His job is also by far the hardest here, as it
requires 100% commitment to the vision of launching a hybrid rocket into
space in 2015. He's done an admirable job so far.
If you want to be Vice Director, RPG has to be your #1 priority over all of
your other commitments. When you have a conflict, RPG has to win 95% of the
time. It takes real sacrifice to achieve something great, and you have to
be all-in. That's not to say that you can't do other things, I also have a
Christian students club that I co-run. But in all honestly RPG wins out
when push comes to shove.
*Finance/Treasurer *
In practice, I end up running the budget. It's hard for someone else to run
the budget because I have to constantly keep it updated in real time and
having someone else try to catch up with it just doesn't work. It doesn't
take much extra effort from me, and I know exactly what's going on as
opposed to trying to go through someone else.
What the Treasurer should do next year is focus on aggressively acquiring
sources of funding with extreme fervor.
*Secretary*
I'm not sure what the secretary is supposed to do, send emails? It would be
of most help for us for the Secretary to keep tabs on the project
management. This means consistently checking in on people, getting them the
help they need to overcome barriers, and keep us on schedule, all while not
pissing them off.
Right now I kind of serve as the project manager for everything. If I can
focus on the critical path, or the most risky development items, and this
person can keep everyone else going, that would be a tremendous
productivity boost.
*Balance*
So you can see what the common denominator is here- passion, drive, and
initiative. We've gone from the mentality of a club to that of a research
group. Now we have to go from a research group to a startup type
environment if we want to make it to space. People taking the initiative to
go identify potential problems, start projects, and solve problems.
However, the most important thing to realize here is that we are not
defined by the hybrid rocket. We are defined by how much we impact the
students that are a part of this project. Are we helping people not only
grow as engineers, but also as people? Are we giving our students the
greatest experience possible? Is this fun?
The leaders of this team are critical to maintaining and improving this
balance.
*Conclusion*
The danger that I run is making this too intense for students to identify
with. But we are truly pushing the envelope here, doing things that nobody
else has ever done before with our level of experience and funding. If you
are ambitions, a dreamer, and a believer in what we can do, to be a leader
of this team is the best place you can be right now.
I'm ok with a smaller team made up of the most capable students in this
college (not in terms of grades or IQ, but capability and passion) than a
massive team of students who aren't committed. Success breeds success, the
numbers and the funding that comes with the numbers will come as we
continue to have more success.
*A note about skill sets*
Technical firms that fail are the ones that a) don't realize that
leadership skill sets are very different than technical skill sets and b)
don't value those two types of people equally. In other words, your best
engineer should realize that he can't be CEO and your CEO should realize
that he can't be the best engineer in the organization.
So I would like to point out that other than Drew, it could be argued that
the two most critical people on this team right now are not official
officers. If you decide that you don't want an officer position because
you'd rather put all of your energy into your engineering, I respect that.
A lot.
Best,
Armor
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