I'm running for Vice Director. On Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 2:52 PM, Armor Harris <armorharris@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > 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. > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 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 >