[Psml] Merit Mark Comments

[Paul R. Soucy]

John,

A squadron merit mark committee is supposed to do exactly as you say. They 
as a group and in conjunction with the squadron commander are most 
knowledgeable as to what the member accomplishes for the betterment of 
his/her squadron.

Merit marks are forwarded to area monitors in November and results are 
usually known the following March. Then the new squadron commander announces 
names of members who got a merit mark. If someone did not get a merit mark 
and thought they had sufficient justification, they convey their feelings to 
the then squadron commander, not an area monitor somewhere.

Our district spend over $25,000.00 to pay for hotel, travel cost, and meals 
so area monitors to attend meetings, money they could not afford.

Time to give up the ghost John.  Your program in DB2000 works great and you 
guys put in a lot of time so it does work correctly. It will still work fine 
at squadron level.  Everyone is quick to condemn making a change, but I 
don't see anyone with a better idea.

Paul


--- Original Message ----- 
From: "John R. Bradley" <jrb at accurecord.com>
To: <psoucy at sc.rr.com>
Cc: "United States Power Squadrons Mailing List" <psml at usps.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2009 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Psml] Merit Mark Comments


> This is in response to Paul Soucy and everyone else that thinks that merit
> marks should be recommended solely by squadron commanders, or approved by
> district commanders. In 3 words "Nuts to that". I've been intimately
> involved with merit marks since we went to an electronic system, and I 
> have
> seen the types of effort that some squadron commanders and district
> commanders think warrants a merit mark. Lets remember that we are talking
> about the contributions made over the course of a full year. 365 days. It
> runs from allowing stuff to be stored in a shed, to allowing a meeting to 
> be
> held at their house and providing minimal refreshments.  This does nothing
> but demean the value of a merit mark.
> The area monitors provide a conscientious and consistent review of
> submissions and hold each submission to a constant standard.  They meet at
> each governing board meeting and train themselves by reviewing selected
> submissions.
> If someone recommending a person for a merit mark thinks that they are
> really entitled to the award then they should have no trouble writing a
> submission that conveys that sense. It's usually when trying to make much 
> of
> little that the submission fails.
> R/C John R. Bradley, SN
> Chair USPS Information Technology Committee
> 60 Old Brook Road
> Dix Hills, NY 11746-6432
> (800) 777-3770 ext.203 Office
> (631) 546-5768 Home
> (631) 274-2103 FAX
> jrb at accurecord.com
>
>
> From: "Paul R. Soucy" <psoucy at sc.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [Psml] Merit Mark comments
>
> It's about time the USPS does away with area monitors and leave the Merit
> Mark selection to Squadron Commanders. After all who knows their members 
> the
>
> best, answer: Squadron Commanders. Every year we hear all kinds of 
> different
>
> stories concerning the merit mark program and nothing ever gets done to 
> fix
> it. How does one gauge the number of hours a member did this or that given
> on a submittal form and why do we need to record hours?  What really 
> counts
> is what a member does throughout the year to aid in the smooth operation 
> of
> his/her squadron. An area monitor does not see what a squadron Commander
> does and they should not be in the approval cycle.
>
> Check on the cost that each district pays to send area monitors to 
> National.
>
> You might be surprised at how much can be saved by deleting Area Monitors.
>
> Now is the time to act.
>
> P/C Paul Soucy, AP
> SEO, Long Bay
>
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