[Psml] Merit Mark Comments

[Kristi Anderson]

I have mixed feelings on this whole topic.  
1) I agree, the squadron or district commander will know the members more
than national.  
2) Since I have 3 cats and work full time, anytime someone comes to my
house, I give it a very good cleaning to help keep potential allergies down,
provide some food, etc and it takes about 8 hours for me to give the house a
basic run through.  If I am having a gathering here on a weekend, it takes
days to scrub the patio and the house, kitchen, linen etc.  So, I can see
where a merit mark could be given for keeping the squadron from having to
pay for a room somewhere to meet.  Obviously, everyone's situation is
different.  
3) The wording on SOME (25%) of the submissions is really lame.  I am sorry.
They really are.  Many are rejected just because the creativity in writing
it is not there.  Any one of you would deny "attended squadron meeting".
But would you deny "attended 6 squadron meetings, helped arrange room as
needed, prepared sound equipment, cleaned up after everyone, stacked chairs
and served cookies" - 12 hours.  436 characters is more than enough room to
get someone a merit mark, but most submissions that don't reach 436
characters, are the ones that didn't do enough to get a merit mark.  My
point is the job the area monitors do have to be descriptive as there is no
way to know the individual situation.  I suspect a D/C would not know
either.  

I do see a few problems:
1)  The commanders already have a full plate as there are so many positions
not being filled in the squadron.  I wonder if they have time to take care
of this in addition to everything else.
2)  I am putting on a DB2000 workshop in D8 this weekend.  I have 10
attendees and not all are from every squadron.  Just because someone is a
commander doesn't mean they want to, are willing or have time to learn
DB2000.  If we can't get them to learn DB2000 now, are we going to then?
Yes, a committee could handle it for them, but see next issue.
3)  There are many squadrons that do not turn in merit mark reports.  Yes,
they are the minority, but with the squadrons lacking in people, members,
etc, I really think this number will grow if the squadrons take control.
4)  Having an area monitor has someone external, non partisan follow the
rules or else we may give anyone and everyone a merit mark, which diminishes
the "achievement"  or "thank you" aspect of getting merit mark for those
that did do a lot of work.
5)  From the previous emails, one guy does a little in the squadron, a
little at district and a little at national.  None by themselves qualifies
for a single merit mark.  But together, it does.  Now, I don't see that the
current process can handle this.  The example given was for work done in
multiple districts.  There is no way for a monitor of D15 to get the info to
the monitor for D23, or whatever.  That to me is a problem.

Suggestion:  Maybe we need to rethink the Merit Mark requirement.  In other
words, the amount of work needed to get a merit mark.  Though the current
rules seem logical, maybe they don't meet the lack of members in today's
squadron.  So, from a squadron perspective, they may be very thankful that
Bob drove 100 miles through rain, snow, ice etc to get to the meeting,
because the commander called Bob and personally invited him (oh yeah, Bob is
50% blind, and has bad hearing).  Bob may have done a 5 minute presentation
too.  Point is - it is only 6 hours (stretching) but an extra big effort was
made.  Maybe the rules are too generic. I don't know.  Just at thought. AND
maybe someone can figure out a way to handle work done in multiple squadrons
or districts.  That is what I think the real, initial complaint was.

Everyone knows we have some really great hard working members and there is
no way 436 characters could cover all the things these folks do.  But is it
really fair to give the guy who attended a meeting a merit mark and the 1000
hour member the same award?  Well, that is the plan USPS has setup.  We
don't get 2 merit marks and the 1000 hour guy does it because they enjoy it.
The one time attendee that went the 100 miles, well, should they get the
same pay as the 1000 hour guy?  These are just questions we have to rethink.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts.  

Kristi Anderson