ANZSI's future

The first article below was written under time pressure, and I didn't choose my words as carefully as I should. I didn't intend to imply that any of the ANZSI Council now or in the past have been deliberately obstructive, or that they have been motivated by anything but a sincere belief that they are acting in ANZSI's best interests. But my main point stands: an organisation of 230 people, already well connected by the Internet, doesn't need two levels of administration. Virtually all ANZSI members' needs are met at the Branch level, leaving a Council which has to try and justify its existence with ever more complicated rules and long-term projects of little or no benefit to ordinary indexers.

The latest of these, I gather, is incorporation -- a classic example of making work for its own sake. How many indexers woke up this morning and thought The thing I need most in my professional life is to belong to an incorporated society? Incorporation, if it ever succeeds, will just add another layer of rules and regulations to a Council which is already nearly paralysed, and bring total gridlock one step closer.

None of this would matter, and we could leave the Council to pursue its pipe dreams while we get on with life, except for three things: firstly, the small but significant amount of money that Council takes from members each year; secondly the energy it wastes, which could be put into activities at the Branch level; and most importantly, because our current administrative policies are killing the Society! I said above that ANZSI has 230 members, but this is misleading: what we actually have is a dwindling rump of veteran members, mostly recruited before 2001, who actively support the Society administration and subscribe to its services, and a larger 'bulge' of new members who have joined since 2004. Very few of these new members take any interest in ANZSI administration or its services, and on past performance, 80-90% of them will leave within a few years without playing any significant role in the Society.

These new members are voting with their feet: rather than wait around for the Council to do something useful, they are leaving ANZSI for good. Unless we can find a way to keep these new recruits then ANZSI's long-term future is bleak.

And incorporation isn't it.