Clue Fairy Deficit

There was an election recently for a faculty senate president at a small college. There was only one candidate nominated for the position, who we'll call Sid, but when people saw who it was, they encouraged another faculty member, Rollo, to enter the running. The Rollo refused at first, but reluctantly consented after considering what might happen if Sid won.

Rollo had considerable support from one faction of the facutly, but there were a number of part-time faculty who were unknowns and other old-timers who didn't like Rollo's past association with administration. Rollo had baggage. Having been part of the administration for some years, there were some faculty members who "felt" that he would leak faculty senate secrets to his friends in the administration. He was baffled by that thinking since the faculty senate really had no secret business to conduct. The faculty union handled all of the "secret" stuff. The old guard was still maintianing the the administration has an agenda that opposes the faculty senate, and, therefore, we needed our secrets held closely.

Rollo did not subscribe to this way of thinking and tried to explain his position in a campaign email to the faculty. Sid had sent nothing and had not really done any campaigning other that asking people to vote for him. At a faculty senate meeting when Sid accepted his nomination, someone asked him about what he planned to do as the leader of the senate. His reply was, "whatever you want me to do, I guess." No one, not even Sid, seemed to have a clue as to what he might contribute to the faculty senate by way of leadership.

Well, the election was a landslide victory for Sid. Sixty-six percent of the votes were cast for him. Rollo and his supporters were somewhat surprised, and dismayed, by the outcome; but that was the vote. Everyone waited for first meeting with Sid as leader coming in six weeks.

That first meeting of the faculty senate demonstrated Sid's massive clue fairy deficit. Even before the meeting began, he engaged in a heated finger-pointing exchange with his VP. The VP had taken it upon himself to send out a propsed agenda. Sid had not responded to the email, since he does not read his campus email. The VP was angry that Sid had not responded and that there was no agenda for the meeting. Sid has no idea about decorum and just became defensive and angry. Now it is meeting time, and Sid has no agenda with the exception of the few things that "I just scribbled down before the meeting."

Faculty members were looking at each other incredulously as they realized that Sid had not done anything to prepare for his tenure as President - well, almost nothing. His first order of business was to "make a motion," rather than "moving," (something a president does not do) that we install a plaque with all of the past faculty senate presidents' names on it. After too much discussion about creating a subcommittee to look into this, Sid didn't even know how to call for the vote. He said that he didn't know how to do it and finally fumbled out something like "If you want this plaque raise your hands."

Needless to say, the meeting was a disaster. When faculty members complained to Rollo about how the meeting had gone, he encouraged them to talk with Sid. They were too angry and said that Rollo should do it. Rollo was reluctant because he believed that he would appear to be a "know it all" who was rubbing things in the face of his unworthy opponent.

Sid needed a visit from the Clue Fairy. Had that occurred, Sid would have known to review Robert's Rules of Order and to create an agenda that could be circulated in advance of the meeting; and, perhaps, have some meaningful business to engage. Sometimes we only need a Clue Fairy fly-by to provide us with the slightest hint for what we might do next. This was definitely not the case with Sid. His was a serious Clue Fairy deficit, not amenable to a fly-by therapy. The End.