CSSA journal Nov-Dec 2010

[CoronaCactus]

I believe they are sending it out to all 2010 members as a way to say thier sorry for such a delay. But i'm not 100% sure though.

[Ali Baba]

Does any one know when this years Haseltonia will appear?

[IanW]

If we did that for jobs paying over say two times the National Average Wage in the UK, due to cut throat competition for such positions we would not have the excessive wages those in our boardrooms now get.

Yeah, and look how well that worked with outsourcing, we got call centre workers who'd do the job for 6p an hour.

Just a shame they were about as capable of doing the job as a rock.

The problem with the lowest bidder idea is you'll likely end up with the lowest level of competence too.

[DaveW]

Post deleted.

Far too off-topic, please try to keep to the subject under discussion or at least close to it and keep non cactus and succulents posts to the Off Topic forum.

Bill

Forum Administrator

[IanW]

Post deleted.

Far too off-topic, please try to keep to the subject under discussion or at least close to it and keep non cactus and succulents posts to the Off Topic forum.

Bill

Forum Administrator

[Tina]

in this epic mail does it actually mention the CSSA journal & they say woman TALK .

[Lindsey]

I've never been a CSSA member myself... but this thread on another forum seems relevant
http://cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... light=cssa

[Tina]

Hi Lindsey
Must admit we have noticed some of these design faults, what I find hard to read is blocks of black with white text. Maybe I'm being old fashioned.

[DaveW]

Not go into too many multiple answers Ian as it is straying off the CSSJA link. I said the American Society should put the job of Editor out for tender since it could save them money by not stating a set remuneration in advance. When a job is tendered for it is not obligatory to accept the lowest bid, or the lowest qualified person, something you wrongly assume always happens.

What usually happens is they decide on the best bid by persons qualified to do the job. This may lead to exactly the same person doing the job that would have done it if you had not stated the remuneration in advance, but having to tender for it in competition with others without knowing their bid will probably mean they will ask for a lot less in order to get the job.

Also the American Society stated certain qualifications are required, but with open tender you may get a retired person with those qualifications prepared to do it for much less than somebody in full time employment who is doing it as a part time additional job. That system for all their officials could lead to cheaper subscriptions for CSSJA members. After all, remember our officials charge nothing. Are you condemning them for acting like Third World labour in undercutting what could be a lucrative job for the mercenary if the BCSS also paid American rates?

Only those who are afraid they don't have the qualifications, or are not worth their money, are scared to tender for their services in open competition with others. The self employed do it all the time and strangely enough the work that has seemed to go abroad is that of the employed on fixed wages rather than the self employed who individually tender for each job.

Yes a lot of manual manufacturing jobs have gone overseas, but now many of the pen pushing professional jobs are set to follow them with instant Internet connections to cheaper equally qualified professionals overseas. What Britain has lost through fixed wage rates is the ability to compete on price with those abroad.

However most of the professions have so far been shielded from the need to so compete for their jobs. But as evidenced by the surplus of university graduates, often with completely useless degrees for future employment, that has now come to an end with only the best getting the professional jobs and the rest are going to find their only employment now is shelf stacker's in supermarkets, or serving burgers at McDonald's.

If you don't have the skills or the qualifications private industry needs you are an unskilled labourer no matter how many letters you have after your name. In the past the public sector sopped up university graduates just because they had a degree of some kind and paid over the odds with tax payers money, even if these degrees were irrelevant to the job they were employed to do. But that is now ending and private industry is not so stupid to pay over the odds for people with irrelevant degrees..

DaveW

[IanW]

Not go into too many multiple answers Ian as it is straying off the CSSJA link. I said the American Society should put the job of Editor out for tender since it could save them money by not stating a set remuneration in advance. When a job is tendered for it is not obligatory to accept the lowest bid, or the lowest qualified person, something you wrongly assume always happens.

What usually happens is they decide on the best bid by persons qualified to do the job. This may lead to exactly the same person doing the job that would have done it if you had not stated the remuneration in advance, but having to tender for it in competition with others without knowing their bid will probably mean they will ask for a lot less in order to get the job.

Many firms do a similar thing by giving a salary range dependent on experience, there's no reason the CSSA couldn't do this, but by not advertising a wage at all you risk putting people off who are competent, because they just wont think it'll be worth it. Seeing no wage listing on a job advert screams "Not worth applying for" in my experience!

After all, remember our officials charge nothing. Are you condemning them for acting like Third World labour in undercutting what could be a lucrative job for the mercenary if the BCSS also paid American rates?

Not at all, but that's the difference in ethos between a charitable organisation which people volunteer for because it is in itself a hobby and a job people do for the money. It's silly to conflate the two. I'm sure however even some volunteers for the BCSS would accept they could do a better job if they were paid to do it as a full time role if not only because it'd mean they could commit more time to it due to not having to balance it against making a living doing something else too.