Discussion Time: How To Debate

I interact with a lot of people in my everyday life. I have my current full-time position, a temporary gig, a volunteer job, and I serve on a professional board.

I am so tired of people not knowing how to argue. Now, when I bring up a point or a suggestion in a meeting, I do my best to know the pros and cons of my position. I’m not trying to waste anyone’s time. What I hope for is discussion; I’m not so stubborn as to think that I know everything. I only have my own perspectives, after all.

When I don’t like something, I’ll formulate why and let the other person respond. Maybe they’ve thought of something I hadn’t considered! What I get tired of is stonewalling. When I suggest something and all someone can say is “NO I DON’T LIKE THAT” and they can’t tell me why (or don’t say something like, “I’m not sure; can I think about it?”), it’s infuriating to me. Or when someone asks a question and the other person responds “THIS IS THE WAY IT IS AND HOW IT’S GOING TO BE,” it makes me want to scream into a pillow. It feels disrespectful and childish.

And it’s been happening more and more often in meetings I attend. Not just to me of course, but to others. When did we lose the ability to debate a point or treat people like adults? Why shut down discussion before it starts?

So my question is twofold, readers:

1. How do I keep my cool when someone is stonewalling me?
2. How do you handle people like that? Any ideas for me to use?

Looking forward to your responses!

I’m going to need a bigger brain.

Hello faithful readers (all two of you)!

I feel like every time I write a new blog entry, I promise I’m going to post more. I always mean to, but then time gets away from me and the next thing I know, it’s been almost another year and I’ve written nothing.

Anyway, this is another catch-up post in which I discuss my projects and what I’m up to.

1) I’m volunteering at the Ella Sharp Museum about once a month on Saturdays. It’s been a fun experience; the staff and other volunteers are very friendly and it’s a pleasure to help out somewhere and feel appreciated. For the most part, I’m copy cataloging into PastPerfect, but there was one weekend that I read letters from American war veterans (spanning the Civil War to WWII) and scanned them for potential use in an exhibit. The most interesting thing has been learning Nomenclature 3.0, which is a standard cataloging tool for museums. Being strictly an archives lady before this, I’d never had an opportunity to use it before. I sort of feel like I’m Jackson Pollacking the records as I choose what classifications to catalog the museum objects (LET ME THROW ALL THE APPLICABLE WORDS AT THE RECORD! BRILLIANT!) but I’m getting a better grasp on proper usage the more I use it. Incidentally, I’m also learning that I don’t know what objects are actually called. (“Metal thingy for a sewing machine” is not an acceptable cataloging term, fyi.)

2) As self-proclaimed family archivist for both of my parents, I’ve been diving into the history of my family tree. I’ll spare you the interesting things I’ve found about both sides (that’s another series of nerdy blog posts, I suppose) and get to the reason I’m telling you about this. Over Thanksgiving, my dad gave me a box of photos from his parents from the 1930s – 1950s (and one late 1870s/early 1880s tintype) and asked me to organize and scan them so we could give copies to family members that wanted the images. As I am wont to do, I’ve decided to make the process more complicated than it should be and I’m making a digital exhibit out of the whole thing. My thought is this: sure, we can send CDs of the scanned images to family members (and I will), but there’s got to be a more efficient way of displaying the photos and the information written on the backs of most of them. Furthermore, since I’m rehousing and cataloging them for my own personal archives (finding aid and all), I think it would be easier to have that information accessible in another place. Finally, it’s good experience for me to have, since my current job doesn’t have any opportunities for this sort of work. After investigating several programs to use, I’ve settled on Omeka due to the amount of documentation out there and the active open source community. The next step is to find a hosting service; I’m leaning toward Reclaim Housing due to affordability and it’s one-step Omeka install. As I work on this, I’ll put up blog posts detailing my adventures. However, this is going to be slow-going because…

3) I’m going back to school. In undergrad, I majored in History and Sociology because I loved those subjects. I didn’t want to teach (it’s a wonderful career; I just didn’t feel that calling), but I wanted to share the cool stories and contribute to the narrative. I got my MSI and became an archivist to do that, but because of the job market and my own mistakes (I do some stupid things, folks)…well, let’s just say that the professional archivist door is SLOWLY closing (library schools churning out younger and cheaper competition is also an issue). In addition, the field is becoming more and more technology-driven (duh) and my tech skills are woefully weak. A liberal arts/social science background will do that to you. I’ve been strengthening them using things like Codecademy, but I thought it was time to take it to the next level. I applied for the online Masters of Science in Computer Science program at Georgia Tech and I’m delighted to say that I was accepted. I’ve started classes this week and if all goes well, I should have another degree in four years (that’ll bring the total count of useless placemats I’ve earned to four, for those counting at home). I’m hoping this offers me more flexibility with what I can do and keeps me employable for years to come. I’ll be blogging on the things I learn as well.

4) I’m also a Member-at-Large on the Michigan Archival Association board and the new assistant editor for our newsletter, Open Entry, but blah, blah, blah, professional organization stuff. Oh, and I’m training for a half-marathon.

In other words, I’m overextended again, just like I like it. Time to grind.