Conference 7.286::digital

    MM never struck me as one of the most important publications in the
    world. Perhaps it's necessary to have an organ of record and, for DEC,
    MM appears to be it.
    
    Having received it for several years, I can truthfully say I'd not miss
    it if it departed...

Jack (.0), I don't think you're missing anything.  I have the same reaction.

This month is particularly galling since it starts in with an article about
DEC's Mr. Cost_Containment.  That's no problem, but the example they use is
travel, which is an enormous hot-button of mine.  When I was in the field,
we spent hundreds more dollars on EVERY trip ANYONE took because management
was so hopeless about giving an approval ahead of time.  It's not really any
better here in corporate-land.  MM can talk about "travel cost means airfare,
etc" all they want, but until we get managers who say "book it 4 weeks ahead
because I know you're going there" instead of "well, I don't know, maybe we
should wait and see, let me try to find out what upper upper upper management
thinks", we'll continue to spend $1800 on $400 tickets.  Ya wanna save some
money on airfares?  Get some decision makers in the trenches!

Besides the built-in bureaucracy, we have the "I'll have to get back to you"
travel service.  Those folks don't know much (if anything) about _really_ 
saving money for DEC on airfares.  I wish I could have 10% of the money I've
saved off their quoted "lowest" price.

Sorry.  I shouldn't have gotten started.

Anyway MM is barely worth the electrons (in VTX) and might not be worth the 
paper it's printed on.  Like .0, I wish they'd address the REAL issues.

K.

    Roger!!!!!  I just got mine this morning, and it fell open to page 17
    wherein was recorded the world-shaking info about Charlie Christ's
    promotion to VP.  That's two-month-old pablum.  They must really be
    hurting for articles.
    
    I don't ever recall any article of any value.  It is so sanitized by
    the time it is published that it is worthless, not to mention the lack
    of timeliness.  What does it cost to put this rag out?
    
    Even the lead article is all rewarmed stuff we've all heard before.
    Agree also about the travel problem.  I can't think of an instance when
    I coudldn't get cheaper flights that our agency gets for us.  It's
    really a rip-off.

    Methinks I smell a DELTA_IDEA here ...
    
    Steve (a grunt that never heard of MM until this note ...)

    Last February American Express booked me in the International Hotel in
    Zuerich for sFr.220 a day. I had to come to find an appartment to live
    in. I stayed two nights then I went home to my parents. 
    There are better places to stay, and if you come to Europe, please
    contact the office you are coming to, to arrange for hotel rooms. What
    AMEX books is the most expensive hotel. 
    Another point, why do we have to fly "Business Class", it is three
    times mosre than "Economy". I flew Economy of my own free will, yes it
    is not as comftable as B-Class, but it saves money.
    
    Regarding the Capital Equipment that has to be gotten, if needed or
    not, is a game that most groups play. The phisolophy is: Spend the
    money, if you have allocated it in the budget.
    
    VP's are too many, I don't want to hear of any more promotions. It
    might be nice to hear some facts for the future for a change.
    

    
}    The travel stuff really gets me.  Several times I was able to
}    eliminate the justification for 2000 mile trips. Being a capable
}    engineer, I was able to use phone, mail and fax communications to
}    work problems and projects without spending time in airplanes.
}    Boy did that upset the management.  


	I can relate to this, I onced analyzed a customer problem with
software that I supported and determined that sending people to the site
was a waste of DEC money and resources UNTIL the field people updated
the system. The system was running a mixed breed of software, and the
software I was supporting needed the LATEST version of VMS to work correctly.


	I was copied on a nasty memo from a management person which
stated that TWO people from CSC in Colorado would go to the customer
site, one in my place as I was not being a team player. My major contact
in CSC had agreed with my assesment and kept trying up to the last
minute to get the system upgraded by the field to no avail. He ended up
going with the other person and after two days of upgrading the system
with the correct versions of the software there was no longer a problem.


	The bottom line is the manager looks great, the customer problem
is solved, which is what we all want to provide, but at the cost of
driving the company to ruins? 

	The customer comes first because they pay the bills, but they
would be better served by some of us if we sometimes pushed back on
them and made them more responsible for the simplistic things that
are costing DEC time/money and resources that could be better used
elsewhere.

    	I just got my MM today.  I didn't think I was supposed to get 
    	that.  I don't know why I do.  (Actually I do know -- everybody in 
    	our group gets it...  Now, I don't know why everybody in our group 
    	gets it, but -- no wait!  I found out why everyone in our group
    	gets it.  Because everyone in out DISTRICT gets it!  I'll
    	try to find out why everyone in the district gets it.)
    
    	But I don't think it is a total waste of money.  Heck, in my
    	group alone we generated a nice chunk of recycling revenues
    	from it!
    
    	Joe Oppelt

    People....don't forget that there is a bureaucracy associated with
    MM...and they'll fight to the death to hold onto their jobs.  Wonder
    why so many people get it??? that's how they help justify the damned
    thing.  Another totally worthless rag that could go TODAY is
    "Digital TODAY".  We get about 100 copies a week in CXN (in an
    expensive display rack BTW).  By the end of the week around 80 copies
    are thrown away.  The rest end up in the can where they are needed
    for reading material.
    
    On out of control expense stories...I can beat you all.  I had a person
    I had booked into a Red Roof Inn in city X, fly to city Y in the early
    evening and stay at a 100 buck hotel in order to get the "frequent
    sleeper" points.
    
    Finally, I think the corporation is making a big, messy, major mistake
    turning our travel over to AMEX.  I can do much better on my own.
    
    But, does anybody really care anymore??  I don't.

    
    >    But, does anybody really care anymore??  I don't.
    
    Sad commentary indeed.
    
    peter
    
    

    re: .9---``...I think the corporation is making a big, messy, major mistake
    turning our travel over to AMEX.  I can do much better on my own.
    
    ``But, does anybody really care anymore??  I don't.''
    
    I think senior management cares.  Maybe they turned the job over to
    AMEX, even though you can do much better on your own, because you don't
    care anymore.
        John Sauter

From:	PHOBIA::BULLARD      13-MAR-1991 19:33:56.26
To:	ACETEK::TIMPSON,CXCAD::CLOUTMAN
CC:	
Subj:	If digital was a football team?

<<FORWARDS DELETED>>>
Subj:	
Subj:	sarcasm
Subj:	An interesting line of thought...

Network Mail received on 12-Mar-91 at 08:06
 
From: BSS::WILLIS "Bill - LOC=1/E4 - DTN:592-5684  12-Mar-1991 0807"
To:   @PRIVATE.DIS
Subject: Digital Allegory ... With Valuable Lessons For Us All!
 
     	Once upon a time there was a famous American football team who
     rocketed to stardom because they played an amazingly creative type of
     football, beat all the opponents, won lots of trophies and earned
     huge quantities of cash.
 
     	Thousands of fans turned out to watch their imaginative	plays
     inspired by their head coach known as Ol' Kenson.	More conventional
     teams swore that it was impossible to win 	playing in this way, but
     they were wrong. The team just went on winning.
 
     	It was great for the players too because they only needed to
     contribute to the team's success for about 6 months and then, if
     they acted smart, they got to be on the coaching team.  After a
     while there were an awful lot of coaches sitting in the stadium
     but it didn't matter so much because there were still lots of fans
     paying even more cash to watch the games.
 
     	Then one day a new sport came on the scene, it was called	
     "soccer".  It really was a laughing stock, you just needed	a round
     ball and a couple of kids and off you went and had	fun.  It could
     never work, certainly it could never rival football...Ol' Kenson said
     so himself.
	 
     	So the just team went on winning, earning masses of money,	
     promoting more and more players to coaching positions.  The coaches
     took up more and more seats in the stadium but they too were intrigued
     at watching their own team playing to notice.
	
     	The coaches started talking to each other during the timeouts and
     found it was a lot of fun, even more fun than watching the	plays.
     Needless to say they started to invite their friends to join them in
     this super pastime of sitting in the comfy chairs and chatting about
     life in general.
 
     	Fairly soon about three quarters of the seats in the stadium	
     were filled with coaches, which didn't leave too much space for the
     fans who were really the ones who financed the show. 
 
     	Luckily the team went on playing by itself, still winning, still
     earning money until one of the coaches said: "Hey,	guys, don't you
     think we ought to do a little coaching from time to time?"  This
     caused quite a stir and the coaches had to	get together in special
     meetings to decide something.
 
     	They flew around the world, met the experts, consulted with
     colleagues and finally decided that they had discovered an astonishing
     new coaching method: "Coaching by doing Nothing at All!"  They had a
     huge celebration.
 
     	Meanwhile the team was getting into a bit of trouble.  All these
     coaches meetings meant many of the seats were unoccupied and the fans
     found it a bit drafty, even though the plays still looked good, it
     wasn't so comfortable as before.
 
     	And then there was this new sport that was coming up!  It was
     starting to look interesting too so some of the fans went to watch
     that, even though Ol' Kenson said it was "snake oil".
 
     	Then one day the public decided that they weren't so interested	in
     paying large amounts of money to watch football any more.	Soccer was
     altogether cheaper.  The team's revenue started to go down, they could
     sell the tickets for so much money any more.
 
	But the team just had to go on playing.
 
     	The coaches got into a terrible fuss and decided to multiply the
     number of meetings with each other to discuss and decide something
     urgently to get things right again.
 
	But the team just had to go on playing.
 
     	It was discovered that the players benefited from all sorts of	
     things like hot showers, free orange juice and healthy meals.  By
     eliminating these goodies the problem was sure to be solved!  The
     coaches cheered themselves loudly, patted each other on the	
     back and had a celebratory drink or two.
 
     	But the team just had to go on playing.  One of them did	
     suggest that if the players couldn't have juice maybe the coaches
     couldn't have champagne ... he was fired.
 
     	The problem did not go away so the coaches, who were just loving
     this situation because they had something to achieve, flew around and
     got together and discovered that the players also got extensive
     training in nice locations to make them fit to play the winning way.
     By severely reducing this cost the problem would solve itself.
     Celebration time again.
 
     	But the team just had to go on playing. One of them did suggest
     that these "extras" actually helped the team get the results ... he
     was fired.
 
     	The situation got worse and worse. The coaches started to get
     creative: reducing the size of the playing field to about the
     dimensions of a tennis court would save maintenance money, changing
     the players socks only once a month instead of once a match would save
     cleaning costs, making the players pay their own fares to away matches
     would save travel expenses ...
	
     	But the team just had to go on playing.  One of them did suggest
     that maybe the coaches had once been good players but they really
     hadn't had much practice in coaching ... he was fired.
 
     	No improvement, no improvement.  The coaches really were wondering.
     More and more meetings were needed.  Then breakthrough: a brilliant
     inspiration had struck. 
 
     	One of the coaches had noticed during a recent rare trip to the
     stadium that a lot of the players sat on the sidelines while the
     game was going on. 
 
     	Apparently there was an offense and a defense and a punt return
     squad, etc.  If these guys could just be *flexible* then not so many
     were needed ... and they could sell off the other players to the
     outside world who all wanted flexible players too!  What a celebration
     they had then.
 
     	"Be flexible! Be flexible", chanted the massed ranks of	coaches in
     unison.
	
     	The players were very puzzled by that and asked for some	
     clarification. 
	
     	"It's easy!" said a group of coaches to one player.  "Being
     flexible means being able to do more things so not only must you
     play football, you must also play	baseball," and they gave him a bat
     and told him to go	for it in a big way.
 
     	"It's easy!" said a group of coaches to another player.	"Being
     flexible means being able to think of new angles so not only must
     you play football, you must also play billiards," and they gave
     him a cue and told him to go for it in a bigger way.
 
     	"It's easy!" said a group of coachs to another player.	"Being
     flexible means the ability to react quickly, so not only must
     you play football, you must also do fencing," and they gave him
     an epee and told him to go	for it in the biggest way possible.
 
     	And so the groups of coaches all gave their own excellent	
     advice on flexibility to the players.
 
     	Back on the pitch the game was in some confusion.  Players were
     jabbing, punching, poking, whacking, kicking each other all in the
     name of flexibility.  Adding to the confusion were recent measures
     that had reduced the size of the playing area to the dimensions of a
     ping-pong table.
 
     	The coaches got back and started yelling at each other, it would
     have got really bad if there hadn't been another inspiration. "Get
     close to the customer!"  What relief.  Time for a bit more
     celebration.
 
     	"Get close to the customer! Get close to the customer!"	chanted the
     serried rows of coaches.  The puzzled players closed in on the few
     remaining fans in a jabbing, poking,kicking phalanx.  The fans turned
     and fled.
	  
     	The coaches sat and watched in disbelief. What a lousy	bunch of
     players they said to each other.  It was very easy to speak to each
     other now since latest measures had reduced the size of the playing
     area to the dimensions of a chessboard to make sure there was enough
     room for seats for all of the coaches.
 
     	"The solution is obvious!"  They all agreed.  "Get rid of the	
     players and all our troubles are over!"  And they rushed off to
     have lots more meetings to find out how to do it.
 
     	Meanwhile, alone in the empty stadium the players looked at each
     other.  And in the silence reason started to dawn.
	
     	Wordlessly each of them dropped their bat, their cue, their sword,
     boxing gloves, all the useless weapons they'd been exhorted to use to
     beat each other.
 
     	Common sense prevailed and all by themselves they went back to the
     simple job of playing and winning as a team.
 
     	Little by little the seats started to fill up again with	
     happy fans.
    
    
	Outside the coaches were still debating, debating, debating...
 
Posted : Tuesday, March 12,1991 10:46:01 MST - Colorado Springs, CO (MOLSON)

Re:              <<< Note 1437.2 by A1VAX::BARTH "Special K" >>>

>Anyway MM is barely worth the electrons (in VTX) and might not be worth the 
>paper it's printed on.

Even if MM has any redeeming value (and I don't hear too much support here :-) 
then why distribute printed copies if it's available on VTX for anyone who 
wants to read it?

I know, it keeps someone in a job....

-  David

	MM's content and quality is typical of house organs.

	Since the staff has no money ( thank goodness ) to
	travel, etc., they are reduced to printing junk like:

	1) Managers exchanging plaques and handshakes.
	2) Retirement news.
	3) Promotion news.
	4) The latest trendy human relations fluff.

	It's pretty universal.  The newsletter here at CXO
	contains the same junk.  

	Gee, that makes THREE publications that could be eliminated,	
	along with system resources, printing costs, distribution
	costs and employee overhead:  Management Memo, the CXO
	rag, and Digital Today.

	Steve H

	P.S. But heaven help us, I saw a DISTRICT newsletter posted
	on a cube wall around here today ! sch

    I don't get MM, and I haven't needed to do any traveling for DEC. 
    Nor do I expect to. But I certainly  hope that given this period of
    chaos, layoffs (oopps sorry, involuntary seperations), and
    reorganizations, that Jack Smith and the upper management read some of
    these notes. You have all certainly pointed out some of the BIG BIG
    ways that DEC spends money in a rather frivilous fashion.
    	If we don't stop this kind of spending now, we will probably be
    facing even bigger personnel cuts in the years to follow.
    
    (IMHO) Brian

    Management Memo is available on VTX, not much worth reading 
    in my opinion.  Several years ago there were some interesting
    articles in it.
    
    $ VTX MM
    
    

    You can add DIGITAL THIS WEEK too!  As a matter of fact, I wouldn't
    be unhappy if all the print-based Whohadababy-type pablum publications
    went away.  The one out here in CX seems to deal excessively with
    how wonderful all the human relations programs are.
    
    Basically, DEC is too big for these!  My daughter works for a medium
    sized company here in Colorado Springs (about 200 folks).  They have
    the funniest, best written internal organ I've ever seen.  They make
    fun of management, print silly articles, etc., in fact a lot of the
    craziest stuff is written BY management.
    
    I used to be the editor/publisher of a Digital rag called "Feedback"
    back in the 70's.  It was the Field Service Newsletter of its time.
    The approval cycle for any article was incredibly long, with practi-
    cally every manager up to Jack Shields having to bless everything.
    It typically took three months to get an issue out.
    
    It finally died when we did what I thought was an excellent article on
    the GIA Flying Squad.   BUT, we had a picture of one of the senior
    technical folks sitting on the edge of his desk, holding a mug of
    coffee.  Well, we got all the approvals, including the manager of the
    Flying Squad, and went to print.  The Manager of GIA had been away on
    a trip so we couldn't get his approval.  When he saw the advance copy,
    he had an absolute Hitlerian, carpet-chewing, furniture-smashing fit,
    dismissed the Flying Squad Manager on the spot, and in general made
    a damned fool of himself all because he though the photo somehow sent
    a message that all the flying squad did was sit around and drink
    coffee.  4,000 copies of newsletter were stopped at Northboro and
    destroyed to satisfy this one person's inflated ego.
    
    The next day, I went to my boss and told him that I either had to have
    some degree of editorial freedom, and get the damned thing out on a
    monthly basis, or we should drop it.  We dropped it.
    
    I won't mention that manager's name, but he's still around and a biggy.
    When he used to have his fits, everyone would run, literally, including
    his secretary.  Great fun.

    I'm going to disagree with these previous replies. I *like* MM.
    
    The first time I saw a copy was a few years ago. I probably picked it
    up off my manager's desk. I remember thinking that at least some people
    get information on what's going on (without reading it in the Boston
    Globe first). I thought it was just for managers, and that DIGITAL must
    think the worker bees didn't care or didn't need to know what
    high-level people were thinking, so they only sent it to managers.
    
    Now I've moved to an EIS position. I work at a customer site, and I
    don't even have an office in a DIGITAL building. Many of the people I
    work with joined DIGITAL just to work on this project, so they know
    less than I do about what's going on "back east" (and probably don't
    see much need to know). I read notesfiles (like this one) to get the
    pulse of the company, but, face it, what you read in a notesfile can't
    be taken as news. I read MM in VTX when I get a chance. That's at least
    the party line on some current topics. Sure, most of it isn't too
    relevant ("New recycling effort in the Mill"), but I can see the things
    that DIGITAL's focusing on. High-level people respond to concerns with
    vague, broad statements, but if it weren't for MM I wouldn't know that
    these people heard the concerns or agreed that they needed to be
    addressed. I haven't found many ways of getting information about the
    company out here, so MM serves a purpose for me. 
    
    Cathy

    	re .18
    
    	Do you read your MM online in VTX?  While I don't find the contents
    	all that fulfilling, my biggest problem with getting MM is that
    	I get it hard copy as a part of a blanket mailing to certain job
    	codes.  
    
    	I thought that by filling out my segmentation profile I would have
    	taken care of this type of thing.  Apparently MM doesn't follow
    	those distribution guidelines.
    
    	If I wanted to read it, I could get it online.  I take issue with
    	the expense of mailing/printing it (not only to those who actually 
    	want it, but also to those who don't) when it is available to almost 
    	every employee through VTX.
    
    	Joe Oppelt

    re .6:
    
    >>> Another point, why do we have to fly "Business Class", it is three
    >>> times more than "Economy". I flew Economy of my own free will, yes it
    >>> is not as comftable as B-Class, but it saves money.
    
    WHAAAAAATTTT???????????? Someone is telling you you "have" to fly
    business class? Which planet do you work on?
    
    The message that came down to me and my colleagues, loud and clear from
    Pier-Carlo Falotti, was "EVERYONE travels economy on trips less than 8
    hours", which btw includes transatlantic.
    
    This isn't great news for people like me (6 feet 4 and 250 pounds) but
    when it means your flight costs, say $500 instead of $1500, there's no
    argument.
    
    But anyone who is telling people they must fly business class is a
    public enemy, and everyone who (like myself) takes 48 hours to get
    unfolded after an economy class flight to the States, will strongly
    resent this apparent discrimination.
    
    /Tom

    re .18:
    
    I agree, Management Memo has explained a number of things in a way that
    I have appreciated. As for the bland tone, it certainly makes reading
    MM something of an effort, but if YOU were in charge, would you
    circulate confidential information and opinions to employees? Or would
    you "sanitize" it, knowing full well that this sort of stuff always
    leaks?
    
    re .8:
    
    >>>	gets it.  Because everyone in out DISTRICT gets it!  I'll
    >>>	try to find out why everyone in the district gets it.)
    
    Well, the theory used to be that managers would read MM and pass
    the information on to their reports "in timely fashion". Except
    that many managers didn't ("knowledge is power"), and judging
    from the attempts of some of my past managers to brief their teams,
    it's real hard to explain something you don't understand (or, often
    care about) in the first place.
    
    However, with MM on VTX there shouldn't be the need to force-feed
    hardcopy to everyone. How about the default being one per office or
    group, with anyone being allowed to register for their own hardcopy?
    That way the company could save money and our colleagues on-site could
    take their copies home.
    
    /Tom

My unofficial count is 14 people are in favor of either completely getting
rid of MM, or at the very least, having it available only on VTX; 2 people
would like to see it continued; and the rest commenting on travel, etc.

Now I know that in the 'old days', 14 to 2 was a tie, but from what I'm
seeing, things ARE changing (yeah, I know, not everything is going to change).
Someone suggested that the elimination of MM become a DELTA suggestion.

Who's going to do it? (I will if I could locate the node::user).

    TO make a DELTA suggestion, send mail to SONATA::IDEASCENTRAL.  I think
    they will send you back an electronic form and maybe a number.  Not
    sure of the exact procedure nowadays though I've submitted a few ideas.
    
    Steve

    Count me in for the elimination of MM in hardcopy form. In fact, I
    would like to generalize that to ALL publications not containing
    complex graphics (ie only text and/or line drawings capable of
    displaying on a VT100 class device). Why do we have to spend $$ to
    print them, distribute them, and then having to spend more $$ sending
    the leftovers to be burnt!?
    
    heng-wah

    While I agree that MM would be better in non-paper form (along with
    Digital today) or not existing in its present form at all.
    
    I dont think a collective vote in this notesfile
    	a. has any meaning or validity.
    	b. carries any sort of weight.
    
    By all means critique the content, style, medium, form but dont waste
    your time with a straw poll that has no value.
    
    John

    
    Re .22:
    
    Conference CAPNET::DELTA_IDEAS, note 2.1, has instructions on
    submitting an idea, along with an idea form. Press KP7 to add...
    
    

>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                 -< stop printing anymore internal stuffs... >-
>
>Count me in for the elimination of MM in hardcopy form. In fact, I
>would like to generalize that to ALL publications not containing
>complex graphics (ie only text and/or line drawings capable of

    It seems a tragic waste. One person won a $500 savings bond for
    suggesting that people should not make a single copy of their
    expense report (valuable reciept for those whose internal business
    managemant won' give them a original copy).
    
    However, everytime a major MM comes out, no matter how long or short,
    several people print them out, even with all 50 pages of cc ..
    
    So, if my orginizaation of 25 people represents 25 typical DECies,
    and only 1 prints out the MM (of 60 some pages of cc), lets see ,,
    1/25th of 150,000 people times 50 pages = 300,000 pages (600 reams of
    LN03 paper from DECdirect is @ $5.00 per ream, plus $119 per Toner
    Cartridge is ... (mumble, muumble) enough to give everyone a 1/2%
    raise in FY92 )
    
    forwarding addresses to be either:
        a) Read at leisure
        b) Trashed
        c) Other

    Estimates are real easy after watching the political mumbo jumbo over
    the Operation Desert Shield financial gains to the US, which of
    course doesn't include any of the 'forgiven billiones of dollars in
    debt to our allies) .. whoopss .. sorry, another topic ..
    
    -BobE
    

Today I received a one-page glossy (read non-recyclable) content-free piece of
junk called "In the Safety Lane".  It arrived all by itself in a gray sealed
Digital envelope.  It says,

	This is the first of a regular publication of "In the Safety Lane",
	a newsletter published by U. S. Fleet Administration in conjunction
	with Consolidated Service Corporation.  Each participating employee
	will receive "In the Safety Lane".  We hope you will enjoy reading
	this quarterly newsletter.

This informative brochure goes on to quiz me about which months most accidents
occur, tell me that low tire pressure is the cause of many accidents, and that
the trend is to use more glass in today's cars.

WHAT IS THIS CRAP?  WE SPENT MONEY TO SEND THIS OUT TO PEOPLE?

Thanks, but I already know that I can't see as far at night and that I shouldn't
write or take off my jacket while driving.  I hope this is the last one of these
stupid wasteful "publications" I receive.

Paul

    You think that's wasteful,huh? You ain't seen the last of such
    newsletters. Reliable sources who wish to remain anonymous,tell me that
    several hundred employees who would have gotten "outplaced" have formed
    a new group who's charter is to "produce scads of worthless
    publications" and,yes,there is a new VP. More on this later...
    
    Ken

And let's not forget that wonder rag we in the U.S. get at home (DECworld?).
The latest issue had so many misspellings that I was embarrassed to show it to
my wife.

Bob

    re .28
    
    Paul --
    
    You beat me to the punch.  The only criticism I have of your reply is
    that you were much too polite.  I hope you forwarded it to Ted Elliot.
    

>    <<< Note 1437.30 by SCAACT::AINSLEY "Less than 150 kts. is TOO slow" >>>

>And let's not forget that wonder rag we in the U.S. get at home (DECworld?).
>The latest issue had so many misspellings that I was embarrassed to show it to
>my wife.

Here's some clues:

DecWORLD as opposed to DEC-USA

Picture of the world on the front page rather than picture of the USA

The words "Digital's worldwide employee publication" on the front
                     ^^^^^^^^^

Yes, we get it in the UK too (and presumably every Digital employee gets it)

At least they have the sense to use the internal mail to distribute it here.

Craig

    re: .30
    
    Yes, the latest issue of DECworld was a disgrace. My High School
    newspaper produced a higher quality publication.
    
    Jim C.
    

    Wonder how much money we could save if we stopped all but the most
    essential intercompany publications?  I can't believe the volume of
    internal crap I receive in the mail.  I don't even know how  I got on
    the junk mail list.  And most of the stuff I receive in the mail also
    comes to be electronically.

    Could somebody in publishing tell us the cost of printing and
    distributing one issue of these publications?  Not the editorial
    costs, but just the printing and mailing.

    How to stop all this waste?...
    
    Perhaps, from now on, when I receive yet-another-"essential"
    newsletter (i.e., junk mail), I'll be inclined to just send
    it back to its origin.  Or perhaps to some executive, who'll
    no doubt enjoy receiving thousands of such forwardings...
    

    Along the same line as the many newsletters and other mailings.....

    About 2 weeks ago the Health facilities groups here in the Greater 
Marlboro area passed out free copies of a book, "Take Care of Yourself, a 
Consumers Guide to Medical Care". IT is a softcover book, 370 pages, and 
was given to all takers. I would guess they handed out hundreds of copies.

    Yes, I took one, but I would have been willing to pay for it had the 
compnay offered it at a reduced cover price rather than giving them out. I 
am not questioning the value of the book, just the sense in a freebie that 
has a shelf price probably of around $10.00 or more. It seemed to be poor 
timing for all the other cost saving measures we are trying. I appreciate 
Health Services/Corp Benefits being concerned with reducing my health 
insurance costs and wanting me to know more about my own health care, but 
this seemed extreme....


    Vic H

    re .37 
    
>timing for all the other cost saving measures we are trying. I appreciate 
>Health Services/Corp Benefits being concerned with reducing my health 
>insurance costs and wanting me to know more about my own health care, but 
>this seemed extreme....
    
    What in the world made you think they were primarily concerned with
    reducing YOUR health insurance costs, Vic?  Unless you have a highly
    unusual situation, Digital is the one paying most of the cost.  If
    Health Services made the decision that giving away the book would help
    reduce costs by more than the cost of the book, and that giving it away
    would reach a bigger audience and reduce costs more than selling it at
    reduced price, then they made the right decision.
    
    Of course, they probably didn't go through such an exercise, so may not
    have been a well considered, cost justified action - in which case it
    is proper to criticise.  Maybe you should ask them?
    
    /Dave

RE: .30

>And let's not forget that wonder rag we in the U.S. get at home (DECworld?).

What I found most amusing/appalling about the May '91 issue of DECworld was
the article on "Reference Exchange" on pages 16 and 17.  Two pages of text,
pictures of smiling managers of the product, screen prints of how wonderful
it is, glowing success stories over how it saved a sale, but 

	*THEY DON'T TELL ME HOW TO ACCESS IT*!!!

I have searched and searched the article, and then gone into VTX and tried
every abbreviation of the words reference and exchange that I can think of,
and I still cannot figure out how to get into this database.  Which is a 
pity, because I think this information might be useful to me.

I am sure that someone will reply to this note, telling me how to get into
the database.  I thank you in advance for the information, because I *will*
find it useful.  But the article should have contained this information.
Talk about sloppy writing and editing!

-- Ken Moreau

    Ken,
    
    To access Reference Exchange, either:
    
    Get into the VTX library, select "Sales Tools," and select the item
    that says "Customer Reference Accounts,"
    
                   OR
    
    Type vtx references at the dollar sign, as in --
    
    $ vtx references
    
    Mary

    You can also get to Reference Exchange by using the ACCESS menu
    structure ($VTX ACCESS_US) or via options 3, 13, and 16 from the
    Corporate menu structure.
    
    Reference Exchange is currently option 5 (Customer Reference Accounts)
    off our main menu, but after the middle of July it will be option 16
    (Reference Accounts).
    
    
    \\ken
    ACCESS Program Office
    

    Re: .35
    
    Well for comparison ...
    
    About six years ago the printing cost for a single page,
    double-sided product information sheet with just text in black
    and white was three cents each in runs of 2500 or more.  So 100k
    would've been $3000.
    
    What's your guess for a multipage glossy with color, graphics,
    and photographs six years later?  I'd say somewhere between 10
    and 20 cents each for 100K of them.
    
    Steve
    
    

    re: 28 Safety Bulletin,
    
    Everyone in our unit came to the same conculsion...trash.
    
    In these times when we are laying off people we publish more landfill.
    
    FJK

I talked to US Fleet Administration and complained about the "In the Safety
Lane" brochure.  They said that Digital didn't pay anything for it as it's
included in our contract with the insurance people.  I said that it might not be
a separately-billed item, but Digital certainly paid for it.

They said that the government was pushing companies to publish such brochures as
a way to reduce auto damage costs and that many people had called with positive
reactions to the brochure.  The person agreed that someone with bad driving
habits would probably not change because of an article in "In the Safety Lane".

THESE PEOPLE JUST DON'T GET IT!

I would think that, as a minimum, as a human being on this earth, the way this
piece of drek was distributed would be offensive.  By the time I was through
with my complaint, the person I was talking to was abrupt and closed-minded to
my input.

This is not the time to be narrow-minded.  This is the time to see the big
picture.  I still find the brochure to be totally indefensible.

Paul

    >>I would think that, as a minimum, as a human being on this earth, the
    >>way this piece of drek was distributed would be offensive.  By the time
    >>I was through with my complaint, the person I was talking to was abrupt
    >>and closed-minded to my input.
    
    My gosh, what a shock. And when you went so far out of your way to see
    his point of view.
    
    >>This is not the time to be narrow-minded.  This is the time to see the
    >>big picture.  I still find the brochure to be totally indefensible.
    
    Is this comment full of unintentional irony or don't you get "it"
    either?
    
    It isn't a real surprise that self-appointed reformers, throughout the
    ages find themselves tied to stakes in the middle of a nice roaring
    fire.
    
    John H.

John,

What is your point?  Are you saying that in my haste to point out to US Fleet
that the brochure was wastefully printed and content-free that I didn't take
time to understand their point of view?

I don't consider myself a self-appointed reformer but do feel I have a
responsibility to recognize and point out waste when I see it.

Paul