VUSN Watch: And the beat goes on - No signs of life out of VUSN after a week...

After a week I would have expected some good faith response to the issues presented, but it certainly appears that isn't going to happen with the current VUSN management.

Only management is entitled to screw their shipmates and then sail off scott free. VUSN members obviously have no recourse to any abuse they suffer.

They are going to address nothing other than what others than themselves do and stonewall the rest to the end.

Brings to mind the old saying about the definition of stupidity is the continuing to do the same things and expecting different results? Or was that the definition of insanity?

When will a response be forthcoming to the problems, abuses and complaints addressed in the following corresponance? Until VUSN gets some real management, I'd bet never. Unless something is posted otherwise, just count the days from when this was posted and add 5.

BTW, I'm still not officially fired :-), just censored from the looks of it. Like all the other problems, I do not exist :-). Seems that VUSN management thinks that burying the head in the sand works :-).

In going through this experience, I wonder how many other issues like these have been treated the same way and how many have walked off from VUSN in utter disgust? With stonewalling, censoring and pretending the problem(s?) don't exist being the apparent SOP there is simply just no way to know.

It did get a little deeper though, the one person working in good faith to resolve the issues has been ordered not to communicate with us.

Also, they did attempt to buy off my CO with a "choice and yummie important position", but that didn't work either :-), proud to say my CO knows the definition of honor and integrity.

They just do not get it and seem incapable of doing so, sigh, so very, very sad.

--------Message begins--------

From: Victoria Welch
To: Don Woolem, Zane-Yahoo, Pip Ragugini vCO HX-1, George Sandel, F-David Waffler, VCNO, Todd Cox, vusnwatch, vusnwatch2, vusnwatch6
Date: Jan 11, 2006 6:14 PM
Re: vUSN Activity

I should have heard something by this time, so we continue trying to
get this resolved in a rational manner.

On Friday 06 January 2006 18:36, you wrote:
> Pip, Vikki

Might want to add George and Zane to that, just to be fair in the
matter.

> This all has got to Stop,

Something we can all agree with!

> this bantering is immature.

Yes, to some degree, I am sure. It is a rotten method to have to
employ to get some discussion rather than irrational dictates going.

> I agree with
> Zane, after this you will hear nothing from me either and I know
> you will hear nothing for the CNO or VCNO since I have asked them
> to let me handle this. So After this, This is Final We will hear no
> more from you.

If you agree with the abuse going on, you are not the man I think
you are. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt based on your past
honorable performance and service, for the time being.

VCNO has proved to be an honorable person who is interested in the
problem rather than scapgoating it or sweeping it under the rug. If
he has been ordered to not communicate with me, then I will accept
that. I have already issued a formal apology to him for wrongfully
casting him in the villains role mostly through my confusion with too
many, not enough or inconsistent use of the little "v"s.

> Yes we are officers in this organization and as officers we follow
> orders, when we speak in disrespect to other officers it is
> insubordination.

I agree Sir, that is what started this whole thing off.

I have no problems with lawful orders but I do have a BIG problem
with abuse and I think there was a whole thing in Nuremberg, about 50
years ago now, about obeying bad orders.

> Vikki, your attitude I must say is Insubordinate.

And what other choices were I given? Or is it only "insubordination"
when someone not on flag staff does it, which is increasingly seeming
to be how it is?

It either applies to all or it doesn't. Which is it? Please clarify.

> If I would have asked what was going on to one of my subordinates
> or even one of the Lts under my command, they would have been
> severely reprimanded.

Apparently that is indeed the case. Given insufficient information,
cursed and belittled and then responding to that, sure seems like a
good reason to reprimand just one (or two) .

I could understand that if the response to the initial query and
response had been rational or respectfully phrased and that
subordinates had any recourse. It wasn't and there isn't. At least
I didn't have to resort to cursing people.

Further, if you have checked the roster, I am not a lieutenant which
seems to make a bit of difference, I may not be part of the clique but
I am a flag officer with responsibility to the organization not
necessarily to the abusers.

Yes, I did escalate this more than was really called for, for that I
do apologize, but I DID NOT START THIS. Being cursed and belittled
does not bring out my better side, especially when presented with
wholly unrespectful, inappropriate and abusive behavior. There were
so many better ways to handle this rather than an abusive temper
tantrum that I don't even want to have to start to write them all
down, most of them can be found in any basic management course.

> Simple answers, you were both under the
> restricted line status since you did not have to place any flight
> hours, the only thing you had to do was give us an idea of what you
> were working on. Not hard.

Then why was I asked about my lack of filing PIREPS? That seems no
more coherent than the rest?

Nope, it wasn't difficult. Seems that multiple people had a real
problem both reading and comprehending the information I gave in
total ignorance of the situation at hand. What bothers me now is
that apparently only a very few had a clue about what was going on
behind the scenes and they had not bothered to clear it up before it
became such a festering sore. Have communications formally become a
guessing game for the rank and file of this organization?

> I was privy to all the e-mails. Not a
> hard,

I surely seems that reading them and understanding and / or requesting
clarification(s) of them took a much lower priority to being bothered
with the reported facts as understood by the person responding.
Initially there was no animosity before it was provoked by George.

> I expect reports from the people doing scenery and other
> things

And if you don't get them you send the CNO to belittle and curse them?

Would a simple email not have been in order here? You were well
aware of the situation going on with HX-1 and didn't bother to
communicate what you knew to, apparently, anyone. Doing that alone
might have well kept everyone here from wading through this mess.

> HX-1, was actually canned by Barry Guttersmon, not this staff.

From what feedback I have gotten, it appears that Barry was used up
and burned out from lack of support, while I don't condone those
actions, I can understand how that happens. When those you depend on
fail, it creates a real mess and when someone leaves over that kind
of thing, it is quite obvious there are much deeper problems yet
unaddressed.

> Since Pip was actually retired with out his knowing. I knew about
> it and I asked Barry to try to get in contact with him and let him
> know what we were doing, he told me he was doing that and he was in
> contact with Pip Vikki came back because she was asked by Pip.
> That was ran up the chain by me to Todd. I thought it was a good
> idea since I thought it would be nice to see if we could get some
> of the Old VUSN people back.

I'd haveto ask Pip about this, I know he was absent for extended
periods, but I am SURE he would be checking his email as often as was
possible under the circumstances, if he received such email, I am not
aware of it.

Interesting to note that there certainly do seem to be a lot of "Old
VUSN People", don't there?

> Thought we could Start up the
> developmental side with the helos, But interest in the helos has
> dropped off significantly Never thought this would go on like
> this. This is where it will stop.

Respectfully Sir, no this is not where it will stop. Burying heads in
the sand only works for those doing so. Both myself and
Pip have been wronged then abused, when that is corrected in a
professional manner, THEN it will stop.

Several things bother me about this:

Helos have NEVER been either a significant in quantity nor something
that garners mass gatherings in either the real or virtual world.
This is a very well known and obvious fact.

Secondly, this has been going on for a while and HX-1 apparently did
not exist when I rejoined it. Might have been a factor in all this,
don't you think? You were directly in that loop at the beginning, you
could have simply informed me rather than providing a set up for all
this balderdash that has gone on since. Merely an oversight or
intentional?
From what I know of you historically, it has to be an oversight, but
things like this can not continue to happen.

> But we will not have a Squadron that is Inactive or a group that is
> inactive. Doesn't make sense

Do you really want me to have to cover this? HX-1 was indeed
inactive and with GOOD reason, but I do not see any significant
activity elsewhere. Who and what else with next to no activity is
being considered?

> If you want to stay and contribute You may but we need some
> activity and some signs of life with activity.

Unfortunately that was in the works and pretty close to happening, we
could have communicated better on this, but HX-1 has generally been
left alone to do what it does until it gets done.

The admitted total lack of communications to HX-1 should be proof
enough that this only became relevant well after the fact. You can
surely blame us for not doing a better job, but you and VUSN
management in general have done no better.

> if you do not, Thank you for your participation. And we will part
> ways and then you will be placed on the Retired list, you can let
> me know what your decision is and we will work from there.

I am not going away Don.

All this could have been EASILY prevented with some comms from above
without the abuse, that is what started it and what has kept it
going.

Contrary to what appears to be SOP in VUSN, I have NEVER seen ANY
organization where that kind of behavior was acceptable to and
encouraged by senior management. Not one that lasted very long
anyway or wasn't considered a total joke once the word got out.

> This
> organization uses Microsoft Flightsim 2004 Only and all aspects
> of this program.

Again, either this is ignorance, blustering or Todd has changed his
mind about this and not bothered to inform anyone (or, looking at the
current situation, someone hasn't bothered to communicate). IIRC,
there was no objection to X-Plane (or anything else) in situations
where it did not create a problem.

Interestingly VATSIM doesn't have a problem with X-Plane or anything
else that can meet their standards.

For combined ops where scenery is an issue, I will agree. Elsewhere
it has no relevance.

> When time comes, we will upgrade to the new one
> when ever it may come out. This is a Hobby and we should be having
> fun.

I certainly agree, but I personally find no fun in either being
treated like a mushroom nor in the ongoing abuse. I can stand
criticism, but I will not be cursed.

> We do not need negative attitudes

Respectfully, VUSN has negative attitudes in mass quantities and are
encouraging more all the time. The longer you drag this out the more
negative attitudes you are going to create and the more damage you do
to VUSN, and worse, it's people.

> If you do not like us (
> the VUSN )

I very much do like VUSN, othewise I wouldn't waste the energy to try
to correct, or at least make someone aware of, some very serious
flaws in the organization that desperately need to be addressed.

> or do not like the way we are running it I'm sorry

No, I don't like the way it is being run. If you were actually sorry
about it, you would be doing something other than "killing the
messenger" don't you think?

> ,I
> see no problem with what we have done in the past

Don, VUSN has communications problems at the very least. Whether
there are reasons for George and Zanes behavior, I don't know. I've
certainly been in situations where lack of support and no comms have
lead me to burn out badly and be less than the stellar person I
normally am :-). I've learned from those experiences and find that
fixing the problem is a whole lot better option than pretending that
there isn't a problem(s).

> or are doing in
> the future.

Sorry, this makes no sense, you can't do anything until you get to the
future :-). By then it is the present :).

> If you do not want to be a part of it I'm sorry.

If I didn't want to be part of an organization I could be proud of, do
you think I would be going through all this? Really Don, come ON.

> I do apologize for only one thing, and that was when HX-1 was
> disbanded, I as the CNO at the time should have made sure that
> Barry did contact Pip.

Yes, that would have certainly been nice, you blew it, get over it,
fix the problem and move on. Faulty comms happen, the important
thing to do is to correct the reasons for the problem and move on to
better things. NOT abuse the people that have been kept in the dark
and that are trying to deal with it all.

Gets back into the idea of backups and attention to detail, but this
message is not the time or place to get into that.

> I thought he was keeping me totally
> informed. You lead me to believe other wise, for that I am sorry.

Don, for Gods sake, quit apologizing and just do what needs to be done
to straighten out this mess! THEN we can all put this mess behind us
and move on rather than continuing to wallow in it.

> But, with no one in the squadron or the only person in the squadron
> not active the only choices were disband and Retire the CO or place
> them in the gray eagles but even after some time even those make
> the retire list after no activity after so many months. So Bottom
> Line, either stay and play by our rules, or resign, and /or retire.

I'll be glad to play by the rules, but I am not going to be held
accountable for others who have not and those being abusive when
caught at it.

This is supposed to be fun for EVERYONE, not just the power seekers /
holders.

> Those are the options, I do not think there will be any other ones.

Yes, Don there are other options, GOOD ones. Do the right thing, that
is ALL it takes to fix this whole mess.

> I will not stand for any insubordination that I have seen.

Apparently, so it certainly appears to me, the only insubordination
you are standing for is management insubordination / abuse /
disrespect.

I've already admitted that I escalated it more than was needed and
apologized for it, but when I get cursed and belittled for NO rational
reason, just what did you expect would happen?

What options does one have in VUSN to have offenses by abusive,
censoring and stonewalling management redressed? Go to the vJAG?
Contact information please? I seem to have missed that option on the
website?

Unlike so many before, I am not going to just leave in disgust
(embarrassed to admit that I did do that once before). You
can fire me. Yes, you can, but I am going to fight injustice and
abuse all the way down. If you do fire me, then that is just an
direct admission of failure on VUSN managements part and the problems
will go on and just come up again at a later time, probably worse.

> That
> will be it, the decision will be final and you will be gone from
> the VUSN.

If this isn't going to be resolved, then you can indeed do so, but I
will guarantee you that I will not be forgotten and will be an
ongoing PR headache. I'm getting enough material through VUSN Watch
to make life interesting for us all for some time to come. Wouldn't
it be simpler to just fix the problems and let the past go for a
brighter future where this kind of thing doesn't come up in the first
place?

> If you do not want to be apart of this org, Leave, we
> will hold no ill feelings we do not need grief we get enough of
> that real world

You keep repeating this and I'll do the same, I want to be part of
this organization and have been so for a long time. I am not going to
leave to help anyone screwing up stay comfortable or worse, feel they
can get away with it.

Don, please and really, people who dictate, curse and abuse OBVIOUSLY
have some ill feelings that are coloring their actions badly, I'm
slow but not stupid.

The grief has not been brought on by me, other than possibly making
some management uncomfortable knowing their actions were and are
unacceptable. Mistakes happen, the object is to FIX THE PROBLEM.

Killing the messenger is NOT fixing the problem.

> This is a hobby where we all hold the same
> interest and we have friends that we associate with. and Have FUN.

I'd like to get over this and get back to making VUSN something like
it used to be - an organization with potential that stands out for
something positive and honorable in the virtual aviation field and
attracts people rather than putting them off and running them out.

> By Direction

Sorry Don, this looks more like by dictate than by direction:

I'm just trying to request VUSN to operate in an open and honest
manner and not solve problem by either killing the messenger nor
sweeping problems under the rug (or out the door as the case may be).
I'd rather be able to give respect for just cause rather than have it
demanded under penalty of dismissal.

If that can't happen then VUSN is indeed doomed by it's own hand and I
do NOT wish to see that happen.

Take care, Vikki