The 10% factor

I'll probably write about this every year because it bugs me every year. I am the Treasurer for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library. As such it is my responsibility to gather gather annual reports from all 28 of our branch affiliates each year. Now these branch friends are all voluntary organizations organized under the umbrella of our non-profit status but staffed with volunteers just like the "big friends" or System Friends which we call ourselves. Some branches are well organized, well-oiled organizations while other branches don't even have a president, let alone a treasurer or other organizational officers. So when I ask for a report I immediately get 50% of the branches responding ahead of time and another 30 to 40% responding just on time or a couple days late. But there is always that 10% which didn't understand the request, don't have anyone to work on the request, or passed the buck to someone who didn't understand the request or doesn't have anyone to work on it. This is a recursive process designed to frustrate me no end. Each year I start earlier with my requests and this past year I even attended a branch friends meeting to give a little speech on how important these reports are. Same result.

Luckily the library administration got involved and suddenly mountains moved. It still took a couple of weeks but I finally have 100% of the needed reports! Yea!!