I want my SSA

Why do we need a corporate headquarters at all? Why not conduct all
business over the Internet and let the (few) employees needed to run
the business work from home? Most of the business functions of the
organization can be subcontracted out at far less cost than we are
incurring now. Everything from a receptionist to payroll to order
fullfillment. Conference rooms are readily available at all hotels at a
reasonable cost. Meet in the city for the people attending. Or better
yet, have a Net meeting and avoid all of the travel costs. Plus the
sale of the building could go a long way toward getting the SSA out of
debt.

Tom Seim
Richland, WA

Tom, you make a eloquent argument against the "edifice complex" that has
plagued so many organizations. The organization is not the building nor is
the building the organization. Broadband internet makes communication and
collaborative tasks vastly better and cheaper that anything possible when
the Hobbs site was selected. I use internet based VoIP and
videoconferencing and prefer it to physical travel.
However, allow me to become the "devils advocate" for a moment. There are
many outsiders who will first ask, "who are you guys and what do you do?" A
headquarters in a real building on a soaring site where one could point out
the window to answer that question would be a real asset. Many of these
visitors might be people who could help us if the headquarters were located
near places they pass through anyway.

I don't know exactly where that magical building site is but I note that the
AOPA is in Frederick, MD on an GA airport near Washington, DC and the EAA is
located on their "Aviation Center" campus in Oshkosh, WI. Putting the SSA
on a year-'round world class soaring site near some international crossroads
might have some advantages.

Bill Daniels



wrote in message
oups.com...
Why do we need a corporate headquarters at all? Why not conduct all
business over the Internet and let the (few) employees needed to run
the business work from home? Most of the business functions of the
organization can be subcontracted out at far less cost than we are
incurring now. Everything from a receptionist to payroll to order
fullfillment. Conference rooms are readily available at all hotels at a
reasonable cost. Meet in the city for the people attending. Or better
yet, have a Net meeting and avoid all of the travel costs. Plus the
sale of the building could go a long way toward getting the SSA out of
debt.

Tom Seim
Richland, WA

You're headquarters could easily be a rent-an-office in Washington DC that
shares a conference room and receptionist with 20 other associations.

Mike Schumann

"Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote in message
. ..
Tom, you make a eloquent argument against the "edifice complex" that has
plagued so many organizations. The organization is not the building nor
is the building the organization. Broadband internet makes communication
and collaborative tasks vastly better and cheaper that anything possible
when the Hobbs site was selected. I use internet based VoIP and
videoconferencing and prefer it to physical travel.
However, allow me to become the "devils advocate" for a moment. There are
many outsiders who will first ask, "who are you guys and what do you do?"
A headquarters in a real building on a soaring site where one could point
out the window to answer that question would be a real asset. Many of
these visitors might be people who could help us if the headquarters were
located near places they pass through anyway.

I don't know exactly where that magical building site is but I note that
the AOPA is in Frederick, MD on an GA airport near Washington, DC and the
EAA is located on their "Aviation Center" campus in Oshkosh, WI. Putting
the SSA on a year-'round world class soaring site near some international
crossroads might have some advantages.

Bill Daniels



wrote in message
oups.com...
Why do we need a corporate headquarters at all? Why not conduct all
business over the Internet and let the (few) employees needed to run
the business work from home? Most of the business functions of the
organization can be subcontracted out at far less cost than we are
incurring now. Everything from a receptionist to payroll to order
fullfillment. Conference rooms are readily available at all hotels at a
reasonable cost. Meet in the city for the people attending. Or better
yet, have a Net meeting and avoid all of the travel costs. Plus the
sale of the building could go a long way toward getting the SSA out of
debt.

Tom Seim
Richland, WA

Bill Daniels wrote:
Tom, you make a eloquent argument against the "edifice complex" that has
plagued so many organizations. The organization is not the building nor is
the building the organization. Broadband internet makes communication and
collaborative tasks vastly better and cheaper that anything possible when
the Hobbs site was selected. I use internet based VoIP and
videoconferencing and prefer it to physical travel.
However, allow me to become the "devils advocate" for a moment. There are
many outsiders who will first ask, "who are you guys and what do you do?" A
headquarters in a real building on a soaring site where one could point out
the window to answer that question would be a real asset. Many of these
visitors might be people who could help us if the headquarters were located
near places they pass through anyway.

I don't know exactly where that magical building site is but I note that the
AOPA is in Frederick, MD on an GA airport near Washington, DC and the EAA is
located on their "Aviation Center" campus in Oshkosh, WI. Putting the SSA
on a year-'round world class soaring site near some international crossroads
might have some advantages.

Bill Daniels

Yeah, that old "nesting instinct" rears its ugly head, pushing us into
making irrational decisions. In reality, our public persona is really
our web site. Have you ever been to the SSA headquarters? I haven't and
don't intend to in the foreseeable future.

The SSA is in dire circumstances requiring an equally dire response. I
admit that I am thinking "outside of the box" here, but it is
definitely worthy of consideration.

Tom