I got word today that someone read my blog...

...except they didn't leave a note for me.

So how did I find out?

They called somebody else to complain.

Seriously.

Let me type that sentence again, because it's a little bit strange, particularly in this cyberworld which provides immediate push-button connectivity.

They called somebody else to complain.

Clearly, there's a back story that needs to be shared for any of this to make any sense. Pay close attention. I'll do my best to 'splain it so even Looooceee could understand both the story and that she's not going on stage tonight, no way, not ever, never in a mee-lee-yohn years...

First, there are three other parties involved: Party A, Party B, and Matt from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society HQ in Columbus; from now on he's just Matt from NMSS. Though really, there's no "just" about Matt. He's a good guy, a hard worker, and very dedicated to the mission of the NMSS. We have found him to be a strong agent of support in our mission raising money through our BikeMS team Patti's Paladins.

This is how the parties are related. Party A is a professional football franchise in Cleveland, OH. Party B is the food service/hospitality agency that services the kiosks and food vending booths at the stadium where Party A plays. Some of the people who work for Party B are paid employees. Some are volunteer crews who get a percentage of the day's sales donated to their charity. Matt got a large group of us (who are already involved with BikeMS) interested in volunteering at some of Party A's games selling food for Party B to raise money for the NMSS.

Does this make sense so far? I sure hope so.

There were 2 categories of training. There was "worker training", and that was specified for just the people who were going to be doing the food handling and the cleaning up and just general grunt work. Then, there was "team leader training", which was specifically for the group leaders. For this training, it was explained that team leaders needed only this singular evening of training, and after completion we would be fully prepared for our first game.

Word that we received from our teammates who went to "worker training" was that it was not informative. One of our teammates walked out in disgust, frustration, and anger before the training session was over. The others gritted their teeth and completed the evening. Every one who completed the training said they had major questions that had not been answered even at the end of the evening, and hoped we would come in with more insight to share about the process.

I have to admit, it was not an encouraging prospect when I considered hungry, sometimes intoxicated, rowdy, raucous football fans, notably more aggressive than baseball fans (though arguably, in comparison, less aggressive than stage parents) coming up to a concession stand full of very 'green' staff.

We were a little concerned, but largely unworried, since we had our training ahead of us, and were confident all would be set straight during that time.

Oh BOY, were we wrong.

Here's a tip for any out there reading this post. If you call a training session, "A Training Session", and then choose instead to do team building and cheerleading, you will have irate and rather impatient people in your midst. They won't be in your midst for long.

How about another tip? If you tell your team leaders that "tonight, you will have all the tools you will need to run your concession stand", but then all THIS team leader can tell you about running a food stand is "put the bill on the till" and "hot drink hot food cold food cold drink", then you have failed spectacularly.

Because the things that I expected to learn (What Door Do We Use for Entry; Where Do We Park; Where Do We Get Keys To Booths; Do We Have The Same Booth Each Week; What Time Do We Arrive; Where Do We Get Uniforms; Do Uniforms Stay At Browns Stadium Or Go Home With Us Each Week; and so many more) were never addressed. We were not photographed for our ID badges.

It was clearly geared towards returning team leaders. We were NOT returning team leaders. We were first timers. We had no idea what was going on. They kept refering us to the rule book or the hand book, which (when we first arrived) was rationed to just one per team leader. We were 4 separate teams under a single organizational umbrella, and that umbrella is located in Columbus; the individual teams were spread out wide and far throughout the Cleveland area. Share? Nice concept, but impractical.

So we left early. It was a bad training session. It was so bad, in fact, I've been calling it "The Alleged Training Session".

I mean, it really wasn't training!! It was team building among team leaders, which is ludicrous. These team leaders are not going to be working together! Why waste time building teams out of elements that are not destined to be teams in the first place? Why not just have an initiation evening for the new people and keep this "Rah Rah" session for the returning leaders? >Sigh.< These questions and more were asked. We are still waiting for the answers.

On our way out, we were chased down by one of the presenters. He made a show of listening to our concerns, but as far as consoling, was far too interested in the sound of his own voice. He asked us to wait for another of the management team, but after waiting over 5 minutes, and with no sign of any movement towards us, we left.

It's my custom to blog about every team event we attend. It goes on MY blog AND the team blog, though in this case I made an exception and instead referred the team to my blog for the whole story. In fact, I started my post during the event. It's posted here under the title "Well. I won't get THOSE hours back..." on Thursday, July 22. I promised I wouldn't hyperlink the post. Please scroll down or click on the archive in the right-hand margin. I apologize for the inconvenience.

The post referenced above is the very post that was read and which inspired the telephone complaint. It is the reason for this post right now.

The morning after the meeting (Wednesday, July 23), Matt sent an email to the head of Party B (at the offices of Party A), and copied us all. To this day, he has not heard any answers from them!

Isn't that remarkable? Disgusting, is more like.

He still has those questions, too. There are people from other BikeMS teams working at concession stands. It's as if the management folk want to underscore their communication deficiencies: they don't have email? They don't have phones?

Oh -- wait!! TODAY it was discovered that Delaware North I mean Party B DOES have phones, after all!

Today Matt from NMSS got a call -- yes, a phone call -- from the people of Party B complaining about my Tuesday, July 22 blog post.

Ahem. Now take a look at the date of this post.

It took them this long to find it, and now someone found a phone, even lifted the phone and pushed some buttons, and took time to lodge a complaint. A complaint about MY complaint about their poor communication and failure to do what they said they would do that night (that would be "train us"). Turns out that Party B is afraid the word will reach higher up within Corporate Party B (well outside of what is done at Party A), and tarnish this local management team's reputation.

Lordy. Do you think anyone in that company can handle that much communication??

It seems that Party A and Party B both have autosearches scanning the Interwebs looking for any mention of their works. Said webcrawlers found my post and redflagged it to the higher-ups, and heat is being felt.

I think it's appalling that this is what it takes for them to dig deep enough to find their phones. Or even to strain a little harder to lift the receiver.

Good service is good service. All evening long they stressed that principle to us, and how important it was for us to deliver the very best service possible. Children doing school fundraisers know that. There were diagrams and percentages and tables to show regarding performance, ad nauseum. But when (and I'm going into cliche' mode, here, because if they happen to read this post, I want them to be able to read it; that's their language) the shoe is on the other foot, they do NOT seem ready or willing or able to serve.

Rick and I (and our team enthusiastically and relievedly followed us) chose not to volunteer at Browns Stadium (Party A) with Delaware North (Party B). (I know. I've just tossed the anonymous labels out the window. I want the searchers to find them and hear the whole story. It'll take at least a month for them to find it.) We felt strongly that food service is hard work, and if there isn't a support system one can count on, then the work is made all that much harder. We felt zero confidence in the management of Delaware North. They had poor communication. They failed to answer questions. They did not respond to emails; they only responded to concerns when it was convenient to them and their needs, NEVER ours. What does that tell me about what would happen on a day that our stand would run out of hot dogs?

When put in those terms, confidence evaporated and it was easy to walk away. (Angry Browns fans throw things like batteries and plastic beer bottles. It can get ugly.)

If Delaware North or the Browns are angry about anything, I hope they choose to take a little time for introspection, so they can identify the true issues. I don't really have any hopes for resolution. It really bothers me that no one from this organization has yet discussed Matt's talking points from the night we left early from The Alleged Training Meeting.

My blog is just a little obscure thing. It's for keeping family up to date with news of my husband and me; pets, too. It's for recording my art accomplishments. It's for keeping my writing polished and ready for the Next Big Thing. A few people read it. Not very, and fewer comment. I'm not a powerhouse threat. Not yet, at least.

I take pride in publishing only things that are true, and I like to think that it's acceptable reading material for kids of a general school-age. I also take pride in publishing things that I would be unashamed to say to anyone directly. I imagine my mom or one of my grandmothers standing at my shoulder. (For the record, sometimes they approve, sometimes they think I'm nuts; I can almost hear the chuckling "Oh, Rebecca..." But that was true when they were alive, too, and I'll keep that as a standard.)

I am a loud and loyal Browns fan. I will go to games. We've never spent much at the concession stands because it's very expensive (a six of good beer is a little more than the cost of one not-so-good beer at the stadium) and we'd rather get our money's worth elsewhere. But we would go out of our way to find the NMSS booth to spend money there.

It also occurs to me that I may only have 2 blog posts total (now 3) that reference the Browns, yet the Indians and Olympics and Cavs, even Aussie Rules Football, figure all over the place... perhaps they are feeling a little left out. (OK, that's a little silly.)

There is nothing in this whole exchange that is untrue, taken out of context, or blown out of proportion. In fact, there may even be things that have been minimized to keep this post shorter than it would have been otherwise.

Yes. Seriously. Quite a saga, huh?