BATS Management
Robert S. SheffeyUndergraduate Assistant
Spring 2009
OverviewThe BATS system is an ocean during a
murderous squall. You row and row and row and continuously
get beaten back by wave after waveBut when the storm is over……
You pull your boat ashore, sleek and muscle bound
Hardened by the struggle to survive Ready to meet the challenges of a
behavioral world
Roles and Responsibilities
You don’t suffer the trial alone
Your team members grab an oar as well
Caitlin O’Boyle
Kelly Stone
And you all work toward a common goalIts beautiful in its own way
To save the worldTo make a difference
To light the way on a dark and unknown path
Our responsibilities are magnificent, and only matched by our actions to rise to
the challenge
“My” Roles and Responsibilities“There are no small parts, only small actors”
I don’t know who said that, or if it means what I think it means
But it sounds smartAnd cool
And if I got it right, it is an accurate description of my role
Alumni manager That’s what it says on dickmalott.com
I like the title, and I enjoyed the work, and I met a few strange folks along the way
Out in the world, doing what we’re training to do now
ProblemsI never restored a classic car, or reupholstered
a piece of antique furnitureA fresh coat of paint is the extent of my
restoration experienceBut what the hell?
The problems of the BATS system were no different
Some overhauling was necessaryAnd anything was possibleMy only limitation was time
Design the InterventionMy ideas were met with enthusiastic support
I didn’t know how to deal with that to be honest“Go ahead,” they said, “Can we see it next Friday?”
So I scrambledI sought council with those who knew better
I poured over online material, articles, how-to’sThe hours passed by like leaves on the surface of a
swift and vivacious streamAnd the deadline loomed……
Dreadful, unpleasant……
…….Just what I needed
What we all need.
If we want to keep our shit together
Implement the Intervention
And so it goes….The Friday deadline always on the horizonAs soon as one ends, another one begins
“And the train kept a rollin’, all night long”Steven Tyler’s words, not mine
But he wasn’t talkin’ about deadlines, I don’t think
But on Saturday you could feel it A rumbling under your feet
Standing on the cold iron tracks Almost imperceptible
In the distance a faint lightAnd a far off whistle from a locomotive
A warning from the engineerBe wary, those who travel here……
The vibrations only grow stronger as the days pass
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday…..Click-clack, click-clack
The steel wheels eating up the space between you and your fate
And soon the light is upon youThe sound of the whistle the only sound you
can hearAnd then……
Evaluate the Intervention
Well, that’s BRSS for youSweet BRSS
The dichotomy of friend and foeWithout it, many of my projects this semester would still be just ideas on
paper
Instead, we have an entirely new way of keeping track of our prolific Alumni
Job listings, at one time available on the ABAI website
In the black and white, uninteresting format of an online classified ad
Can now be perused as a colorful and useful spreadsheet
And of course, there were the Goal Survey Graphs
The pulse of the student body
RecycleFor many hours I labored over goal
surveysCompiling results
Creating graphs of those resultsRecreating the graphs again and again Yet they still fell short of expectations
And I thought to myself…..
There has to be an easier way
How can we automate this process so the compiled results and their
related graphs turn out the same
Every time, every semester
So we developed a Goal Survey Template
Just type in the values for a particular
graph and PRESTO!
And just like that, problem recycledIt nearly cuts the time in half
AndThe graphs look the same each and every
time
Future ApplicationWho can say?
Are these useful products?
Only time will tell
Undergrads who follow in my stead will be the judge
Personal Experience
I braved the rough waters of the BATS system
And I lived to tell about itI know what it takes to make it in this
worldAs a professional…..
Hell….
…..As a human being
?? Questions or Comments ??