A visit to the RAC
Yesterday, I attended a meeting of the Riders Advisory Council’s (RAC) Bus Subcommittee. Dennis Jaffe, the RAC Committee Chair was there, and he came up and talked with me for a few minutes before the meeting began. Their Bus Subcommittee is larger than ours (the E&D), with ten members. Pat Sheehan, the Chair of the E&D Committee is on this subcommittee.
I must say that the atmosphere was different here than at our meetings. For one, I was the only one present for the public comment period. These folks were, in my opinion, not friendly at all. When I first began attending the E&D meetings as a spectator, I was made to feel welcome. Committee members came up, and spoke to me, and encouraged me to come back. The new subcommittee Chair, Dr. Sharon Conn, wouldn’t even address me personally, when the time came for public comments. She asked the room if she (meaning me) wanted to make a public comment. I briefly introduced myself, and announced that the E&D Committee had just given me the authority to set up a Public Bus Forum, and asked for their assistance and participation. I was asked when this would be, and replied that since I was given the go-ahead to proceed only two days before, I did not know when it would be, but hoped that it would be in early or mid October. The committe members informed me that this would conflict with the Regional Bus Conference that Metro was putting on, but I informed them that Ed Thomas, who was heading this effort, told the E&D Committee that the conference would take place on November 30th. Pat Sheehan added that Mr. Thomas felt that the Bus Forum would be an excellent lead-in to the Bus Conference.
I then returned to my place in the “audience”. Though this was the new Chair’s first meeting, and she was new at the task, their meetings were more formal than ours. I was amazed at the fact that they had access to the bus operator’s training manuals, and seemed to have input into what goes into them. They were also planning to visit a bus garage to see how it operated.
What really got to me was the (what I deemed) inordinate amount of time that they spent grilling Murray Bond, a representative of the Marketing department, about the seeming inability of Metro personnel to keep buses stocked with system maps, and the correct bus timetables. Though I understood the validity of their concerns, I marvelled that they had the luxury to spend so much time (almost an hour) on that subject that they didn’t have enough time to spend on other matters of equal, if not greater, importance.
Overall, I felt that this committe has more power in some ways than even the E&D Committee. The committe members, themselves, seem to be professionals, mostly from Virginia. I didn’t recall that there were any representatives from the District. These folks didn’t seem to be anywhere near as down to earth as the E&D Committee members, and I know that I would feel uncomfortable dealing with them. I have a problem with the fact that the new Chair, Dr. Conn, is addressed by most of the subcommittee members by her honorific, yet, she chooses to address them by their first names. I’m not used to that. There are several medical doctors and professors, as well as PhD’s in ADAPT, yet everyone addresses each other by their first name. This business of addressing a colleague by an honorific while they address me by my first name is demeaning to me. It’s one thing if the person is a supervisor, or my doctor, or professor, but colleagues should address one another equally, either formally, or informally.
Sadly, I have to say that if it were not for Dennis and Pat, this experience would have been completely demoralizing, as I felt unwelcome, unwanted, and intimidated. Thank goodness for them that I was able to salvage something positive from it.
On a positive note, I was able to confim the details of a meeting tomorrow to set up a rough agenda for the Bus Forum. I will let you know how it goes.