I decided to resign from one of my organisations and instead I was asked if an assistant would help. I said I would have a think about it and I will. I will most probably stay
and work things through. The organisation is starting to become like many others in South Australia, baffling everyone with bulldust. There has to be a form for everything and I am just fed up with forms. Every time we do any catering that is connected to the Local Council, I fill in the same form with the same information, same addresses and telephone numbers, and I provide a copy of our insurance liability – every time – even to the silly extent that we have worked for the Council twice in the same week and filled in the forms on both occasions. No the same form will not do – it is two different functions – so – two separate forms!! It cannot be filled in on line – that’s way too complicated for the council , so it has to be hand written and personally handed in at the Council Office. Now there is a whole new batch of forms that have to be filled in every time we poke our heads outside the door and I’m not really sure I want to go on doing this. And if that was not enough the Central Office of the Organisation now also wants a whole new batch of forms for their salaried staff to play with so now you start to understand why organisations are failing to deliver as much as they did in the past – lack of volunteers to assist. Every time you move there is a form to complete. It has reached the farcical stage where a teacher, who requires a police clearance form to even enter the school, has to apply for a further police clearance if he or she wants to cross the corridor at the end of the day and engage with students in after school activities. There are so many of these Police Checks floating about these days that the backlog has people telephoning talk back radio on a daily basis complaining that they cannot work because they have to wait on a police clearance and a waiting list that is measured in
months rather than days or weeks. We have not quite reached the stage where you have to have police clearance before you can adopt a dog from a shelter – but it’s getting there. To adopt a dog you first fill in a form – then you are interviewed to determine if you – or you and your partner – are suitable persons – age is a consideration – next a person or persons come to your home to examine your home and your property ( yard) to determine if the environment is suitable to meet the needs of a pet that is – the fencing is secure. Of course I could simply go to the nearest Pet Shop ( few and far between these days) and just buy a puppy, or I could look in the “Animal”section of the newspaper and buy either a dog or a cat, or I could go to a registered breeder. But if you want to rescue a dog from a shelter, you have to go through “The Process”. As I said, no police clearance required — YET!! This is only fairly recent – we never had any of this process when we rescued the Man from the Shelter.
In writing to his sister, Lord Byron wrote, ” kingdoms and empires in my little day I have outlived and yet I am not old” and the same sentiment could be said regarding the “Paperless Society” We seem to have outlived this and instead of the promise of less paperwork that was touted at the start of the “Technological Revolution ” we are generating more than we ever did and creating a grossly inflated bureaucracy that employs people to shift all this paperwork from one pile to another. What do they do with this mountain of paper? I suspect they shred it all, send the shredded remains to the papermill to be made into more paper sheets so that the process and the flow of paper can continue uninterrupted.
Chienne is well. I still continue to take her out every night, however she has learned another word that excites her when we come to the end of our walk and start back – Home. I did put her in the stroller a couple of times and walked her around the garden and she quite enjoyed it. I hope I wont have to use it for a long time yet, but I’ll put her in and wander with her from time to time to get her comfortable with it. It was bought for the Man but it looks as if Chienne will get the benefits from it, and that’s fine.
Edgar's Page 