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 ??