Hello again,
I will not be there this year, so I should get this summary out there before ENC begins. I received five responses from other members in support of my petition, one informative response from AMMRL Junta, plus 2 other kind responses from vendors. None of the membership expressed opposition to the petition, and the other responses were cooperative and informative, which I greatly appreciate. Thank you Clemens, Rich, Charlie, Sameer, George, Dean, John and Arnold for your comments.
As it turns out there have been vendors on the list all along! Those which are not directly members are kept informed by their collaborators who are members. This is not necessarily a bad thing. By including vendors, they have an opportunity to get first-hand feedback regarding their products and problems with products. They are also able to correct misinformation when it is passed to the list, as well as gage the need for new products. The general membership benefits by having vendors' expert advice and experience on the list, even if they don't always volunteer it.
Since the vendors have tacitly been here all along, it does not seem so necessary to remove them from the list. They hear of the conversations here through collaborators anyway. The on-list private opinions, recommendations, and reviews of vendor performance which come from the membership have always borne the risk of aggravating vendor relations. We just didn't necessarily know that.
Since Agilent is leaving the market, vendors have been encouraged to step forward on the list to assist Agilent users. This has resulted in an increase in outright advertising, IMO. Perhaps my issue with the vendors would be satisfied if they just stop advertising services whenever they see a problem come over the list which they could make some money on. When we members post a problem, we are all pretty well aware that there are commercial services available to fix the problem. So, vendors please resist the urge to tell us that you have service available to fix our problems. WE KNOW THAT ALREADY!! If we were ready to hire you, we would not be asking the list for help.
The main drawback I see to having vendors on the list is that frank and honest evaluation of their products and services is not possible without possibly spoiling a vendor relationship. We all appreciate our friends and colleagues working for the vendors, and don't want to jeopardise those relationships. In my mind, it seems a matter of whether the primary purpose of the list is to provide connections and assistance, or to evaluate vendors. I'm guessing the Steering Committee would rightly agree with the former. We can always discuss vendor performance privately and post anonymous summary to the list, anyway. Collecting replies privately and summarizing to the list anonymously is a great way to handle any post here, IMO.
In conclusion, I believe we can keep the list as it is with vendors present. It has operated so well for so many years that way. I would, however like the Steering Committee to formally ask the vendors to stop replying to our posts with messages like "We can handle that work." Or "We have that part in stock." and other advertisements thinly disguised as assistance. Those responses are unwelcome, IMO.
I hope you all have a great ENC, if you're going.
Cheers, -Hirsch
Spinlanders,
I understand the reasoning behind admitting vendors into AMMRL. There was hope that the Agilent crisis could be alleviated with their knowledge. Well, I for one do not see that happening. What I do see is that every time an opportunity comes up, they simply hawk their services. Agilent themselves has a VERY helpful Spinsights forum which supplants any need for vendors in AMMRL to solve Agilent-related problems.
In the meantime, with vendors in the list it is no longer possible to have 'private' and frank discussions among lab managers without possibly poisoning our valued relationships with our vendors. I am hereby petitioning the AMMRL ruling Junta to remove all vendors from AMMRL and to restore the historic policy prohibiting their membership.
Sincerely, -Hirsch
Jerry Hirschinger, NMR Instrumentation Specialist
Purdue Interdepartmental NMR Facility
560 Oval Dr. West Lafayette, IN 47907-2084
Office: Wetherill 365A
Phone / Fax: (765) 494-5288 / 494-0239
Cellular: (765) 427-3034
Received on Tue Apr 05 2016 - 09:22:48 MST