what's the T?

for all you old folks out there:

"what's the T" is hip kid for what's the drama?

Asking that question typically inspires interesting comments from my kids.  This weekend that inspired the following responses:

Son (high school 10th grade)---"an upper classman got nailed for having 3 joints at school"
Daughter (8th grade middle school) "nada today"
Daughter hockey goalie who goes to summit middle school " 3 girls in my school are pregnant"

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner for the T of the week, month, and year to date (with the Lipsey drug and car flipping incidents all last year) and its 3 8th grade girls carrying their babies to term at summit middle school.

Moving on-------Girls can do anything boys can do

I spent this weekend with 2-5 teen hockey girls in steamboat this past weekend.  My daughter looks like she was beaten with a bat---black and blue marks on both arms and above both knees.  She drew a couple of penalties and they didn't even call her getting hit in the head with a stick or the cross check-boarding that sent her flying head first toward the corner boards.  Whoever said girls hockey didn't have contact didn't play with these girls.

On the way home from steamboat there is about 70 miles without much in the way of services---but I did have well hydrated hockey girls in my car---I know boys can pee in empty gatorade bottles---well the girls didn't spill a drop (I am told) filling up a large starbucks cup.  Way to go girls.  Most impressive given how much laughter there was not to spill--I honestly can't imagine the skills that takes.

Finally this bumper sticker was on a 4runner in Steamboat



The car was being driven by a 20 something woman who looked super crunchy.  Guess you can't judge a book by its cover.  And I guess her view of Freedom is her ability to be the ultimate freerider.  What is a better expression of freedom than being able to pollute the heck out of the planet and then shoot lots of stuff with an AR15.

A little pond hockey pic to remind everyone we aren't in Chicago anymore

the results are in.......

The results of the BOE campaign are in and my much better half is not going to be spending 22 Mondays at public BOE meetings plus goodness knows how much other time as a BOE member.  It’s a win for me and the kids and dogs, but I believe a bit of a loss for Aspen.

With voter turnout of 36% the results were as follows

Jonathan Nickell               1,540     26%

Katy Frisch                           1,505     26%

Jim Pomeroy                      921         16%

John Galambos                  829         14%

Bettina Slusar                     697         12%

Patsy Kurkulis                    401         6.8%

I want to congratulate Katy and Jonathan.  It’s great to have two new BOE members who both have business chops and MBAs from Booth and HBS respectively.  Hopefully they will feel comfortable really digging into the budget and see if they can find some efficiencies they can reallocate towards teacher salaries.  Also given their experience managing lots of people, I expect to see them hire an excellent superintendent.  I wish you two and the rest of the board much success.

Some interesting things happened in this election.  The local democratic party didn’t endorse anyone (the GOP endorsed Nickell).  Likewise the Aspen teachers union (well they aren’t a union it’s the Aspen Education Association) didn’t endorse.  In Denver, all the candidates endorsed by the teachers union won,  changing the complexion of the board significantly.  The Aspen Daily News also didn’t endorse anyone.  I find it a little weird for them to all sit this out.  Also Mr. Nickell as the big winner picked up just under 11% of the total registered voters.  And this is with mail in ballots---I fear a bit for our democracy with such low voter turnout.

I also suspect that prop CC which would have overturned parts of TABOR motivated some more traditional GOP voters to get out and vote.  In Aspen CC was approved by 66% of the vote, while in the last presidential election Clinton won 70% of the vote.  Looks like the Dems didn’t do as good a Get out the vote operation as they did in 2016.  Prop CC failed state wide which might serve as a useful reminder to Dems that people hate taxes (although they want better funded schools and infrastructure spend).  It all feels a bit like a high school election where the most popular kids win especially,  if they promise shorter school days, longer recess and more desserts in the cafeteria.

I am excited to watch Nickell, Frisch and the rest of the school board have a positive impact on the ASD.  I am also really proud of my wife’s willingness to ask questions that should be asked (like 3^rd grade reading performance, out of whack expenses, teacher morale and turnover).  Clearly, asking those questions directly created some consternation and personal blowback on her, but she has a thick enough skin to ignore that silliness.  And by shining sunlight on those questions they will become much harder to ignore which will improve ASD.  

Now I gotta go pick up some yard signs.

And I am driving to steamboat with 3 13 year olds for some puck--the next post should write itself if I survive.

don't get stuck in the wrong job

that was a tagline a friend of mine used in a great ad campaign for a recruiting company.

One of my favorite ads had a picture of a DEA badge with Keith Richards name on it and
"don't get stuck in the wrong job".

Priceless right?

Clearly that is excellent advice.  Our President is clearly in the wrong job---being president takes skills like honesty, curiosity, intellect, people skills and ---well a host of other skills in which he is lacking.  However, he did have the right job---he was perfect as the head honcho in the reality TV world of 'The Apprentice' and any stupid stuff he did only hurt his own brand and that of his own company.  I am all for an Apprentice reboot if it gets him out of the White House ASAP.

Our ex-superintendent looks like he also was in the wrong job.  Being a leader requires leadership which in my book is demonstrated by good people skills and good salesmanship, and aided by a willingness to admit mistakes, own them and learn from them.  A quick look at many of his hires (criminals with no experience), his daughter as a manager, a CFO who left a huge mess, and his unwillingness to own challenges (falling school rankings, teacher turnover, etc) are indicative of someone who doesn't have the skills for a high level leadership position.

Someone else who didn't have the right skills for his 'job' was the French student we housed for the past two months.  Before you blame this on his language skills, his English was good, and to be fair he was willing to pitch in around the house doing dishes and walking the dogs.  However, his interpersonal skills were non-existent.  What do non-existent interpersonal skills look like?---his response to what he would like for dinner was ' I don't know'.  I gave him a day to come up with one meal he would like to eat while he was here, and again 'I don't know'.  He would go days saying only ' good morning' 'good night' and 'cool (to the question how was school).  When I dug in trying to get him to speak, conversations went like this:

me "what did you do last summer'
French "scuba dived'
me "where'
French "indonesia'
me 'with who'
French ' cousins"
me 'how was it'
French 'cool'

You get my point---he just couldn't-wouldn't engage.  EVER.  He did however creep out the swim team by hanging out in the hot tub for hours watching them practice..... a number of times......yea he lived with us for 2 months. 

The right job for him is as a witness in a trial offering up the bare minimum under cross examination. At that he was a natural.  But coming to America for 2 months with no program to support him and another student from his home school wanting zero to do with him was the wrong 'job'.  And it points the finger at the real problem--his mother who is in charge of the Chomonix sisters city program and sent someone who was completely ill suited for the situation he was being put in.  I feel someone should take a hard look at whether that role suits her.  I sure wouldn't trust her to make good decisions for other children based on this experience.  Over two months she reached out to us twice--and one of those times was to let us know he had made it home.

Someone else who really has the right job was the person who sent anonymous hate mail to my wife regarding her running for school board.  They used a weird salutation (Ms. Bettina) to begin the letter and a spooky closing (old Aspen speaks, there are many...).   Parts of the letter were illegible forcing us to work to try to decipher meaning, managed to seem threatening without actually providing a specific threat (we are doing all we can to keep you off the school board), gaslight by accusing someone else of meanness in an anonymous letter, and best of all had a weird post mark (Boston, MA).  Talk about ticking all the boxes for anonymous hate mail.  To you 'old aspen' I must tip my cap---anonymous hate mail suits your perfectly.

Speaking of the school board election and jobs, I believe I have the right one in blogging.  Seems my post about hoping my wife wouldn't win became something of a sensation with some of my wife's opponents who passed it around faster than a 3 year old fruitcake at Christmas time.   I believe a good blog should be witty, timely and provocative.  It should force you to think and be a bit uncomfortable.  Seems I nailed it.  It would be super cool if some of the recent crop of readers returned the blog.  I bet I will make you laugh, cringe, and maybe even think outside the box.  Quite possibly in each post if I do my job right (I often don't, I will admit).  An example of this work can be found on the June 21 and 26 posts regarding race.  If those don't make you think have a doctor check your brain functions.  If you want to know when a new post goes live, scroll back up to the top of the blog and put your email address in the box and hit submit.  I won't know who you are but you will know when I post, and you can feel free to point out the errors in my thinking.

Election is two days away---yea.  And picking up the mail has never been more exciting.

Whatssssssss up in Aspen

Snow--and cold.  For those of you living in other areas of the world you probably don't find yourself worrying about frostbite while your kids trick-or-treat.  This year in Aspen we are looking at sub zero weather resulting in some last minute costume re-thinks.

Also Indy pass is closed for the season---I got the dogs out there yesterday for some first tracks.  The pups always like fresh terrority, and yesterday was good fun--today I might give it a go again but my thin blood might not be ready for the snow and the cold.

Hockey has begun with a weekend in Denver---and 'our' first 6 AM puck drop.  I say 'our' because sadly my 13 year old daughter can't drive to the games so I also get the 4:45 AM wake up.  This has to be character building right?

I did listen to an interesting book on the commute to Denver---It's called Limitless Mind.  While I take much of what the author has to say with a grain of salt, I found some good stuff in it.  One thing I really liked is the brain science behind how much more you learn from mistakes, and struggling with problems.

Which brings me back to the school board and all the weirdness surrounding it.  The past superintendent, like something out of a zombie movie decided to leap out of retirement with a scary letter to both papers attacking my wife.  He accused her of hysterically trying to sever his head from body in a BOE meeting with an angry shaking finger. 

Sidebar---I know some of the folks who are against my wife's BOE candidacy have tried to use my blog to damage her (my last post was widely circulated as "OMG even her husband doesn't want her to win".)  

To that I say " please get a sense of humor."

But back to Maloy strangeness.   Bettina's actual comment was that the fish rots from the head down.  Yes, in that analogy Maloy is the head, and removing it is the solution to stop the rot, but to whinge on about civil discourse while calling a woman hysterical, and misquoting her seems a wee bit unprofessional.  Maloy also seems totally tone deaf or out of it when he believes his trump card is that my wife didn't reach out to him.  While Maloy did reach out to many other APAC members, he seemed to find a straight shooting female business executive just too much.  That is hardly my wife's fault.  He also complains that his daughter's only crime was being related to him---of course that isn't a crime, but it is the definition of nepotism when you are the head honcho.  I (and any governance expert) would suggest that a good leader who wanted the best for their kids would encourage them to take their first job at any company other than the one they run.  Which is the point--Maloy was a horrible leader--he lead by fear, intimidation, and retaliation (see either the results of the climate study or his recent attack on Bettina). 

To recap, he hired a disbarred criminal with no relevant HR experience to be his head of HR and gave her an unsecured loan (she has since declared bankruptcy), oversaw wonky finances included a line item labeled miscellaneous which makes up 8% of the total budget, high teacher and principal turnover, and declining test results and couldn't countenance a conversation where he took any ownership or responsibility.  He demands positive spin to boot.  Per Limitless Mind good leaders can admit mistakes and learn from them.  Ditto students need to be encourage to take risks, push themselves and make mistakes---that is where deep learning comes from.  You should expect to see that trait from the superintendent--instead we had a thin skinned leader who wouldn't hear anything but positive reports.

I have no clue how this will be spun to attack myself or Bettina, but I am sure some Aspenites will find some surprising and creative venues.  Might I suggest something related to my not so good looks and lack of sleep as a humours rejoinder.  Either way have at it, I don't mind and love a good laugh.

Tune the skis and strengthen the legs---it's about time to make some turns and move on from the school board campaign. 

ohhh no running for school board

I failed in my attempts to get the wife to never ever volunteer again.  Since the last post she actually got two jobs and she is running for school board.  OMG---the school board thing might exemplify all that is wrong in a small town like Aspen---basically opinions are like assholes --everyone has one, which creates paralysis because it seems everyone must be heard before any decision can even be considered.

Before getting to paralysis by public input, let me share some of the fun in running for school board.

I am not sure which is harder--running for President or running for school board.  Running for President involves raising a lot of money, but people are willing to give money to presidential candidates because the President can really impact your financial condition.  School board not so much.  While the President doesn't get paid much, it does come with free housing, transportation, and an opportunity to push the limits on the emoluments clause.  School board offers nothing in terms of compensation.

The President of the United States gets tons of executive time to nap and tweet about Fox and friends,  and free flights to golf courses.  School board members have 22 public meetings a year running 4+ hours plus all the real work of the job.  Figure it's about 20% of a full time job.

This week alone there are 3 debates for school board----I doubt Trump will do more than that in his entire 2020 run.  School board candidates also have multiple papers demanding responses to multiple questions.  Have you ever opened up a paper and seen responses from Presidential candidates to questions posed by news papers?

There are some similarities as well, both candidates for President and school board must complete financial disclosure forms, create independent entities to finance their campaign, disclose donations and campaign related expenses.  Running for school board and your friend makes a cheese platter for you, your better disclose that in-kind donation.  Running for President and you pay off porn stars to keep silent about an affair, no need to disclose.  Running for school board and you ask the school for confirmation about data about students college success (college graduation rates) that they mentioned in a school board meeting and get stonewalled.  Ask for other data and be told it must be shared with all candidates.  Try to speak to teachers or admin about their concerns and be told only if all candidates running for school board can be present.  Run for President and you won't face those issues.

Basically you have got to be crazy to run for school board.

Which brings me to my wife--she has huge business chops.  She knows when to listen and when to act.  There is way to much listening in this town and way too little action.  There seems to be a fear of upsetting people, and people in this town are capable of epic grudges.  A supporter said she wouldn't put up a sign because she was worried some clients wouldn't use her catering services if she supports my wife. 

There is also a ton of lip service to being positive--well there is no positive spin that should be put on hiring a disbarred felon with no HR experience to be the schools head of HR and then giving her an unsecured loan for 30k.  That situation along with declining school performance and skyrocketing employee turnover should cost the superintendent's job--it did but only after way too much strum u drag. 

My wife has a sales and operations background.  What she excels at is asking the right questions.  Why isn't the school board allowed to respond at school board meetings.  Imagine the parent that comes to complain about John's teacher being asked 'did you speak to the teacher?  What did they suggest?  Did you speak to the principal?  What did they suggest?  Did you speak to their counselor?  What did they suggest?  Why do you think all of their suggestions are wrong?  Do you think that we should reset the schools strategic plan or hold the superintendent's feet to the fire over John's situation?'  Maybe if the school board spent less time listening to John's parents they could spend more time asking the CFO how come one of the best funded schools in the state pays their teachers so little.  Or asking the head of HR what creative things they are doing to lower benefit costs (Roaring fork collective bargaining agreement anyone?).

To put a fine point on it, we got one guy running whose message is ' I am a long term local and blue collar so vote for me' and another who says I am positive and filled with gratitude and even though I haven't been to a school board meeting ever I have gleaned excellent executive management experience running my firm with a handful of employees, while another toutes her financial expertise while sitting on a school finance oversight board that didn't meet for 10 years.  And then there is my wife who managed global client relationships for the largest disaster recovery firm during 9/11, who ran a businesses that raised prices 500% and increase customer satisfaction at the same time and went toe to toe with Jamie Dimon over software costs and won.   Please please don't vote for her.  I am just too selfish to want to share that much of her with you Aspenites. 

stop her before she volunteers again

First off, thank God for women (and men) who volunteer.  Without them the world would stop spinning (or we would be camping out at away games, cancel outdoor ed, EX ed, pretty much all ed, be eating TV dinners, and wearing the same clothes from the 70s). 

To my lovely wife and all of your like minded friends thanks for doing everything you do.

But why oh why did you say "yes" we will take a French kid for 2 months.  This isn't an exchange--no one in my family is going to Chamonix.  He is not part of an official exchange program (although his mom runs the French side of the Sisters City Chamonix exchange program). 

So we have this French kid staying in our house for 2 months.  He is a nice enough kid I guess.  He walks the dogs and does dishes when asked.  He doesn't ask for anything or seem to expect anything.  Actually he pretty much does nothing from what I can tell. 

I can usually get anyone to talk.  Not this kid.  He says it isn't a language problem, so I guess it's his personality but check this out.

At dinner last night I asked him if he wanted seconds.  He said "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ....................... I don't know".

In an effort to get him to talk about something I gave all the kids homework.  I asked them each to pick a meal they would like to have for dinner---daughter immediately said pesto and garlic bread, son said schintel, and French kid after a day of thought came up with ' uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I don't know.'

I asked him how school in France differed from school in Aspen he said 'uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhh I don't know'  I followed that up with come on give me something and he said 'uhhhhhhhhh school in Chamonix has fewer windows'.


yup so pretty much he sits in his room or sits in a corner and says nothing.  There is another French girl here from Chamonix here right now and when asked if they would like to join us for dinner she said no way.  When we asked the family he stayed with before when he came two years ago as part of the sister city program if they would like to hang with there old exchange student they also took a pass.

My wife is exasperated with him.  My son is pissed because kids at school think he isn't being 'nice' to the French kid--of course none of them want to hang out with the French kid either cause --well aside from breathing he doesn't do much else.

Bottom line---wife please don't volunteer anymore.

things you can learn about people while driving to denver

I admit the title doesn't roll off the tongue, but it's pretty amazing the different types of behavior you can run into doing the Aspen-Denver shuffle.

During the summer I drove to Denver a lot.  Honestly, I drive to Denver way too much--doctor apts, hockey, sailing, flights etc----and during the summer when the pass is open I take full advantage of the view and the short cut to make the trip more enjoyable.  When driving the pass I almost always find myself driving behind another car.   Some drivers pull to the side and let me pass.  Conversely, I have had a driver swerve towards the middle of the road to try to keep me from passing.  I personally love being passed.  Let someone else attract the attention of the police.  Still it is an interesting case study in behavior every time I drive the pass.

But that ain't fucking nothing.  On a recent trip to Denver this summer with my son in Cape Cod and my wife and daughter in the car with me my phone rang as I approached Breck.  I didn't recognize the number but decided to take a chance and answer the phone knowing I was risking a silly marketing call conversation.  Glad I answered the phone because it was someone calling to let me know they had found my dog swimming near stillwater.  Seems the wife didn't close the door securely and the dogs got bored and decided to go for a swim (please do not point the door thing out to my wife---that is a losing proposition).  I thanked the person for finding my dog, but let them know I wouldn't be back for about 6 hours and asked if they could run Wiggins back to my house.  They said sure- no problem and escorted my dog about 1/2 a mile to my home and let me know she was safely back home with the door firmly closed. 

For those of you reading closely or who know me--you know there is a second shoe to drop and about 25 minutes later the phone rang again with a different person finding Clemmens eating stuff near a construction site.  She was also walked home by a super cool family who was visiting from Texas. 

Two different groups of people found my dogs, called me and then figured out where my house was and brought them home.  What a great world we live in.  What amazing people.  I swear I almost saw rainbows and unicorns as I drove down I70 into Denver.

So I am loving everyone, and life is good.  I drop the wife at doc for an apt and then hustle to the airport to drop my 13 year old daughter off to fly to St. Louis to be a mom's helper.  I planned to use short term parking to keep an eye on her while she got through security and then run back to get the wife.  The short term parking lot is very small with very narrow spaces. After circling twice I found only one spot open next to a mini van with its door all the way open.  I asked if they could close it somewhat so I could park and they did.

When I returned to my car 25 min later they had left a couple of love notes for me.  One said " better check your steering wheel for shit.....it appears an ass hole was driving it" and another said " YOU ARE AN ASS HAT". 

On the plus side their grammar, spelling, and printing were excellent, and they didn't key my car.  On the flip side they were so easily upset by my asking them to partially close their door so I could park my car they took the time to right me some notes.

It's a crazy world filled with all sorts of people.