Fellow Blougers

Hello Fellow Blougers

What is a Bloug? Why, a blog for OUG of course …

We’ve been trying to get a blog for SAOUG going for some time now so we can circulate news and replace the newsletter for the out of town members, but the obstacle that’s been holding us back is time. Why is there never enough of it? And is it only me that feels like a hamster on a wheel – the wheel is turning but I can’t seem to run fast enough to keep up with all the things I need to do. And when my computer centre updates my browser version without asking (as it did this morning) so I can’t find my familiar icons or URLs without a long game of hide and seek, should I be drinking that extra cup of coffee so I’m even more caffeine-stoked, or should I just be calming down and wasting a day while I figure out the ins-and-outs of IE v.7.whatever?

Well, we’re finally here (with the blog, that is)and it struck me when I sat down to write this that in order to get things moving, we need to be controversial enough to get some dialogue going. So forgive me in advance if you don’t like what I’m about to say, but please feel free to respond. In fact, please respond!

We were fortunate enough to have Dr Renate Volpe talk to us at our end-of-year FUNction on 10 November 2006, and she spoke on the topic of social networking (as opposed to information networks). She had a lot of very common sense things to say (and I guess if we had the time we could have self-analyzed most of what she said), but I could see heads nodding vigorously in the audience, so it seems as if she touched a lot of chords with the folk present.

What she said that struck me in particular is that the workplace is still designed by men for men with wives – could this be the reason that I’m so stressed? I’ve always thought of it as having “two jobs” – one in the workplace and one at home, and I can function well if both are running reasonably well, but as soon as there’s a crisis at either “job”, then I tend to unravel. This, Renate said is one of the reasons we need to form networks or informal or formal coalitions, so we can support each other.

So the next time I need to stay at home to wait for the plumber/carpenter/deliverymen/washing machine servicemen/electrician to call I’ll be calling on all of you (my “wives”) to assist so I can get on with my day job while you wait at my home for my evening job problems to be resolved. I wish I had R1.00 for every time I’ve heard the excuse “the truck broke down/got hijacked” in the past couple of years – I’d be extremely wealthy by now and able to stay home permanently in order to wait for the plumber/carpenter … you get the picture.

But as a group composed mostly of women, should we not be forming an informal network to help with these things? Or should SAOUG remain a network only on the professional level?

I don’t know the answers – what do you think?

Chair - Glenda Myers