The Royal Canadian Mounted Police just arrived at my door, after ten at night! Project supporters "called the cops." While I guess the concern for the welfare of Susan, myself and the dogs is appreciated, it strikes me that some folks these days PANIC when they're out of instantaneous contact with . . . almost anyone. If I choose not to answer my telephone, that is my own business; I'm not Pavlov's dog, I don't respond automatically to bells. It's not much use answering the phone anyway with twenty dogs all yelling for their evening meal! If Susan or I don't respond to email messages instantly, there are reasons for that, too.
The SSSD Project site was left with a new page up front, replacing the old index page; new pages were prepared and posted for the WCAC site and the ISA site. There were good reasons for that, and those are not the actions of people in trouble. The Forums board was turned off via its admin panel, which automatically posts a message to the effect that the board is not available at this time, please try later. A moment's sober thought might reveal some significance to all the foregoing.
Anyway, Susan, the dogs and I are "okay," if that is what people want to know. What is not "okay" is the state of the Project. But more about that later. When the puppies have had their last meal, when Susan and I have finally had a chance to eat -- and in my own good time.
It's the bitter arse-end of February here in Manitoba. The weather is still bitterly cold, the wind is still blowing, the humidity is still far too high for comfort. The days of sunshine afford little comfort. Jeffrey and his wife are tired and dispirited. Susan says, "The climate here is adverse! It's adverse to the animals, adverse to the people." Worse than that, there seems to be some end-of-things influence in the ether just now. Things shutting down. Things coming to a natural and inevitable close.
I have to ask myself if this is the case with the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project. It may well be so. It certainly seems to be so with its "official" arm, the W.C.A.C. After a disastrous dysfunctional period in which the then Secretary/Treasurer went off the rails, we went through a reorganisational general meeting, followed by a very taxing Board of Directors meeting. No sooner than we had caught our breath after that, the discord started again on the SSSD Project Forums, just as it did at this time last year (when a long and bitter exchange of posts about dogsled racing culminated in the exit of two members). One after another we have lost male "supporters" of the Project, who seem to go on some kind of testosterone jag, particularly in late winter (is it a function of the sun cycle?) and feel that they have to confront and challenge the ageing Alpha male.
The Seppala Siberian Sleddog will never make it as a breed without a healthy support system. An extensive infrastructure of knowledge bases and information exchange has already been set up, the most visible parts of which are SeppalaWiki, the Forums, and Sleddog Legacy Online newsletter. I've tried to interest others in working on the newsletter and the wiki. Responses have been lukewarm and transient. Nobody is seriously interested. Nobody wants to do the work. After two years of inaction by the previous W.C.A.C. Secretary, who said he wanted to develop a site for the organisation, an attempt was finally made to farm out the project of developing an independent W.C.A.C. website, as well as the production of Certificates of Identification for SSSD stock. Another half a year saw no tangible results there, and during the above mentioned Board meeting both jobs were handed back to me.
As I was busy developing a W.C.A.C. website with one hand, whilst formatting FileMaker Pro to generate Certificates of Identification with the other hand, another Forums firestorm erupted yesterday after I posted a short account of the current state of those projects, with the current Secretary flaming me on behalf of the man who couldn't or wouldn't get these jobs done. I blinked, felt a sort of inner awakening, and suddenly wondered, "Why am I bothering to do these things?"
People want a W.C.A.C. website -- or say they do. They want Certificates of Identification for their SSSDs -- or say they do. So far, though, I've seen only one other person (apart from my wife who already has her hands much too full) willing to work co-operatively to the best of her ability to help bring such things into existence. One such person is not enough to keep an organisational structure for an evolving breed in existence.
I could continue to attempt to wear many hats and to do everything for the infant evolving SSSD breed. But why? As soon as I let my own hand fall from the helm, the entire infrastructure would crumble for want of experienced people to keep it going. (Just as the bulk of information about the breed would quietly disappear the day my own computer died; just as the Project website would disappear the day I stopped paying Bluehost fees. There isn't -- never has been -- adequate backup for what's being attempted by the Project.) If one person has to do it all, and at the same time endure the bitching and backbiting of those who cannot or will not do any of it for themselves, then it isn't a viable enterprise for the long term.
I haven't worked out all this implications of this yet for myself. But assuredly I will do so in the near future. Right now all I can say is that the future of the SSSD Project is under review.