RIDOT pats self on back

By John McDaid | Tuesday, 10 June 2008

IwaylogoA self-congratulatory press release from the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced yesterday that their pretty blue Iway was a finalist ("Innovative management") for a national award. Sounds prestigious, no?

Iway bridge float nominated for national award
RIDOT received regional Innovative Management Award
The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) announced today that the Iway project has earned national recognition for its unique approach in building the new Providence River Bridge by assembling it offsite and "floating" it up Narragansett Bay to Providence.

RIDOT placed first among member DOTs in The Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials, which represents all six New England States, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. There will be three more regional competitions to determine finalists for the America’s Transportation Award from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO).
— via RIDOT Press Release

The competition is run by the Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials (NASTO), a pay-to-play consortium of departments of transportation ($1,500 of your tax dollars went to get Michael Smith a seat at the table). Not to mention whatever we must have to paid to fly him and his staff to Pittsburgh for the recent NASTO conference, or, god forbid we should win, to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) confab in October. (At least that one is only in Hartford. Maybe they can drive, it being a group of highway officials and all..)

But here's what gets me: this is a group of government officials, using taxpayer money to run an awards program so they can pat each other on the back.

And conferences? We're paying for conferences? Look, I've worked in both academia and the corporate world. I know bloody well that no work gets done at conferences. Put up a wiki, figure out how you're going to fix our Escape Bridge and stop the goddamned puffery about your unspeakably enormous 400-foot arch.

Tags: 
Localblogging, 02871

Comments

Phyz

Tue, 06/10/2008 - 7:54pm

Dude... Seriously...you did NOT just break the internationally-held conference "workload" vow of silence, right? I love academic conferences because you get to go and make a presentation or two, sound smart (hopefully) for a while, and then get some free chow while hanging out poolside. Just kidding! We do our fair share of prep-work beforehand, I assure you, and so do our state conference-goers. At the very least I can take solace in the fact that when I present I know I'm not spending any taxpayer money. (It's what scholarships are for, right? Right. Also just kidding.)

I always love it when agencies and departments are told to "trim the fat" in the budget only to find that they are spending money on ridiculous things like leis and wacky plastic sunglasses for Casual Luau Friday at the office. (I like it even more when departments are told they are doing a great job making ends meet, like our very own School Department, for example.) For what it's worth, I do think professional organizations, consortiums and the like can be very useful and I do think it's awesome that our people are being recognized, but I'd much rather throw them a nice big congratulatory shindig right here (or maybe just across the Iway...) than fly them out somewhere to accept an award they had to pay to be in the running for in the first place.

John McDaid

Wed, 06/11/2008 - 1:59pm

Hi, Phyz...
I am duly chastened. Clearly, I misspoke. Conferences, both business and academic, are chock-a-block full of work. It has, however, nothing to do with the program.

The real work of conferences takes place in the bar. Or in somebody's room after they kick you out of the bar for throwing your boss in the pool. Or at the Denny's across the street the next morning, still riffing with your new-found colleagues between pauses to stare blearily at your waffles. Conferences are about making connections and building a network, and occasionally, for some fantastic speakers or workshops that someone puts together, but I stress ever-so-occasionally. Most of the time, it's about the people. And that's important, no matter your profession.

It's even okay to pay your dues in order to have a conference venue where on any given year, one-third of the members (PA, NY, RI, and MD are all finalists this year in an organization with 14 members) will be nominated for an award.

I'm okay with that. What got up my nose was issuing a press release that in effect said, "Look, Mommy, we made poop! Put it up on the refrigerator!"

Cheers.
-j

Portsmouth Citizen

Wed, 06/11/2008 - 2:15pm

jmcdaid said: What got up my nose was issuing a press release that in effect said, "Look, Mommy, we made poop! Put it up on the refrigerator!"

Well what do you expect? The folks over at DOT have to spend that half million dollar IWAYTM public relations budget on something.