Riding a Dead Horse

An old and well-traveled, but still good poke at how Associations will do anything but the obvious in response to a failing program or service.The wisdom people familiar with horses, passed on from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.  Modern Associations however offer a whole range of far more advanced strategies such as:1. Buying a stronger whip.2. Changing riders.3. Say things like "But this is how we have always ridden this horse!"4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.5. Visiting other sites to see how others ride dead horses.6. Shorten the track.7. Re-classifying the dead horse as “living, impaired”.8. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.9. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase the speed and pulling power.10. Attempting to mount multiple dead horses in hopes that one of them will spring to life.11. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.12. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.13. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the organization than do some other horses.14. Re-writing the expected performance requirements for all horses.15. Do a cost analysis to see if contractors can ride the horse cheaper.