Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with accountability

I both require and recoil from structure. Help?

The Dutchman — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:58:03 -0800

I have recently realized that, without some kind of structure in my life, I am not going to be successful (in terms of career and money). The times that I have had structure (college) have been my most successful and productive. However, the idea of structure sends me running, fearful of losing the freedom and flexibility to do what I want, when I want. I can see rationally how this aversion has hurt me: My freelance business is dying, I'm out of money and I'm not much further along in my "career" now than I was when I graduated from college 10 years ago (I'm 35). It's obvious to me that not having an income will restrict my freedom and flexibility even more than structure would, but this knowledge doesn't seem to make it any easier to bite the bullet and make myself a schedule or apply for a job. How can I give myself the structure I need without it hurting so much? Or, alternatively, how can I cope with the fact that it will hurt, because I know it's a trade with a net-gain? I'm already working with a therapist on this, but I'm looking for personal experiences with similar issues. What techniques, books, videos or anything else have helped you? One specific issue I'm hoping to address: I often have ideas to improve or expand my business, or for new businesses entirely that I really believe are good. I get excited for a while and then lose my drive to see them through to launch.

A thought I had was to put an ad on Craigslist to assemble a few like-minded freelancers/entrepreneurs and have a daily or a few-days-a -week video conference at the same time each morning. It would be pretty brief and consist of each person stating their tasks and goals until the next meeting and how they have done since the last meeting. Even that much structure makes me squirm a bit, but I'm thinking it would make me/us accountable in some way and be a tiny bit of schedule I'd have to adhere to -- maybe a way to dip my toe in to the concept of having structure.

Lies and damning statistics

djgh — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:06:02 -0800

Is there a site which keeps track of what politicians have said, and flagged up instances where what they have said was a falsehood at the time of speaking? Preferably UK-centric.

Who catches the things that slip through the cracks?

Fuka — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:19:11 -0800

How does the U.S. Government follow up on concerns, both chronic and acute? From injured veterans to chronic tax evaders, is there a standard, tracking and communications center environment for making sure all of these little details get taken care of?

How do non-profits hold volunteers accountable?

Grinder — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:50:16 -0800

How do non-profits hold volunteers accountable? I'm involved in a non-profit (environmental NGO) with a significant contingent of volunteers. (I'm a volunteer myself.) All of the volunteers make commitments in terms of tasks and hours that they are going to work; some keep their commitments and some don't. Those that do (including me!) end up either having to take on the undone work, often at short notice, or picking up the pieces after something has been dropped halfway through.

I'm sure this sort of thing happens all the time in other organisations. What experiences do others have of holding volunteers accountable for putting in the time and the effort that they've promised? In particular, does anyone have experience in "non-hierarchical" organisations, which we are supposed to be? (This is perhaps our biggest problem: the lack of bosses leads to a lack of structure.)

How do I know if my elected representatives are doing a good job?

cmiller — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:35:51 -0800

How can I, a US citizen, be more informed about my lawmakers' decisions and whether they're doing a good job? I have an example that I wonder about intensely, today's Senate Intelligence Committee meeting. I think the telecom companies who helped the government wiretap us without warrants should be held responsible. The Bush administration doesn't. The Senate has a bill in review that gives retroactive immunity to any criminal activity by the telecom companies.

I'm lucky that one of my senators,Bill Nelson (FL), is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which met today "in a closed session" to review that very bill. I called his office yesterday to express my ideas and explain why it's a bad idea to let telcom off the hook.

Well the committee meeting is over and another senator managed to put a serious road-block in front of the bill, but I want to know what my senator did to stop it, if anything. But, how?

Is there some effort like what the UK has in They Work For You . com, but for US citizens? How can that huge mess at Capital Hill be less opaque to us common men? How can I know whether my representative is worthy of my vote?

What's wrong with The Register?

ijoshua — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 17:37:11 -0800

What’s wrong with The Register? A few hours ago, I linked to an article on www.theregister.co.uk in an FPP. At least one person complained about the validity of the source. Then, when the same link showed up on Slashdot, I noticed a similar complaint by a poster there. I read The Register very infrequently, only when I follow a link from somewhere else. What are some examples of their problems?

Paper Trail for Politicians?

parallax7d — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 08:21:39 -0800

Do national political leaders operate with too much privacy? Barring specific national security meetings (perhaps decided as so by an elected judge) should all other meetings/calls/messages involved in running a country be immediately available in transcript/video/audio to it's citizens? I guess this question is aimed at democratic type governments. The theory is that these leaders are put in power by the populace, but normally operate without much of a public paper trail, hindering accountability and public access to the truth.