THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rod@welchco.com
S U M M A R Y
DIARY: April 14, 2004 02:43 PM Wednesday;
Rod Welch
Letter to Ross on family progress, and on Millie.
1...Summary/Objective
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CONTACTS
SUBJECTS
SDS Official Presence at Boeing Opportunity for IBM to Correct Error
0503 -
0503 - ..
0504 - Summary/Objective
0505 -
050501 - Follow up ref SDS 3 0000.
050502 -
050503 - Sent a letter, ref DIT 1 0001, to Ross following up our letters on
050504 - Ross' letter on 031020, ref SDS 3 0001, and the response that
050505 - disucssed the various issues Ross raised. ref SDS 3 IS3L
050506 -
050507 - 1. How are things? Hope everyone there is in good health, and
050508 - that IBM is still meeting the payroll, at least for you.
050509 - ref DIT 1 0001
050511 - ..
050512 - 2. Read somewhere (maybe Drucker) that most firms collapse within
050513 - 50 years, because bumbling reaches critical mass and markets
050514 - change, but culture resists improvement, under what Friedman
050515 - calls the "Tyranny of the status quo," where the cost of
050516 - bumbling eventually and overwhelms revenues. IBM is way beyond
050517 - the law of averages, thanks to your hard work, and no doubt to
050518 - others as well. Just not sure how anyone can survive a decision
050519 - to buy LN for $3-4B.... ref DIT 1 266F
050521 - ..
050522 - 3. Millie has suffered recurrence; here is a letter to her son,
050523 - ref DIP 1 0001, submitted today, ref SDS 5 0001, with some
050524 - links that update her situation. ref DIT 1 266O
050526 - ..
050527 - 4. A couple of links are not active because the stuff is
050528 - sensitive, but generally the letter is approved for "truck
050529 - drivers."
050531 - ..
050532 - 5. How is Hutch doing - have you and Claudia been over to the
050533 - dorm, or wherever he is staying, to see how things are going?
050534 - Did he get back to football, is flying jets still a goal, along
050535 - with med school?
050537 - ..
050538 - 6. Has Stu shot up to 6-10 yet (from 5 10 in your last letter)?
050539 - You're going to have plenty of help putting things away and
050540 - getting them down from the top shelf in the cupboard.
050542 - ..
050543 - 7. The way things are going, glad Richard is out of Iraq; but,
050544 - glad we are there, because otherwise they will be here, and
050545 - then we'll needs Richard's expertise in Fresno, Dallas, New
050546 - York, et al.
050548 - ..
050549 - 8. A reporter asked the president in a news conference yesterday
050550 - how long we'll be in Iraq, implying that competent leadership
050551 - can estimate the duration of war and peace, with the precision
050552 - of an estimate for building a bridge, or flying to Hawaii?
050553 - Wish George had offered up that the "price of freedom is
050554 - eternal vigilance," proven by terrorist attacks in the US on
050555 - 010911 1304. ref SDS 2 0001 Of course "eternal" is a long time
050556 - -- we must always be on guard (discussed previously in the
050557 - record on 940628 1255. ref SDS 1 0089), and, since a free
050558 - society is open and susceptible to attack on thousands of
050559 - targets, then unless we are prepared to sit back and wait to be
050560 - struck, our only true defense in a nuclear age is being
050561 - vigilant with proactive, preemptive offense in the enemy's
050562 - theater of operations. Iraq is in the center of that theater,
050563 - and so that is where we must be, until the character of the
050564 - culture is no longer focused on the destruction of the West.
050565 - Just as we have a continuing need for police here at home, and
050566 - just as we don't close down the police force because a few
050567 - policemen get killed in the line of duty, so too, we must
050568 - remain vigilant in our current purpose.
050569 -
050570 - [On 110316 1220 letter commending Ross' son Hutch making
050571 - progress in military service to stand guard because eternal
050572 - vigilance is the price of freedom, with Middle East
050573 - exploding into multiple revolutions. ref SDS 6 6N6J
050575 - ..
050576 - 9. Changing gears -- we've had a slight upward blip on SDS --
050577 - somehow got a no cost contract for Boeing to use SDS for a
050578 - year. Doesn't pay any bills, but it is a pretty big step for
050579 - Boeing. There is a simmering fuss with the procurement folks
050580 - under the cultural imperatives discussed above -- which
050581 - hopefully will go away. We've been there a year unofficially,
050582 - and now will have another year of official presence, where SDS
050583 - records have become the official "record" for a key part of the
050584 - project. If this can be solidified by getting SDS records on
050585 - the Boeing intranet, where distribution is expanded around the
050586 - world and to their customer and subs, then there might be
050587 - leverage to develop a revenue stream, based on feeding a
050588 - continuing demand for "organizational memory." We actually got
050589 - a few SDS-type words into the contract. Seems like we're
050590 - building Rome one brick at a time on this project, but maybe
050591 - we're onto a path with upside opportunity. Time will tell.
050593 - ..
050594 - 10. Again, hope all is well.
050596 - ..
050597 - 11. Rest is fine.
050606 -
050608 - ..
050609 - 14. Post Script
050610 -
050611 - If time permits, send Millie a note. She will be taking
050612 - time off work, and is talking about traveling. Mil will be a bit
050613 - tethered to treatments now, once a week with a week off, so we
050614 - cannot do any long term trips, like for several weeks. If you
050615 - and Claudia feel comfortable with the idea, you might suggest she
050616 - visit you in New York for a weekend. Give it some thought. We
050617 - are, also, talking about Yosemite -- she has fond memories of our
050618 - two (2) trips with you.
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