Well this is one possible reason – Maria Berglund at Skepchick Sweden.
Last year D.J, who was booked as a speaker at the European Skeptics Congress in Stockholm, simply didn’t show up. The group that organized the congress were quite surprised, since he hadn’t contacted us for a cancellation. They managed, at the last minute, to throw in another speaker to take his place.
When I got in contact with him, he sounded quite surprised and claimed that he absolutely had cancelled recently. I then asked him to let us know who he had communicated with, and he promised to do so. He didn’t, however, and when I kept asking him for it he kept telling me that he would get back to me about this when he was by his computer. He never did.
He also promised the Swedish Skeptics to pay us the money for the hotel room, but never did. Both of these facts I double checked a while ago with the current board.
And I’ve heard other stories of that kind, from people who are, like Maria, in a position to know.
This could of course be just misunderstandings and innocent mistakes, but that seemed less likely when I started to hear a bunch of similar stories from other people and organizations – D.J. not showing up, not keeping promises and not paying people money. The biggest problem was not him being a no-show and not paying for a hotel room, the biggest problem was that the boss of JREF seemed to be lying to us and that this appeared to be a pattern.
Exactly; see above.
Here’s one such similar story, from an Australian blogger at TAM Australia in 2010, that I found quite easily by googling.
The next talk was sensational. It was Dr Pamela Gay‘s (AstronomyCast, Slacker Astronomy & SIU faculty), talk on Citizen Science, during which she presented on the wonderful contributions made by amateurs in the field of astronomy…
I found Dr Gay’s talk as enthusiastic and inspiring as ever, as she is truly a gifted and entertaining presenter. Even though Pamela was a late ring-in due to JREF President DJ Grothe‘s late withdrawal from the conference due to an unforeseen scheduling clash, her presentation was one of the highlights for me, and was loudly applauded by an appreciative audience, which seemed to surprise her somewhat.
See it? The JREF President’s late withdrawal from a talk at his own organization’s conference due to an unforeseen scheduling clash??? A what? How could there be such a “scheduling clash”? What engagement could bump that engagement? It would be like Obama withdrawing from the State of the Union to cut the ribbon on a new supermarket in Tulsa. And even if there were such a scheduling clash, how exactly could it be unforeseen?
So, yeah. One possible reason.
One more:
Let’s see, unable to keep appointments, venting random hostility upon critics, desperate rationalization? I can think of some explanations.
@2…I had the exact same thought.
Bad personal organization and forgetfulness, or he is comfortable ignoring social communication obligations.
Bad personal organization and forgetfulness, or is comfortable lying about details of social conflicts to remove immediate negative social pressure from individuals.
Bad personal organization and forgetfulness, or he is comfortable ignoring personal obligations and ignoring requests for information.
Bad personal organization and forgetfulness, or he is comfortable ignoring social financial obligations.
Bad personal organization and forgetfulness, or he is comfortable telling people what he thinks they want to hear while social pressure is present regardless of reality.
Either way this is a behavior routine that has been functionally ignored or neglected by the community at large (some don’t know, some don’t believe, some don’t want to believe), and authorities in JREF. That is a problem in society at large that we really don’t want to emulate as a community. As a person with ADHD I can sympathize with some of the interpretations, but I have worked hard to make correcting personal deficits a major personality characteristic and that seems to be not in evidence here. I need a job, I don’t suppose I should consider applying (not serious but I bet I could do it better if this was the status quo).
And even if there were such a scheduling clash, how exactly could it be unforeseen?
Is “scheduling clash” code for “hangover”?
I don’t know, but I’m going to try it the next time I imbibe too much the night before a workday!
“The JREF President’s late withdrawal from a talk at his own organization’s conference due to an unforeseen scheduling clash??? ”
To be fair, there were a LOT of no-shows on stage, including Australian Skeptics themselves, at the Australian TAM in 2010.
It was enough to become embarrassing to see presenters desperately try to fill in gaps with demonstrations of pulling appart a chicken (That’s evolution! yaaaawwwwn) and boasting about how successful their group was in comparison to that year’s psychic predictions by yelling at an bored audience.
Of course they could have filled at least one gap with Dr Karen Stollznow instead of a Brian Dunning– who like DJ, continues to be supported by their group.
So it may be just more poor organization overall and you can see the 2010 schedule and mark off the many absences compared to acts as evidence.
DJ was invited back and appeared for the next Melbourne event.
A family medical emergency could be an unforseen scheduling clash.
No it couldn’t. A family medical emergency isn’t scheduled; that’s what “emergency” means.
On rereading Marcus’ comment #5, which I responded to with a joke, I feel I should apologise.
While I’m pretty certain Marcus was joking, the implication that DJ Grothe has problems with alcohol and they’re responsible for the missed commitments is inappropriate and unwarranted.
Or am I missing something?
@2
To paraphrase, Never attribute to alcohol or drug use that which can be adequately explained by being a thoughtless jerk.
At the very least, DJ had his priorities all screwed up.
Regardless of the reason behind that — and I agree, we ought to resist the urge to speculate* on that front — it’s good that things are getting sorted out and he’s out of a position of power.
I hope this will allow DJ to take the time to reflect on his failings. (But I doubt that will happen.)
* Yes, I’m suspicious, too. No, I’m not going to speculate or judge, because unless DJ chooses to go public with his issues (whatever they may be), it’s none of our business.
I know that DJ also didn’t appear at CSICON 2011, even though he was scheduled to present there.
@WMDKitty
I partially disagree. We do need to stay away from professionally deposited labels, but at the same time we need to find effective language for describing behavior that often correlates with those labels.
Until then we get to judge the behaviors, especially when it comes with no acknowledgement that they exist or efforts to work on them. The effects of the behaviors are our business. Too many people engage in flaw-building exercises where instead of being honest about what their flaws are they sped all their time pretending they are not there and put up a bunch of defense mechanisms and engage in projection.
If D.J. Grothe and Richard Dawkins, Thunderfoot, and others became willing to admit that they had problems and wanted the communities active help in functionally becoming a better person (which also correlates to more capable and powerful person) I would then start shifting in my strategy in comments. They would get the opportunity to say what they did wrong and what they wanted the future versions of themselves to look like. I would be telling people to actively look for signs of change, give constructive criticism, and to give them credit for it when they did better. And of course I would be noticing when the same bad habits resurfaced.
Carol @ 13 – thank you for that. Grothe was indeed scheduled to speak –
http://lanyrd.com/2011/csicon/
– and a friend of mine who was there confirms that he was a no-show. Brian Thompson took his place.
While I’m pretty certain Marcus was joking, the implication that DJ Grothe has problems with alcohol and they’re responsible for the missed commitments is inappropriate and unwarranted.
I was joking.
Me:
OB:
“Unforeseen” stuff isn’t scheduled either. I was parsing it as an “unforeseen clash” with “scheduling.”
It may be that the pattern of no-shows is simply indicative of something he’s contending with and not handling well. Not that it’s OK. But it may be something he needs to actually get help for… no idea. No excuse but often it’s part of a pattern of something that needs treatment… can’t speculate on what. But, to be generous to someone I don’t care for at all…. We may all be completely unaware of an issue that’s causing this. Douchecannoery is not a co-morbid condition… though.
An alternative explanation to douchebaggery: stress. He had to have seen all this coming, with revenue dropping, and I assume fairly intimate knowledge of the status of JREF’s finances. Couple looming failure with public dismissal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been a bundle of anxiety for the last year or two.
Hmmm. That seems very plausible, PZ, but then…if that’s the case I would think he would have taken more care over the speakers at TAM.