Somebody spat the dummy at itSMF International

Somebody somewhere is really unhappy with itSMF International. They have a childish way of dealing with it.

Back in November 2011 somebody spat the dummy with itSMF International. ["spit the dummy" is an Australianism, and an excellent one that everyone should use. the first thing a baby does before that hideous tantrum wail is to spit its dummy (pacifier) out. When somebody totally loses their temper and vents, they spit the dummy.] Two things happened.

There was a communication from itSMF [which I have now lost - anyone?] late last year rebutting an angry email that had apparently been doing the rounds.

And now this is zipping round Twitter: a "petition" from November 6th last year from somebody doing a spectacular dummy spit

Background (Preamble):
During the last 2 years many observations have been made regarding itSMF performance which has degraded significantly along with its degraded leadership, that the organization has degenerated into almost a publishing house while all other activities have wasted away.

A needs-reassessment is necessary to evaluate how itSMF is impacting the community and whether its negatives are outweighing its positives, is it still viable and achieving its intended goals?

Petition:

Personal hidden agendas and organizational politics have prevailed itSMF recently and it ended up revolving around protecting the persons instead of being impartial as it is claimed to be in its vision and mission.

We found individuals lobbying for their friends relying on political powers to get them on the management board unlawfully, promote and extend to them shamelessly, and plan for their retention of the chair position to continue protecting their personal interests and fostering their personal relationships.

These are unacceptable and unprofessional acts which are enough to damage any organization, let aside a non-profit, membership owned and managed one. This gives an indication of how deviated itSMF is from its mission, and how uncontrollable it is. Impacts of such situation are definitely drastic for the whole global community. This petition calls for every professional to reassess itSMF and vote for its closure.

The number of "signatures"? None.

The reasons for that are twofold:

1. if you want to do something like this you need to heavily promote it. And i can assure Dummy Spitter that plenty of hard work will probably yield a few hundred signatures (vid. Free ITIL). In an organisation of 50,000 that isn't going to count for much.
2. What a stupid, childish response.

There may be some valid complaints buried in here somewhere, but
a) let's have some concrete details with evidence
b) let's sort it out without proposing dismantling the whole organisation

It is fair to say that this blog has also wondered what we get for our money from the International body (as distinct from the local chapters which clearly deliver value in at least some countries). But I 've also called for more internationalisation not less. The islands of knowledge, activity and administration within itSMF are infuriating. Pull the whole house down? Grow up.

Now the origins of this are clearly in somebody losing out on a power struggle in itSMF International. Probably we should look at those who missed out on the Board at the AGM in Washington last year. (And just a hunch from reading the petition: this person has excellent English but not as a first language). Somebody didn't get the sweetie they wanted and somebody isn't happy and the whole world is going to know it.

That somebody is too cowardly to stand behind their allegations or to substantiate them. If there was any substance I'd have happily provided an anonymous platform for whistle-blowing - I think everyone knows that. And their response isn't that of an adult. Personally I'm glad they lost out.

And as has been the case before, I'm left wondering if there is any fire behind the smoke...