Although I’m no longer an STC member, I know that it does plenty of good things at both the local and Society level. I am pleased to count many active STC volunteers amongst my friends and professional colleagues, and I wouldn’t have met them if I hadn’t been a member. So I hope no-one will read this article as an attack on this important organisation. It’s just meant to be an amusing aside.
But what has the STC got to do with quantum mechanics? Let me explain.
The STC recognises local chapter volunteers with an award called the Distinguished Chapter Service Award or DCSA. In October 2009 the Board of the UK & Ireland Chapter of the STC nominated me for a DCSA. I was honoured. However, by that time I had resigned from the STC, and the UK & Ireland Chapter Board were told that as a consequence I was no longer eligible. We all thought that was the end of the story.
To my surprise, my name appeared in the May 2010 edition of the STC’s magazine Intercom in the list of DCSA winners. My name also appeared on a display board at the STC Summit that same month, and then in August 2010 the STC website included my name in the list of DCSA recipients for 2010. So it appears I received the award after all.
But did I? I haven’t received a certificate. I haven’t received a letter or even an email from the STC Office or any member of the STC Board or of any STC Committee confirming my award. The official silence has been deafening. So it appears I didn’t get the award after all.
But didn’t I? If an organisation mistakenly publishes someone’s name as an award winner once you might expect a speedy retraction followed by an apology to the people concerned. But the STC have published my name as a winner three times – and there’s been no sign of apology or retraction.
Clearly, I am in a dual state: I have, and I have not, received the DCSA simultaneously. I could think of nothing to compare with this apart from Schrödinger’s Cat, the well known thought experiment used to illustrate quantum mechanics. In that experiment, the theoretical cat is both alive and dead at the same time. (Clearly I’ve been following Professor Brian Cox on Twitter for far too long if this is the first analogy I came up with!)
I don’t know whether the STC are trying to attract new members from CERN or Fermilab by demonstrating that they can play around with counter-intuitive scientific concepts, but it seems that it’s going to take longer for me to get a definitive answer on whether or not I have received the DCSA than it’s going to take the particle physicists at those two labs to find the Higgs Boson!
POST SCRIPT
As you can see from the comment below from STC Board Member Nicky Bleiel, my name has now been removed from the list of DCSA recipients, no doubt as a direct result of this article. I leave you all to draw your own conclusions.
David, this is indeed a conundrum.
We all want you to have the award, but without it, you’re making impressive philosophical inroads into the field of physics!
So, maybe by withholding the actual certificate, the STC is contributing to progress in another (although a bit unrelated) field. This could help humanity more than you actually holding the award in your hands. It’s all for the greater good.
I’ll talk to my friends at CERN to see if they can draw something up that they’ll actually deliver.
I imagine they are just as prompt about DCSA certificates as they are about international competition awards; and if that’s the case, don’t worry about it for a few more months yet.
I assume that you have in fact earned the award. Congratulations!
…or is the cat just resting, like the parrot in the Monty Python sketch?
(Sorry I don’t have a quantum physics joke — it’s Monday!)
I apologize that you were thrice (wow, I never get to use that in a sentence) recognized as an DCSA honoree when you were not one (for the reasons you mention). The website is now updated, but the poster at the Summit and the Intercom are a done deal.
Please accept my apology that you were not promptly informed of the error(s).
Nicky Bleiel
STC Board of Directors
Well Nicky, thank you for sorting that one out. What a shame you’ve spoilt my good joke though. And really, if it’s taken you five months to fix this tiny little error, aren’t you concerned that people may wonder what else the STC may have got wrong?
You’ll just have to accept that the STC have shipped a documentation fix after five months
Actually David, many people ARE wondering and for that reason, wandering away.
Poppy
(Still an STC member only because membership dues are paid by my employer)
Hilarious story. Love the metaphor.
Five months is nothing…. The newsletter awards page (http://www.stc.org/comp/newsletter-competition-winners.asp) has not been updated in two years. You’ve still got quite a ways to go!
Here’s hoping that the super-duper new social community website thingy makes for easier updates.
Yes, STC is a bit crap these days. But isn’t it fun to have someone to poke with a stick? And we should not forget that the whole thing is more or less run by volunteers.
Oh yeah, other than the salaried whazoks they’ve got in the STC office. It’s shocking and embarrassing how useless they can be despite being paid for their efforts.
David, you will always be a DCSA honoree in my book. I never update it, as a matter of pride.
(Still an STC member because — SHOCK! — I get my money’s worth out of it and I like the people.)
You all go back to kicking STC, you hear? Enjoy yourselves!