Thank you for writing this article! It reminds me of the feedback I meant to send but never did for a booking last fall. Staff were extremely pleasant and lovely, and the system did not work. There should be a way to check out availability for multiple sites at once. Instead I had to email one, get a response, email the second, get a response, and so on. The worst part was where I finally reserved a room, 1. I didn't think of the noise factor and it turned out it was a non-permanent sliding wall and on the other side of it there was a dance class with loud music during our meeting 2. The room that "came with AV materials" came with nothing (nowhere did it say that these had to be specifically requested) and 3. The room that came with WiFi had zero instructions on how to access the WiFi. 4. I was stressed at paying promptly but there were delays because an account had to be set up, then the invoice assigned to the account... it was quite the process and pretty frustrating all in all.
Wow. Much agreed. I was interested in booking a room at the Sandy Hill Community Center but by the time they got back to me a month later I'd given up on it. I also feel that some types of bookings should be free, given sweat equity of cleaning the room after as needed. The room I wanted sat empty every day at the time I wanted it.
I thought you were a member of the city counsel. They (the city) don't help. I've tried 2 or 3 times calling 311 to get a tree attended too. They don't answer. Your left on hold. I have more complaints. But they are there for their pay checks no to serve the citizens of the city.
As a resident of Beaverbrook, Kanata, I am involved in local Planning, Transportation, etc. Staff focus since amalgamation has remained largely on pre-amalgamation Ottawa. Outside the greenbelt receives (at best) secondary consideration, despite growing far more rapidly.
In addition to bureaucratic inertia, another likely problem here is you have people at the other end that are used to the process as it is and don't see the hurdles that the client faces, or doesn't see them as significant.
I once worked with a software package (imposed by my employer) that required something like six or seven clicks through nested menus to perform a common, daily function. When I griped about it to a coworker, their response was, "I'm used to it, it's fine". When I griped to a friend who writes software for large corporations, he said, "Someone should be fired for that". Maybe a *bit* extreme, but I appreciated the sentiment!
Thank you for writing this article! It reminds me of the feedback I meant to send but never did for a booking last fall. Staff were extremely pleasant and lovely, and the system did not work. There should be a way to check out availability for multiple sites at once. Instead I had to email one, get a response, email the second, get a response, and so on. The worst part was where I finally reserved a room, 1. I didn't think of the noise factor and it turned out it was a non-permanent sliding wall and on the other side of it there was a dance class with loud music during our meeting 2. The room that "came with AV materials" came with nothing (nowhere did it say that these had to be specifically requested) and 3. The room that came with WiFi had zero instructions on how to access the WiFi. 4. I was stressed at paying promptly but there were delays because an account had to be set up, then the invoice assigned to the account... it was quite the process and pretty frustrating all in all.
Wow. Much agreed. I was interested in booking a room at the Sandy Hill Community Center but by the time they got back to me a month later I'd given up on it. I also feel that some types of bookings should be free, given sweat equity of cleaning the room after as needed. The room I wanted sat empty every day at the time I wanted it.
Why do we put up with issues like Lansdowne Park, biggest rip ever, Yet they will all get what they want.
Time the developers and OSEG were told the news that they actually needed to perform or get lost.
Yet we will end up paying the bill.
The Mayor should just say enough is enough, Period.
Not likely. He's there for the prestige and salarie. Not the people.
I thought you were a member of the city counsel. They (the city) don't help. I've tried 2 or 3 times calling 311 to get a tree attended too. They don't answer. Your left on hold. I have more complaints. But they are there for their pay checks no to serve the citizens of the city.
I feel your pain
Yep - similar experience (perhaps not quite as Kafkaesque - but getting there) booking rooms at public library. Not pleasant.
The City of Ottawa (the organization) is overly focused on internals, both day to day, and vision for the City.
As a resident of Beaverbrook, Kanata, I am involved in local Planning, Transportation, etc. Staff focus since amalgamation has remained largely on pre-amalgamation Ottawa. Outside the greenbelt receives (at best) secondary consideration, despite growing far more rapidly.
In addition to bureaucratic inertia, another likely problem here is you have people at the other end that are used to the process as it is and don't see the hurdles that the client faces, or doesn't see them as significant.
I once worked with a software package (imposed by my employer) that required something like six or seven clicks through nested menus to perform a common, daily function. When I griped about it to a coworker, their response was, "I'm used to it, it's fine". When I griped to a friend who writes software for large corporations, he said, "Someone should be fired for that". Maybe a *bit* extreme, but I appreciated the sentiment!
Neil. You are a noble soul. This is ridiculous.
Hi Jon- good point.