A Rant about Ornate Language Use
I know people that you use ornate language to sound more educated. Or to make sure to use words to impress others that also are in the habit of ornated language.
One group I find this to be prevalent in is people working in the nonprofit field. Part of the thing every nonprofit has to do is to raise money. And to get money from sponsors, one must make what they are doing sound really, really good.
So, a simple task I could and would describe in less than 10 words becomes a story filling pages and pages of words that have very little meaning.
My town was the recipient of a 1 million dollar grant and, as an engaged citizen, I was part of the advisory board charged with overseeing the administration of the grant. That was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life.
From the 1 million dollars maybe 50,000 were actually spent on making improvements in and for the community.
The goal of the grant, given by a major healthcare HMO, was to impact the health of all citizens living in the town.
A tall order.
I had owned a store before and had an idea of outcome expectations for investment and effort put into a business.
However, things work so differently within the nonprofit framework. For example, it was an acceptable expense to spend $ 100,000 on printing.
What?
We live in a day and age where paper documents are no longer necessary. Memos and reports can all be created electronically.
Another example of low expectations is this. Events would be planned involving many hours of manpower and expenses for facilities, food and so forth. The nonprofit people were happy when maybe 10 people showed up. I have planned events with less time and costs involved where 100s of people came and 10 would have been a failure in my eyes.
The experience as a board member - with no real decision-making power left me with a sour taste in the mouth.
I was thinking about what we, a small group of engaged citizens, could have accomplished with that amount of money.
There is so much waste of resources and at the same time so much need for improvement everywhere we look.
Using flowery language to make something sound good is not making it so.
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