Ilene Tyler wrote:

> Everyone decides from him/herself what is important, 1% or 98%.
> Relative to preservation, the decision is about what is "significant"
> about a property, how to describe its significance to all concerned, and
> then how to build a sound case for preserving it and retaining its
> integrity, and therefore its significance.  You're right, we need to
> build better tools for communicating, and not just be arguing from our
> respective pedestals.  Solitary helplessnes!  It's not a cause, like
> civil rights, but more an opportunity and a right, like education.

Ilene,

There has to be a way that we can get past solitary helplessness. My
suggestion is that we discuss our strategems. I agree that everyone
decides
for themselves what is important, though I do not believe that we always
have the freedom to do what we feel is important. I argue though that I
think, particularly in those battles that we lose, that we have to
transcend
describing the significance and building a sound case.

My battles are not to save individual buildings, my battles are to
convince
potential cutomers that my company can provide for them something they
need
more than my competition can provide, and then to maintain the customer
relationship. Though as with all battles, there are parallels between
our
respective crusades.

My battles are often become complex, where I am engaged with several
individuals on the customer side, all with differing agendas, and
likewise
differing agendas internal to the company. It is easy to see the bidding
process as describing the significance and building a sound case. We
collect
evidence from the contract documents and the site, we listen to what is
being said in our environment, we do an estimate and determine a cost
for
services (economics), and then we fill out a piece of paper and sign it.
The
end? This process alone does not get us work. In fact, if we assume that
the
extent of our activity is to describe the significance and build a sound
case then we find that we expend a great deal of time and energy going
nowhere, and this leads to an incredible amount of frustration -- as to
lose
too many battles for us means that we will have no economy at all.

Increasingly we are finding that the most important part of the process
is
to chose our battles carefully, and then to hold on like a pit bull. It
is
very easy to get carried away fighting in battles that we do not
especially
care to win. When we lose, we need to walk away, though sometimes this
is
very difficult.

As to information regarding the Washington, DC bus station, I suggest
you
contact Lonnie Hovey (a silent BP'er). I do not remember if you attended
the
tour he gave at the bus station, or not, it was quite interesting and
Lonnie
is incredible when it comes to relating the historic facts of a site.
--
][<en Follett
SOS Gab & Eti -- http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/5836