Marx has a saying about clubs
We live in a very strange and petty world at times.
With my mojo on a sabbatical, and Jiminy Cricket's neck and back still suffering from whiplash we've not been running as much as normal. Throw in the charity stuff I've been up to and that thing called life we've not been as active in a running club as we like to be (we've both previously volunteered to support club runs etc).
I'm not sure if its been our absence, but it hasn't made the heart grow fonder. All I want from a running club is fun, and the rules to be followed consistently (and linked to that there being some rules).
I'm a simple soul; and I've run too many clubs, been a trustee of too many things, organised too much and sat in too many damn committees to know that everything runs swimmingly all the time. The hardest thing is sometimes to walk away from something that has gone a little bit rancid.
Which is where my old club has made things easy... It is not wrong to ask how an offer is being made available to all club members nor is it wrong to ask for a copy of the rules (in this case a copy of the club constitution). The reaction to this simple request was dead wrong - rather than clarifying and supplying I was attacked. Not too many other words for the self-appointed defenders of a committee telling someone to have a word with themselves, get real and get a life (the last one complete with an implication that my life as a disabled person is less than theirs).
Now, this is a club that has proudly said that it doesn't tolerate bullies and has excluded people on that basis (I can't comment on the exclusion - I wasn't there and I don't pick sides on the basis of hearsay). Which is why it then beggars belief that when I report this activity to the Chair I get called a "troublemaker" and informed that "there are other clubs in the area".
Nice.
Being me, this didn't have the desired effect - hell, "troublemaker" is almost a sub-section in my job plan - I think of the trouble others haven't yet thought of to try and stop it before it starts...
So, I asked again for the constitution... and asked, and enquired as to the health of the Chair, and had to tweet the club account to check the email was working...
Eventually, I got an answer... well an email... Apparently the committee has "deemed" what I was subjected to as "not bullying" - but they haven't provided a rationale nor have they discussed it with me - so the additional actions of committee members went undiscussed. There was no apology for the commentary that I was a troublemaker, and the promised constitution will be "posted to me".
I've emailed again to seek a time line and because of the way its been handled submitted a DPA request for the Committee's deliberations... That email hasn't even been acknowledged.
Why am I wasting electrons on this? Because I care, this was a good, if not great club, run by committed passionate people who understood that there needs to be fun and rules. Now, we have a club that seems to be rules for the committee and the rest of us aren't even allowed to see the rule book.
So, as I can't make my concerns known to the club's facebook group - I seem to have been thrown off that too I will do what I normally do when I'm grumpy and pissed off - write a blog. Oh, and find a club where the rules are clear, and ideally there's a lot of fun...
TTFN
Paul
PS as anyone who knows me would expect I have copies of emails, screenshots and other bits and bobs...
PPS Groucho, not Karl
PPS Happier running days...
With my mojo on a sabbatical, and Jiminy Cricket's neck and back still suffering from whiplash we've not been running as much as normal. Throw in the charity stuff I've been up to and that thing called life we've not been as active in a running club as we like to be (we've both previously volunteered to support club runs etc).
I'm not sure if its been our absence, but it hasn't made the heart grow fonder. All I want from a running club is fun, and the rules to be followed consistently (and linked to that there being some rules).
I'm a simple soul; and I've run too many clubs, been a trustee of too many things, organised too much and sat in too many damn committees to know that everything runs swimmingly all the time. The hardest thing is sometimes to walk away from something that has gone a little bit rancid.
Which is where my old club has made things easy... It is not wrong to ask how an offer is being made available to all club members nor is it wrong to ask for a copy of the rules (in this case a copy of the club constitution). The reaction to this simple request was dead wrong - rather than clarifying and supplying I was attacked. Not too many other words for the self-appointed defenders of a committee telling someone to have a word with themselves, get real and get a life (the last one complete with an implication that my life as a disabled person is less than theirs).
Now, this is a club that has proudly said that it doesn't tolerate bullies and has excluded people on that basis (I can't comment on the exclusion - I wasn't there and I don't pick sides on the basis of hearsay). Which is why it then beggars belief that when I report this activity to the Chair I get called a "troublemaker" and informed that "there are other clubs in the area".
Nice.
Being me, this didn't have the desired effect - hell, "troublemaker" is almost a sub-section in my job plan - I think of the trouble others haven't yet thought of to try and stop it before it starts...
So, I asked again for the constitution... and asked, and enquired as to the health of the Chair, and had to tweet the club account to check the email was working...
Eventually, I got an answer... well an email... Apparently the committee has "deemed" what I was subjected to as "not bullying" - but they haven't provided a rationale nor have they discussed it with me - so the additional actions of committee members went undiscussed. There was no apology for the commentary that I was a troublemaker, and the promised constitution will be "posted to me".
I've emailed again to seek a time line and because of the way its been handled submitted a DPA request for the Committee's deliberations... That email hasn't even been acknowledged.
Why am I wasting electrons on this? Because I care, this was a good, if not great club, run by committed passionate people who understood that there needs to be fun and rules. Now, we have a club that seems to be rules for the committee and the rest of us aren't even allowed to see the rule book.
So, as I can't make my concerns known to the club's facebook group - I seem to have been thrown off that too I will do what I normally do when I'm grumpy and pissed off - write a blog. Oh, and find a club where the rules are clear, and ideally there's a lot of fun...
TTFN
Paul
PS as anyone who knows me would expect I have copies of emails, screenshots and other bits and bobs...
PPS Groucho, not Karl
PPS Happier running days...
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