Service, Not For Self -- You Selfish Bunch of Bastards

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It’s been almost fourty years that I have served the local service club. My fifteenth year as President is coming to a close at the end of this month. I’m not standing again.

I didn’t serve fifteen straight years. I was President for six years, then on the executive for about twenty years. I stepped back into the position when it appeared the club was teetering on the edge of closure. I was able to put together an executive and together we worked to pull it back and steady it. I served eight years then. Was voted out and came back last year after a year of turmoil and divisiveness to try to steady the ship. It was a relatively good year but the issues continued to simmer.

The first vice-president is ready to move up and it’s incumbent on me to step aside and support his move.

He wont be unopposed. A member of the executive, who has been a member for all of three years and on the executive for a year, is standing against him. The rules allow him to but it doesn’t make it right. The tool thinks he’s read the manuals and has decided there isn’t much for the President to do. That statement alone shows how woefully unprepared he is.

This isn’t about serving the club, it’s about serving his overblown ego. He’s not alone, others who hate me have encouraged him to do this. They are also people who don’t work for the good of the club, they just want to have a social club they can hang out at and call the shots on what they are allowed to do.

It is not a social club, it’s a service club. They don’t get, nor care to get, the mission statement. Service is about giving, not about getting. It’s not for self, it’s for the good of the organization and the community it serves.

It’s not a large group that is trying to engineer this. They are vocal and aggressive. Actually, the word is bullies. They don’t care who they lie about and who they tear down. It’s disheartening to watch this going on the past 4-5 years.

Two years ago they managed to get one of theirs elected. Those of us who cared about the club, hung in and kept doing the real work of the club and in the community but not without being the target of these guys and their nastiness. It was a chaotic, painful year. He was voted out leaving the rabble angry at having lost.

I know there are good members who care about the club. The challenge is to get them out to vote and stand up against this noisy, destructive rabble. Caring and action are sadly, two separate processes.

Elections are next week. If this guy and his followers manage to get enough votes out to elect him they better have an executive ready, along with a bunch of volunteers. Those who hung in last time and endured are not willing to this time. They will step back. These guys want control, they are going to learn there is work and responsibility that comes with it.

There is a building to maintain and bills to pay. There are events that need to be put on with volunteers. There is a hall and bar to manage with staff and inventory. There is an executive and multiple committees which are mandated to be carried out. There is community support to be cultivated and maintained.

The current volunteer bar manager was informed this past week that there’s nothing to running the bar, just ordering a bit of beer. Apparently the speaker was oblivious to the fact there is more inventory than beer, there is also two bars and managing the paid and volunteer staff on those bars.

It’s going to be tough for those of us who care about the club and the community. We know that the club wont survive on the sports they want to dominate the place. They have themselves believing that the sports they play makes the place a pile of money. Reality is going to bite for them.

OR, we’ll actually manage to get the people who care out and defeat this rabble. Then we’ll have the task of putting an end to this divisive and bullying behaviour. And it needs to end.

Rant off

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