WORKING BEES–WHAT IS EXPECTED OF A CLUB MEMBER.
As a member of our club, or any club for that matter, you will no doubt realise that the bulk of the work is completed by volunteers. Most clubs of our type and size are not in a position to have sufficient money in the bank to pay a tradesperson to come in and carry out any/all the work that is required.
Consequently members are informed when they join the club that they will be required to attend working bees to assist with the maintenance, upkeep and improvements at the club.
Sadly, of the two hundred plus members in our club, fewer than 20 people worked very hard to carry out this work by attending almost every weekend.
These people gave up a lot of their personal and family time to improve our club. There were a number of people who attended once or twice and their assistance was greatly appreciated too.
What I am trying to say is that the club needs you to help out a little more often. Some people never attend a working bee during their membership year and that is fine, they pay the stipend at renewal time.
However it is not only scheduled Working Bee times that your help is required, we also need assistance at club comp setups and tear downs and during competition days.
Stage build days are attended by the same group of people each month and they are becoming very good at it. It would be nice though for others to attend, to learn how stages are designed, built and why we set them up the way we do. Think of it as part of your education about IPSC.
During the matches we also need people helping. Small things like emptying the rubbish bins during the day, without needing to be asked, goes a long way to ensuring that the club is kept clean.
At the end of the competition, we need to pull down and put away at least 3 stages. It is preferred that this is done BEFORE we do the Trophy presentation and it invariably falls to yet again a small group of dedicated members whilst everyone else either goes home or sits in the club house socialising.
We would all like to sit down and discuss how we shot he match, but if everyone did 30 minutes work at the end, we would all be able to go home early.
Quite a number of times I, and others, have asked various people for their help, only to be told “Yeah, Yeah, no worries, in a minute” or “I have worked all weekend, I have done enough”. With this resulting in the jobs either NOT being completed or having to spend time finding someone else willing to do them.
This is particularly annoying when so many times it was a Committee member who would not do the job. Not that Committee Members are expected to do everything, but they should understand that they are expected to do a bit more than others, otherwise maybe they should not be on the Committee.
Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that you MUST do the jobs, however it is an expectation and a condition of membership that you will attend the range and help out.
To all those members who do attend and help out, I am sincerely grateful for your help, for those who have not yet assisted, I ask that you do so and join in with your fellow club members in making our great club even greater.
A club only gets better if EVERYONE joins in and works together to make it better.
I really hope to see a lot more of you helping out in future at all levels throughout the club.
Many thanks.