A Sad State of Affairs ...
Copied from my email to "that other method of communication"
Hi folks
I have no idea if this will ever climb to the heights of the "EX Com", but
suggestions that PPTC be replaced by a wide reaching informal network are
somewhat saddening.
When I was making my way back from 'fat idle couch potato' to 'cyclist' some
five years ago now, my discovery of a PPTC flier in a local bike shop was a
big event on that road, next to figuring out that I'd turned into a fat idle
slob, needed to do something about and remembering I used to be a cyclist.
From the off, PPTC members were friendly, always willing to help and that I
got dropped a lot was all my fault anyway - you never actually give up being
a racer and thus being dropped was only one person's fault - mine.
That folk would go to the immense lengths needed to come up with those cue
sheets never ceases to amaze me. As one who can get lost returning from the
restrooms in strange restaurants, I have followed them slavishly - both off
the back of PPTC rides and on the many odd days when my erratic work
schedules have allowed me to go out solo. I've come across PPTC riders who
regard making up new cue sheets and refining their old ones as almost a
second hobby in itself and that all can access these is an invaluable
resource - my thanks to all those individuals indeed.
So how has such a basically good-hearted organisation managed to stir up
such feelings amongst its members?
Being as one who skims lightly over the organisation and is not much of a
committee person at heart, I must say that it is a shame. The concept of an
alternate, cheap (free!) communication system that really works done by
someone on their own time should have been snatched up by the EX Com, lauded
and widely advertised. Instead, we almost sank to lawyer enrichment against
the creator of this list, censorship is getting too obvious to be
politically correct over and valuable club members are saying less polite
things than 'goodbye'.
I'm going to copy this onto the 'forums' in the off chance that the high and
mighty may read it and look again at matters. After all, to me now, it
matters little if I pay my PPTC subs from here on - I can go out and ride my
bike with or without a club when it comes to the bottom line.
But I would rather do so, little support though that is.
Yours in cycling
Dereck
- Login to post comments
A response from the Chair
I called Dereck on Friday nite and asked him to speak to me. As of Monday morning Dereck has not returned my call. I'm sorry but I find all this email somewhat disturbing. Why can't people talk? I'm available for anyone to call - 301-657-9793 is my home number.
As to the last "censorship" disaster - I was in Denver all last week at, I kid you not, a conference of 5,000 librarians. I had no email contact most of Wednesday (since I was in small conference rooms and then went to a baseball game) and none Thursday since I was flying home and the airports were a mess. Also my cell phone is dead. I got home around 7 pm. I had a note from Tom, the editor of Pedal Patter about a letter from Harold and 3 phone calls and numerous emails about my father who has Parkinson's in Santa Fe, NM. I have Power of Attorney over my father and he needs a change in medication and to get a new primary care physician. He's had two brain surgeries in the last year. It's a disturbing situation and I am far away from him and that can't be helped. I tell Tom I'll think about Harold's letter and my repy. Then I call various people in New Mexico. Tom rejects Harold's letter and is accused of censorship. It's now late at night and I still have other phone calls to make and I would like to get milk from the store downstairs so I can have some in my coffee in the morning. I go to work - since I have not been there in 4 days there is alot to catch up on and I still have other phone calls to make about my father. I have lunch with someone from PPTC - and then I realize the googlegroup is in an uproar about the Ex Com's censoring Harold's letter. The Ex Com hasn't read Harold's letter - I've barely read it. There is only so much I can do in life. So then I go back to the office and send Harold and Tom a note saying "sure, the letter can go in and I'll write a companion piece" - but apparently it is all too late - the Ex Com is a pack of censors.
I am not paid. I am a volunteer. So is everyone else on the Ex Com. We are human beings (apparently this is not obvious to some members of PPTC.) I have a life outside PPTC. I can not respond to every single email that appears on any listserv. I work hard for this club and I've made mistakes and I'm sorry. People need to get a grip. It's a bike club. Anyone who calls me will get my full attention. The number again is 301-657-9793.
sorry about your dad
catherine..
sorry to hear about your dad...
agree that many people out here expect the worst and i'm not sure why...
if writers continue to pound volunteers without knowing the whole story, there will one day be no volunteers...
thanks for doing what you do and for posting about the volunteer opportunity with WABA during the Alexandria/Arlington Community Ride...i volunteered and was happy i did so...
wish we could all get back to being a bike club again...
melanie
Reaching the Ex-Com is not hard!
Dereck,
Your message reads as though it is hard to reach the ex-com. It isn't at all. We all have e-mail addresses and many phone numbers that are posted here on the website and in Pedal Patter. Reaching us is no mystery at all.
Deb
Debby There are a lot more
Debby
There are a lot more disgruntled members around than me. For one, and very distressing, there is a line of thought that suggests the old topica mailing list was being censored. That should be drug out into the harsh light of day and put down immediately and from the top.
The important issue is that this forum business, while it has its merits under some circumstances, is slow and clunky and we have had a viable, accurate and timely alternative put together by a club member with no expense or effort on the part of the club as a whole. It is faster than grinding onto this forum, it is timely and why this was not adopted grates on a lot of folk. Getting the PP in paper format is neat in this instant gratification era, but its really too far into the 21st century to rely on it as a means of passing timely information.
Two ideas - put a big, obvious 'forums' button on the top of every page and replace the antiquated 'classified ads' with a well publicised and easy to reach "For Sale" page.
(the latter is self serving - I have a boxful of bike stuff I really need to get rid of ;-) )
In a volunteer run, nonprofit organisation, the aim should be to make life easier and more fun. If the ex com is so easy to reach, surely that runs both ways and these gripes need addressing plainly.
Or are conspiracy theories allowed this far down in the stratified air of DC?
Regards
Dereck
Interesting that we call
Interesting that we call these issues a "sad state of affairs".
Seems to me that the club is about riding bikes. We have a lot of members, and we need to communicate, of course. As dues paying members, we get to elect our voluntary representatives who do the hard work for us -- we just have to show up.
Do I have such high expectations that folks with a life, who like to bike so much that they are willing to put in even more time managing "my" club, should drop what they are doing to respond to some perceived slights? (That would be "no".) There are some folks who are apparently disgruntled and like to participate in the self-perpetuating gripe sessions. Run for ExCom and be part of the solution.
Me? I like to ride my bike. And a great big thank you to all of you who are working above and beyond to give me a group of folks to ride with.
Ride more, gripe less.