Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin A
Whoever Robby is, has stumbled across the biggest misconception people have, i.e. I've paid my £5 race fee for a service, I don't need to help with the track at the start or end of the night. This is incorrect, we are all equal members of a club. We all pay the race fee, as proposed and seconded at the clubs AGM, and we all have the same obligation to put away the track. To just pack up and leave and think it's ok, someone else will do it, is just not fair. On Saturday it was very nearly left to an elderly gentleman who is awaiting surgery to improve his mobility to do it on his own, because he had the trailer hooked up to his car.
I just don't get the attitude that someone else will do that, so I don't have to. It's just not fair to leave it to others, when we are all equal members of the club. York is a very friendly and enjoyable place to race.
On a side note, back in the day, 24 years ago, when Take That were a big attraction, Manchester United used to win the league every year, and we had a Tory government, (a bit like now), the club I went to gave out trophies, but only after the track was away and only given to those that stayed back. However, the race fee, corrected for inflation was £8.
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Thank you Robin, for responding in an adult manner.
I'm not saying "the attitude" is correct, what I'm saying is that they have every right to feel as they do. Is it fair? Of course not. But life isn't fair. You may think it a misconception, but when it's a race entry fee, that's what it is. A fee to race.
It's no different than traveling to race at a permanent facility attached to a hobby shop. You don't sweep the floors or clean the toilet when you're done, do you? If you enter a big race, do you help clean up afterwards and work on track grooming or do you leave that to the organizers?
The reality is that, using your theory, any so-called fees collected by the club (membership fees or whatever you want to call them) should cover all club activities including hall rentals. You're not giving out trophies or anything, so there is no added unanticipated costs each week that should require weekly fees. If you're not charging annual membership fees then it's not really a club, and instead a gathering of friends. Otherwise, the cost of the hall rental for the day should be divided equally amoungst all entries instead of having a flat cost each week. Because now you're turning it into a profit-making endeavor.
And unless you have it specified in the club bylaws - that, "if you do not help assemble and pack up the track at the end of the day's racing, you have no right to race" - you can't really enforce it.
I'm just trying to say, in an adult way, there's all kinds of problems with the theory and making such demands on racers.
I didn't come here trying to get anyone's panties in a knot, seems that already happened, but I was just trying to suggest that there's a lot of reasons for it happening. Pitching a fit here, solves nothing. If it's a club matter, then it needs to be discussed and voted on by the club (in its majority) at a club meeting. But acting like it's the only time it's ever happened, or that threatening people will solve it is a bit unrealistic. Like I said, there's a reason clubs die and it's not a lack of racers. It's racers that get sick of the club.
And, like I also said earlier -
It's also been my experience that a surefire way to make racers feel unwelcome is to chastise them publicly and become aggressive with your approach to them. Grow men don't appreciate being dealt with like they're children, even by their mums, regardless if you think they're right or wrong.
'You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.'