Club problems

I heard of a club where the incumbent committee had been in charge for some time and there was a consensus among some members that this was to the detriment of the club, but nothing like as bad as here. The committee wanted new blood but only in 1s and 2s so they could be 'taught' how to do things the 'right' way. The only way round it was for a group of members to get together and put themselves forward at the AGM to take over all of the committee roles - but it was made clear to the membership that they had to vote the new committee in en masse and vote out the whole of the existing committee. It involved organisation and people willing to put themselves forward to take on those roles and it ended up as a palace coup.

Edited by Steve411 - 30 Nov 22 at 12:19pm

No, I read that story in the local paper on line. A different club all together

Just having this conversation on a social media platform is a disciplinary offence in this club. That’s because it’s exposing these people who believe that such a conversation is bringing the club into disrepute. Yet it is they who bring the club into disrepute. They hide behind disciplinaries as a means of control. The comments to the governing body by the lead investigator were “brining the the club into disrepute”. Yet the complainant had a family member under investigation. What’s even worse, a relative of the complainant then led the disciplinary committee! Conflict of interest and corruption could not be more plainly visible!

Yes the club has its AGM but it’s controlled. In one instance when a ballot should of taken place for 2 standing for a role, a show of hands was done. You could see people looking round the room for when they needed to raise their hand. The constitution says in the case of 2 candidates a ballot is required but the chair overruled it.

People have left and started other things but as one mentioned it’s access to water. In this particular case the access is either club or commercial access. There’s no public water access. The club was meant to be a watersports club and got a substantial grant for a building (over 500,000). It was meant to be a flagship centre for the area and region, but it’s become dominated by the agenda of clique. People who were founder members and who have a long history with prior clubs feel that they must fight on for justice. This club was an amalgamation of 2 others in a flagship project. Many of one of the clubs never wanted that amalgamation.

It’s odd that such a clique would hang on to power in such a way and for what reason? Surely you would eventually be fed up of all the arguing. Which leads some to suspect there is more to it. For example, A few years ago there was a substantial loss in money and the police were involved but nothing came out of that.

As others have said, this is supposed to be a hobby/fun/enjoyable etc so my initial take would be  to run away and find another club. And yet I've been there in terms of not agreeing with the direction my clubs committee was going in,  so ended up spending several years as a committee member/secretary/vice commodore/commodore/trustee as a result. JimC is spot on when he makes the point that a club should be democratic and an AGM and EGM are the ultimate expressions of that. If you're in a minority at both/either of these you should re-think where you are. On the other hand if what you're saying is that your club are ignoring basic constitutional  protocols such as holding AGMs I'd suggest talking to the RYA legal section. 

This has to be a wind up