It's Committee time again

It's a NZ tradition don't you know...Kiwi's love committees. So in sympathy here is a long post...
Once again the call (perhaps more of a simpering whisper) goes out for our club to reform it's committee.

Now clubs are voluntary beasts and with that comes all sorts of challenges quite different from our normal existence.
Chief amongst these is an inability to order, threaten, withhold pay, or otherwise cajole people to "do things". It requires enthusiasts (great word that...I use it alot) and they need to be "let lose" rather than tied up with meetings, rules and top-down decision making. That's quite hard to do. Committees love to long meetings, re-litigating things, poor minute keeping and second guessing other members voluntary inputs. (And because I, like many others, am human I have fallen foul of these simple rules occasionally...but I digress).

If I look about the local club the challange will be to find new, and some not so new, enthusiasts...maybe it's me but I feel the need for a change of tempo, direction, ideas and focus. The last 2 years have seen a purchase of a new Duo Discus which has been the focus of many peoples attention. I'd have to say the purchase process went very well (despite some misgiving from yours truly) but since its arrival utilisation has been very poor (budgeted 160 hours flying has turned out to be nearer 50 I'm lead to believe) and 7 months after arrival the number of qualified pilots sits at about 5...

Alongside this purchase is the continuing decline in membership (not limited to just us) which strikes at the heart of the future of the club. We must try some new things.

So whilst I recently read a mangled attempt to use JFK's famous words "ask not what your country can do for you etc etc" the sentiment is correct...maybe I will have to stump up to a round of committee meetings. But I'll only be there if my side-kick Mr Baldman is there too. Actually I've had a few committee meetings already.
But beware of using famous quotes, JFK also said "Ich bin ein Berliner" (and the crowd went wild) however if pronounced wrong also means "I am a donut"...