General thoughts, and Major pain walked into a bar....

This post, yet again stems from another thought provoking idea I thought of while reading up on some replies.

Nazis. I'm not talking the German WWII type. I'm talking about those people you meet every day that are dedicated to a belief, a cause or an idea and even if you happen to believe in the same idea but go about it a different way, you aren't considered dedicated, part of the team, part of the belief. It's obvious you're interested in something else, your motivation is different. Therefor you are not one of us, you are one of them trying to be one of us.

What nonsense. But you see it everywhere. Anywhere you don't fit in, even if you think you do. True, there are people who aren't like this at all, but when you come across one that it, it's painful. So I thought I'd mention my experiences with these types and what I did to avoid their problems being handed over to me.

It's quite easy actually, for me anyway. I just let go. I was part of a brilliant Astronomy Club here in Sydney. They were active, then a new committee with grand new ideas arrived. I think committees are places for people who want to be a boss or a manager go when they don't have the stuff to become one in their daily life, for every committee I've seen always seems to have too many Chiefs and no Indians at all. What happens then? You have a group of sayers and no doers, and nothing gets done. So they solve the problem by delegating, and they do this by creating a sub-committee. YAY! A group of people that aren't cut out to make any decisions, thrown into the deep end because the committee that looks down on them has no clue how to manage these people.

How is this the same as the Nazis I spoke about earlier? You have someone higher up telling you what they think, and most of the time they are so clouded with their own power in the group that they can't see clearly. They haven't got a clue, but they'll tell you how to do something. They are experts no doubt. And whatever it is you're doing, they have an opinion on it. They have a better way to do it. So they micro manage you, and in the end nothing gets done because you have a flock of experts all telling you something different, and because it's a committee of a club, you have to do it the way they tell you.

A member of this club once decided to stuff them all and just go ahead with what he wanted to do. He had found a really old set of Navy binoculars. They were huge, more like two telescopes mounted close to each other on a stand. They found them sitting under the stair case that leads up to the observatory. They were in bad shape. So he asked the club, can I take them home and restore them? They uhmmm'd and ahhhh'd for weeks. So he just took them home, restored them back to brand spankin' new condition, and probably better than new because he hand assembled with pride. The committee went off at him for "stealing" the binoc's. They told him he went over their authority. I was there when this happened, and when there was a moment of silence, I said "Thanks for restoring these, they are an asset to the club and so are you and your skills in fixing up the old, dated but historic equipment."

The silence after that was deafening. No one said a word, but they were still furious. This member turned to me and said "It's a shame not everyone can appreciate the work" and he disappeared, cancelling his membership.

Years later, I invested many hours creating a new website for the club. The old one was so messed up, it was like looking at a website from 1998. I tried to help bring the club into a modern age, so it would appeal to a younger crowd.... remembering the committee complain about lack of new members.... maybe it had something to do with the old ones dying or leaving because you treat everyone like they're 5.

Once I brought the site up to scratch, I was given an award due to the fact that we had 10 new members in the first month sign up, and they did so through the website. I created an online application form so there was nothing to print out or mail/fax back. It was all electronic and that's what appeals to people today, not what appeals to an old fart from the 50's (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but dismissing email over the postal service is silly these days unless you're sending a parcel to someone).

The new site brought in an influx of members but they didn't stay long because they saw the committee and their brilliant skills at making good choices for the club, instead of themselves... no wait! the opposite of that. Sarcasm never works on the Internet.

When membership started to fall again, I mentioned two things to them, trim the fat off the committee and another great idea I had was to invite visitors on our open nights, as per normal. However, offer them something special. So I suggested that the guy at the gates suggests to each visitor, "Here's an application form to become a member of the club, if you fill in the form tonight, you get the entry fee for the open night taken off your annual membership fee.

I mentioned this in front of the entire club. Everyone was amazed at such a simple idea and knew it'll work. The committee were furious that they didn't think of it first and launched into a lovely attack that went something like this. "Well, that's all good and dandy, but how do you expect to club to stay financially viable if we offer everyone who enters discounts?"

You dimwits.

I left the club unofficially. I didn't announce it. I just let my membership lapse. When I got a phone call about it, I told them "The club doesn't offer me what first intrigued me to join." They asked me what that was and I said "You know, you just don't want to know"

And that was that. I no longer have issues with the club because I don't attend their meetings, I don't converse with the "experts" anymore.

So, as sad as this sounds... when you have an interest and there's a group. Use the group to gain as much knowledge as possible, and when the first know-it-all speaks to you about something that you question, it's time to leave. You've gained what you can from the group and now it's time to move on after you out grow it. There is no point sticking around to see all these unhappy people who think they're boss, telling you how to do something or accusing you of things where all you're trying to do is help. You don't need that in your life. Much like a mental asylum, your stay will be entertaining at first, but in the end you'll just become another one of them.