BHPC Ending Membership

[fd3]

As the Magazine Editor is stepping down and no-one wants to take on the job, the BHPC are proposing to end membership, as the magazine is the only benefit that non-racing members get.  Races are self-funding apparently.

It is a shame, but I'm not going to do anything about it.

[Mr Larrington]

Been there, done that, NO desire to do it again.

[Kim]

I've seen TEH TREASURER's sums, and the club would be healthy enough financially (and could adjust race fees accordingly should costs change in future).  The racing side of things has been going well over the last few years.

Much as I like the magazine, it's hard to find volunteers with a sufficiency of Copious Free Time™ and the right combination of publishing and pestering-people-for-content (and/or writing all the content themselves because nobody contributed anything) skills.  The general problem is that we have plenty of enthusiastic people who can't make the necessary time commitments.  We're hoping that a re-vamped website with a less evil CMS would allow us to continue sharing the same sort of material, assuming it doesn't just fall into the Facebook hole.

If we don't maintain a 'membership' we don't need to maintain a membership list, process membership fees, etc. which reduces some of the other committee workload.

I've been carefully not taking on tasks beyond my race-timing role and occasional jibbling of the webby SCIENCE, because it's a recipe for disaster for an organisation to rely on a few people who do everything.

[fd3]

I've been carefully not taking on tasks beyond my race-timing role and occasional jibbling of the webby SCIENCE, because it's a recipe for disaster for an organisation to rely on a few people who do everything.

So wise/cynical from one so young.

[Mr Larrington]

Seems we've found a mug willing victim volunteer after all, viz. Ian Prince.

[barakta]

I've been carefully not taking on tasks beyond my race-timing role and occasional jibbling of the webby SCIENCE, because it's a recipe for disaster for an organisation to rely on a few people who do everything.

So wise/cynical from one so young.

Is 42 young?

I think Kim and I have both seen and done various activisms that have dissolved when the 3 people who did 90% of the work got burnt out in the last 24 years (since student age when we kinda started being suckers for that sort of thing).

Sustainability and capacity building in an organisation is HARRRD. I'm trying to do this with added challenge of 'crip time' aka disabled people who can't be reliable but are brilliant when they can function.

I blame Tories for making life harder, more expensive, less free time for volunteering and 'leisure' which means there's fewer younger people coming along to have the time/cope/capacity/desire to volunteer for this kind of thing. Anyone under 67 is monstered into "searching for work" or has job(s)/caring responsibilities which eat all their time and energy.

[Kim]

There's also a creeping generational factor where younger people are less likely to have resources like cars, sheddes, spare rooms or proper computers, which can make traditional volunteering roles like laying out magazines, looking after the sportsing equipment, baking industrial quantities of CAKE or producing banners impractical.

[fd3]

Is 42 young?

I think Kim and I have both seen and done various activisms that have dissolved when the 3 people who did 90% of the work got burnt out in the last 24 years (since student age when we kinda started being suckers for that sort of thing).

42 is younger than me, so wiser than me at the same time is a double whammy.

I know exactly what you mean, I have been part of groups which have been kept running by a couple people - the moment they retired, moved, were eaten by tigers, etc. the group dissolves.

[Joe.B]

There's also a creeping generational factor where younger people are less likely to have resources like cars, sheddes, spare rooms or proper computers, which can make traditional volunteering roles like laying out magazines, looking after the sportsing equipment, baking industrial quantities of CAKE or producing banners impractical.

I’ve wondered on more than one occasion how those in their late teens/twenty’s seem to get by doing everything with their phones. I’ll jump onto to the PC even to just write a long WhatsApp response in preference to typing it out on my phone, I shudder to think how difficult Excel would be on a phone or tablet.

[Mr Larrington]

Spreadsheets are a PITA on a decent-sized fondleslab; on a phone I wouldn’t even try.

[fd3]

An aside from a post on POBI made me realise that I have never bought a computer (always use work ones) but that said I hate using a slab for anything other than googling.

(click to show/hide)

And my phone is a Nokia brick

[mzjo]

I've been carefully not taking on tasks beyond my race-timing role and occasional jibbling of the webby SCIENCE, because it's a recipe for disaster for an organisation to rely on a few people who do everything.

So wise/cynical from one so young.

Is 42 young?

I think Kim and I have both seen and done various activisms that have dissolved when the 3 people who did 90% of the work got burnt out in the last 24 years (since student age when we kinda started being suckers for that sort of thing).

Sustainability and capacity building in an organisation is HARRRD. I'm trying to do this with added challenge of 'crip time' aka disabled people who can't be reliable but are brilliant when they can function.

I blame Tories for making life harder, more expensive, less free time for volunteering and 'leisure' which means there's fewer younger people coming along to have the time/cope/capacity/desire to volunteer for this kind of thing. Anyone under 67 is monstered into "searching for work" or has job(s)/caring responsibilities which eat all their time and energy.

I don't know about UK but France has made a big hole for itself with the ending of special retirement categories for railway and post service workers. Ever wondered why french cycletouring is so closely linked to the SNCF and La Poste? It's easy, they had people retiring at under 55 with reasonably generous pensions and still enough energy to go out and organise things. It goes further than cycletouring, a lot of social sector charities depended on the same pool of people. Go forwards to the last decade or so (possibly two decades). The administration wants to lean on the help of social associations to cover the reductions of public spending. At the same time they want to reduce the pool of available people to run these associations by reducing special retirement categories and extending the career length of everyone else. Pistol, bullet, foot!
This is the same regardless of the political leaning of the administration. 

[rr]

Spreadsheets are a PITA on a decent-sized fondleslab; on a phone I wouldn’t even try.

i wrote a speadsheet on my phone to keep track of a yoshusi bill, anything more: forget it.

[Kim]

Since the magazine, and therefore membership, will officially continue to be A Thing, it gives me great pleasure to report that TEH WEBMONKEY has announced that 2023 memberships are now available to purchase in ye shoppe:

https://shop.bhpc.org.uk/membership-2023

[Beardy]

I gave up scouting when my elevated position in middle management became incompatible with the ‘2 hours a week. Fun fact; army cadet leaders got free time off to attend summer camps whereas scout leaders got zip. There was a time in the dim and distant past when the daily work schedules of your average Technical officer, and even that of a level one manager  allowed for a certain amount of leeway to give time to prepare for troop nights, and junior managers had the authority and desire to give volunteers of all stripes time off to pursue such activities.

In these days of computerised work allocation and the drive for very efficiency, no one has the time or inclination to do anything but the daily grind.

I’d like to know where all that extra leisure time got to that Tomorrow's World promised with the advent of computers doing the routine drudgery.

[Mr Larrington]

[barakta]

I've noticed a reduction in (functional) volunteers for stuff I have done this last 10+ years cos people who work are exhausted and much poorer in money and scared of losing jobs. Those who don't work are bullied by the DWP to show they're looking for work that they have no spoons left over for random volunteering. The assumption is that if you can manage 3 hours a week, you can get a paying job for that time, which of course isn't true on many levels, or can take a long time to get to if someone is going to 'get better'.