by ron thomas
Editorial: (an editorial is an opinion by one person.. Not an edict)
Why is there a Social Club here? It would seem to me that some folks wanted to have a neighborly relationship in a community where they can interact and have shared experiences, make new friends, celebrate life, and in short have a good time.
Others in our community don’t want to have that experience. To be up front about it most of these others will tell you they are not interested in participating in most activities. They want to be left alone to pursue their own interests perhaps with their own circle of friends.
Strange as it seems, when the Social club formed at LVH the folks that created it thought that everyone would want to be a member and therefore made it a club tenet that every resident was automatically a member whether they wanted to be or not.
The result of that action we have watched for 9 years now and feel justified in telling you in our opinion it does not work. We think the framers of club tenets made a mistake in their generosity extending membership to the entire community without telling them that there would be rules for participation and helping with functions of the club.
What we see now and over the past 9 years and I’ll bet back to the beginning of this club is a few stepping forward to do all the work for functions while a great many take the fruits of their labors in much the same way as Henny Penny’s bread. In fact many have come to the idea that they are owed this as a result of their membership. It is frankly, amazing that those few put up with this situation.
The Social Club is a lot of work. The activities that everyone likes have the same volunteers working in the background over and over until they become burnt out. The amazing thing is that there are always a few that step in and keep the club stumbling along from year to year. The takers continue to grow in direct proportion to how free an event is. In fact they may even bemoan the club making a profit to help support its treasury if you can believe that.
I was brought up to believe that there is no such thing as a free lunch but here at Longview Hills the Social Club provides it again and again to people who do absolutely nothing but show up. A pretty good deal if you can get it.
What would we do if we could change the way things are? Everyone that wants to be a member would be told that they must volunteer when called upon and serve the needs of the club (of course excuses would be allowed). Dues would be assessed. A club has no value if you do not invest in its welfare. All members would be up for nomination to leadership rolls and if nominated must serve a term at least once in their time of membership. The tenet that every resident is automatically a member of the club would be withdrawn and all would be given the opportunity to join under the new rules. Those that don’t join would not be excluded from activities but would be charged a fair fee to participate which would generate a profit for the Social Club treasury. We like the idea that our Fisherman’s club has about offering Associate Membership to non-residents wanting to have fun and think that would add diversity to our club.
I would move that these changes be made on the floor of the next Social Club meeting and that they be seconded and adopted.
What is your opinion...? Discuss it in the comments..
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