I Have Been Elected

I have been elected tonight to another two year term as my as Club Secretary. I would savor this victory, if I had actually had someone running against me. Of course, if someone really wanted the job, I’d probably have stepped down and let them run unopposed. I make a poor politician. If only we could get people into political office who viewed public service as a burden rather than a prize, we could probably fix a lot of what’s wrong with this country. I sometimes wonder if we treated service in Congress and State Legislatures much the same way we treat jury duty, if it wouldn’t have better results. I suspect it probably wouldn’t be better, but I’m not convinced it would be worse.

7 thoughts on “I Have Been Elected”

  1. As another “poor politician” who sat in that club seat before you for several terms (and then left it via not seeking guaranteed reelection) all I can say is, the value of it (other than what you may actually do for the club by introducing a note of wisdom or moderation on rare occasions) is that you will be seeing a microcosm of how real politics work.

    However, for what it’s worth: I have it from members who also hold memberships in the other large club in our area, that ours is a model of good management by comparison. So, maybe we can extrapolate something else from our microcosm to the real world.

  2. That’s like me being voted VP of our Homeowner’s Assn. We were on vacation when they voted me upstairs from being Secretary, probably because Secty. actually does stuff (writes things down) and they needed someone to do that at the meeting…

    1. Agreed on the well run.

      Maybe we shouldn’t put too much of the club’s business in the street, but I’ve always (for some perverse reason) been inclined to stand behind what I think, in public — to a point. And maybe this will be analogous to problems at other clubs.

      Almost everybody dislikes the five-round limit, for a variety of reasons, and I recall one promising and enthusiastic young member getting expelled for violating it. But the oldest of the old-timers got tired of dealing with the question years ago, and have set their heels to not deal with it.

      I have suggested to more than one member that the bylaws have provision for a member initiative process, by which a bylaw change can be initiated by obtaining the signatures of ten percent of the membership, then voting on it for ratification at the annual election. I see nothing to prevent a range rule from being placed in the bylaws. If someone cared enough, they could petition for a change in the five-round rule, as a bylaw change. Chances are if they got enough signatures, the board would feel it was better to deal with the problem than have it imposed on them by the membership, and have it fixed in the bylaws for at least a year, beyond their control. If not, next fall’s election would decide the problem.

      Unfortunately I’ve found that the people who do the most grousing about the issue are least inclined to confront it in an aggressive way; which probably explains why it has never changed, by any mechanism.

    1. I’ll second that — for many clubs.

      I looked around our meeting last night, and I think Sebastian may have been the only guy there under 50. Not that there aren’t younger members (though I don’t know the statistics) but the guys who care enough to go to a meeting are mostly well north of 50.

      Of course you can’t argue much when things seem to be working — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — but I have my own concerns for the future, and I know us old guys are happy not having to deal with “change.” Other than our personal pet peeves, we aren’t likely to want to change much.

  3. One term in the US House gets you a lifetime pension that starts immediately (no waiting until 63) and free healthcare for life (again, no waiting until 63, no co-pays). Even without the other perks and benefits, that would be enough for 99% of Americans.

Comments are closed.