Jaded
Posted: May 16th, 2018, 11:54 pm
Hi. Spent a hard day's work on a building site (electrical first-fixing) then hurried home to get changed for the AGM of my volleyball club. (I'm the treasurer and also the coach of a session of volleyball open to all-comers on Thursday evenings.)
I managed to get there ten minutes early. Forty minutes later no-one else had turned up. We always hold our meetings in the sports centre in Tonbridge. I message the chairman three times, at ten past the hour, 15 past the hour and then at half past the hour. I am fairly, er, frustrated. I had checked earlier that I had the right day and the right time. I was so fed up I went home.
Turns out that on the email invite there was a hyphen at the end of the title mentioning the name of a pub, and that was where it was being held at. With the exception of once many years when we held it in a field(!) we have always held it at this same place.
Once home got an explanatory text saying that it was clear on the email (I dispute this) and that I hadn't bothered to phone anyone. This is true, I was so fed up of sitting there and not getting responses to text messages that I was not in the mood to phone anyone, besides by the time I even considered it I was already mightily late to the party. Hate being late.
There is a Whatsapp group called "volleyballers" that includes all and sundry at the club (but not me) on which most matters are chit-chatted about. I found this out from other club members. The character that is empowered to invite people has a disliking for me. This I believe is because I once reminded the ladies team not to lock the locker key inside the locker because otherwise two days later 25 people are standing there and can't play volleyball. She doesn't take criticism well. Anyway, because of this I'm permanently outside the loop despite being fairly active in the club (I do most of the refereeing for the club in the Kent league too).
Now this is on the back of having my first ever complaint in years regarding my volleyball session. I divide our session into two one hour parts: one hour for the relatively uninitiated and one hour afterwards for those that want to play fast, hard-hitting games. We encourage the new players to attend for the first hour until invited to stay for the second (which I do when I feel they would not disrupt the game too much).
Now this lady insisted week after week that she be allowed to play for the full two hours. She is not ready for it. She lets the ball drop at her feet rather than move one meter to try and keep it up and she keeps punching the ball with her fist, which results in the ball flying off in a random direction (often downwards). So she would be a complete disruption to the flow of the games for which the majority of participants have paid. I have tried every week to explain this when she has resumed her complaint. Other people as well as me have tried to suggest she stop punching the ball but she refuses to even try to improve her technique. Tragically she has a daughter (about 10 or 11 years old) that has improved in these few weeks to the point where she would be welcome to stay.
Anyway this lady has made a complaint and the manager of the sports centre, who wishes I imagine to be seen to be doing something, phones me up at work and lectures me for half an hour about how I must allow everyone to play for the full two hours if they want to. We've been doing this for at least a couple of decades now and have tried all sorts of strategies. It also depends upon who turns up on the day. Sometimes if the balance is tipped in favour of newer players I just let them play for the two hours, but usually we get enough players that want fast exciting games to make this unworkable.
So, in short, I am feeling fairly jaded with it all. I am reluctant to call it a day because most of the participants and many team players, coaches, and referees, with whom I have dealings form my social circle. On the other hand I really can't be doing with having a manager at the sports centre determining how I run my volleyball sessions just because of one complaint (in decades as far as I know). No-one is irreplaceable, only I can't see anyone at the club giving up every Thursday evening on a voluntary basis. It is difficult enough finding cover for a single Thursday if I'm away. I don't really want to disappoint the people that come week after week.
So what do I do? Do I stay or do I go?
Regards,
Chris
I managed to get there ten minutes early. Forty minutes later no-one else had turned up. We always hold our meetings in the sports centre in Tonbridge. I message the chairman three times, at ten past the hour, 15 past the hour and then at half past the hour. I am fairly, er, frustrated. I had checked earlier that I had the right day and the right time. I was so fed up I went home.
Turns out that on the email invite there was a hyphen at the end of the title mentioning the name of a pub, and that was where it was being held at. With the exception of once many years when we held it in a field(!) we have always held it at this same place.
Once home got an explanatory text saying that it was clear on the email (I dispute this) and that I hadn't bothered to phone anyone. This is true, I was so fed up of sitting there and not getting responses to text messages that I was not in the mood to phone anyone, besides by the time I even considered it I was already mightily late to the party. Hate being late.
There is a Whatsapp group called "volleyballers" that includes all and sundry at the club (but not me) on which most matters are chit-chatted about. I found this out from other club members. The character that is empowered to invite people has a disliking for me. This I believe is because I once reminded the ladies team not to lock the locker key inside the locker because otherwise two days later 25 people are standing there and can't play volleyball. She doesn't take criticism well. Anyway, because of this I'm permanently outside the loop despite being fairly active in the club (I do most of the refereeing for the club in the Kent league too).
Now this is on the back of having my first ever complaint in years regarding my volleyball session. I divide our session into two one hour parts: one hour for the relatively uninitiated and one hour afterwards for those that want to play fast, hard-hitting games. We encourage the new players to attend for the first hour until invited to stay for the second (which I do when I feel they would not disrupt the game too much).
Now this lady insisted week after week that she be allowed to play for the full two hours. She is not ready for it. She lets the ball drop at her feet rather than move one meter to try and keep it up and she keeps punching the ball with her fist, which results in the ball flying off in a random direction (often downwards). So she would be a complete disruption to the flow of the games for which the majority of participants have paid. I have tried every week to explain this when she has resumed her complaint. Other people as well as me have tried to suggest she stop punching the ball but she refuses to even try to improve her technique. Tragically she has a daughter (about 10 or 11 years old) that has improved in these few weeks to the point where she would be welcome to stay.
Anyway this lady has made a complaint and the manager of the sports centre, who wishes I imagine to be seen to be doing something, phones me up at work and lectures me for half an hour about how I must allow everyone to play for the full two hours if they want to. We've been doing this for at least a couple of decades now and have tried all sorts of strategies. It also depends upon who turns up on the day. Sometimes if the balance is tipped in favour of newer players I just let them play for the two hours, but usually we get enough players that want fast exciting games to make this unworkable.
So, in short, I am feeling fairly jaded with it all. I am reluctant to call it a day because most of the participants and many team players, coaches, and referees, with whom I have dealings form my social circle. On the other hand I really can't be doing with having a manager at the sports centre determining how I run my volleyball sessions just because of one complaint (in decades as far as I know). No-one is irreplaceable, only I can't see anyone at the club giving up every Thursday evening on a voluntary basis. It is difficult enough finding cover for a single Thursday if I'm away. I don't really want to disappoint the people that come week after week.
So what do I do? Do I stay or do I go?
Regards,
Chris