It's our attitude that needs to change!
It's our attitude that needs to change!
As for helping, I am not a PRA member, but I have already committed to help at the PRA airventure display or booth this coming year, including helping finance it. (And no, I do not have the time to organize it, seems that's the boards responsibility.)
Scott,
I do not want to come across as I'm picking on you, but I just can't sit here and not respond to your comment above. I think your comments are right in line with many others who seem to all share some general misconceptions that I believe need to change, if we ever expect the PRA to flourish.
I think this attitude of "it's someone else's job to do that" is exactly what causes our organization to struggle. While I certainly agree that anyone running for the Board needs to be willing to serve and work to help our organization, and I have told our Board members they are expected to accept assignments and do work and if they aren't willing to do that, they need to resign from the Board. But even Board members are volunteers. They are not paid to spend 10 or 20 or 30 hours per week, every week, to serve the rest of the organization. They are simply volunteers who have volunteered to give of their time to help support the organization. Some Board Members put in a tremendous amount of time and work into the organization and others do less, but it is not our place to tell them how much they have to donate. We have set minimum standards and expectations as a Board and Board Members will meet that standard or be asked to resign, but above that, it is their prerogative to decide how much more they have to give.
Just like it is not my place to tell you how many days you should be willing to donate and spend at a booth at Oshkosh, (to make your suggested idea work), or how much money you should be willing to donate to help fund that project, it is also not your place to demand how much other volunteers should donate. We all have complete control over what we choose in our lives, but we do not have the right to dictate other people's choices. We are all volunteers, donating our time and money and efforts and right now a small number give an awful lot, and a little larger number give some, but most members give little or nothing.
Now I know the typical response to that is, "well they give dues to the organization and that should be enough". But the facts are many don't even support the organization with dues because they have convinced them self they are voting their disapproval of "whatever" by withholding their dues. They still consider themselves a part of our group and love to get on forum threads and make suggestions or complaints about how they feel the organization is being run, but they aren't even dues paying members. Personally, I find that kind of ironic, but that is a topic for another day. But all of us members (even Board Members) pay dues, and that isn't near enough to make an organization like ours work. It also takes a lot of volunteer hours by people who care enough about our sport and are willing to give more than lip service to helping build it and make it stronger.
If you honestly care about our sport and want it to grow and have an organization that can provide benefits to our group then I suggest you do some soul searching and decide just what you (personally) can do about it. Making suggestions about what everyone else should be doing honestly has very little value. It is only when people stand up and do something that anything changes. If I had sat around and waited for someone else to form a PRA chapter here in UT. so I could have some resources that could help me and provide benefits to me, to help me get started in this sport, I would still be sitting around with no help in sight. Instead, I got to work and formed a chapter (PRA CHapter 2) and today I am not alone, we have a great group and others do a lot to support one another, but I had to get it started. That seems to be the way this whole process works.
It's time we quit saying, "what has this organization done for me lately?" and start deciding "what do I have to offer the organization and others that share my same interests?"
I believe its our attitude that needs to change if we really want to turn this organization around. We have some very successful Local Chapters that have been able to develop this kind of an attitude (for their local chapter) but for some reason, they seem to feel they are a separate entity from the National organization. They seem to have an "us against them" kind of attitude, where they say "What is PRA doing to support our local chapter?" Instead they should be thinking, "how can our strong local chapter support and help the National organization so there can be more strong local chapters like ours?" Our thoughts have got to get away from this inward focus, and become more centered on serving others, if we really want to make a difference.
Some have caught that vision, and as President of the organization, I get to see many people who have that kind of attitude, but to be honest with you, there simply aren't enough of these kind of folks to build the kind of organization that many people seem to expect us to be. We are making great strides with what we have. The organization has turned and is going in a positive direction (slowly). If you want to see that pace pick up, then decide to get more involved. Join the organization and pay dues and then decide to give even more. That's what many of us are doing now and we invite you to join us. Together we can make a difference.
Doug Barker
PRA Pres.