On a lighter note, I had a very good weekend with the 2nd year ETOL students. I've always loved sharing my passions with others, promoting change, and otherwise making a difference. How lucky am I that I get paid to teach people about how to play safe in the snow? Ha!
Everything that happened on the trip was a learning experience, watching people interact, watching people learn, watching people improve their skills, watching people smile, laugh, and grow. Several events are of particular merit.
The first night during beacon practice I found myself put on the spot to remember and regurgitate 15 names in rapid succession, after which we went directly into transceiver practice. As I made my rounds to the different groups, I realized just how much I was able to offer these people, and deliver it in a way that not only makes sense, but is easy to understand.
A reminder that the things we see every day can always be looked at in a different way. A square rotated 45 degrees looks quite different - in fact we call it a diamond. This blog is dedicated to adventure and the life-long learning initiative.
February 8, 2011
Bureaucracy wins this round
Well after a long winded battle with the clubs coordinator and the SA of MRU, it has been deemed inappropriate for the Outdoor Adventure Club to donate money to a cause that the board deems fit. The reason, or so they say, is that it would be an inappropriate use of club money to donate to a non-club event, even though numerous members are involved. It is anyone's guess as to what is really going on here, and if it were in fact a liability concern, then I might be able to understand the blatant nonsensical nature of how the bureaucracy of the Student's Association operates.
If these are student run clubs, with students raising the money, and students doing the work, is it unreasonable to assume that we should have the responsibility to decide how to spend that money? I hate to say this, but as with most matters, the way this club has to be run is limited by the party who controls the monetary resources. Some would claim that the way it is run is for trust and security reasons, and that the purpose of facilitating a club is to gain experience in real world leadership experiences. If that is the case, then what better way to let us learn money management than to let us make some mistakes?
What else are we going to use the money for? Suddenly we are fundraising for nothing, looking for a place to dump the funds that we don't really need. Maybe we could spend a couple hundred dollars on paper decorations? Or get into money laundering, coming up with fake receipts for club supplies that mysteriously add up to the exact amount that we needed? We go on trips, and it is too onerous a task to organize a real club event, so we do it independently and find some other way to pay for it.
Needless to say the group campsite in Red Rocks will not be sponsored by the OAC this year. If there is an ETOL cause that we can donate some money to, please let me know! The only idea I've got is to donate the party earnings to the Peru field school.
If these are student run clubs, with students raising the money, and students doing the work, is it unreasonable to assume that we should have the responsibility to decide how to spend that money? I hate to say this, but as with most matters, the way this club has to be run is limited by the party who controls the monetary resources. Some would claim that the way it is run is for trust and security reasons, and that the purpose of facilitating a club is to gain experience in real world leadership experiences. If that is the case, then what better way to let us learn money management than to let us make some mistakes?
What else are we going to use the money for? Suddenly we are fundraising for nothing, looking for a place to dump the funds that we don't really need. Maybe we could spend a couple hundred dollars on paper decorations? Or get into money laundering, coming up with fake receipts for club supplies that mysteriously add up to the exact amount that we needed? We go on trips, and it is too onerous a task to organize a real club event, so we do it independently and find some other way to pay for it.
Needless to say the group campsite in Red Rocks will not be sponsored by the OAC this year. If there is an ETOL cause that we can donate some money to, please let me know! The only idea I've got is to donate the party earnings to the Peru field school.
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