new england division fence against breast cancer?

[bjacobs]

Having read the explanation of one of the organizers of the event, I think the detractors are off base. The purpose of the tournament isn't to raise money for breast cancer: it's people from a specific club and age group who want to meet their peers and have a fun event. As a nice extra bonus, they decided to donate the proceeds of their event to a charity. What could be wrong with that?

They're under no obligation to hold a larger tournament; if people here feel so strongly about the importance of fencing tournaments that support breast cancer, they should hold some themselves. Or mind their own business.

[parrythis]

Having read the explanation of one of the organizers of the event, I think the detractors are off base. The purpose of the tournament isn't to raise money for breast cancer: it's people from a specific club and age group who want to meet their peers and have a fun event. As a nice extra bonus, they decided to donate the proceeds of their event to a charity. What could be wrong with that?

There is nothing wrong with limiting the scope of an event. As a veteran fencer who occasionally enjoys the opportunity to fence exclusively with other veteran fencers, I certainly understand and agree with that.

There is nothing wrong with donating a portion of the proceeds from an event to charity. It is a great way to raise money and awareness.

The problem is when you put those two together. Doing so sends messages which, even though unintended, are there for those that choose to read between the lines:

- It sends the message that if you are not in the invited segment that your money isn't green enough. (U.S. cliche, where the money has been green for a long time, means your money/participation is unwelcome.)
- It sends the message that if you are not in the invited segment that you don't understand or are not affected by the problem that the charity is for and are therefore somehow unworthy to participate.

People who are excluded from supporting a charity in the same way that others can often feel insulted. Whether they should or should not is not pertinent. They just do.

I have spent a lifetime studying how people communicate and learning that what is communicated "between the lines" is as important as the message itself. You can't blame people for reading into things. It is what we do. It is how we communicate. The thing to do when we announce something is to put the shoe on the other foot - as in read your message as if you were someone else - and see how it might get interpreted.

[academe]

Well...perhaps people should just heed the advice of the poet (I seem to remember it as Frost) when asked about how various people interpreted a simple poem of his that had a duck swimming about on a pond. After lots of interpretations of the duck symbolizing humanity and the pond the vast expanse of time and space, and other equally inane associations, he replied:

"Sometimes, a duck is just a duck."

[Peach]

I don't blame people for reading unintended messages into things, but I do have a "No Whining" poster on my bulletin board at school

[MyrddinsPrecint]

Having read the explanation of one of the organizers of the event, I think the detractors are off base. The purpose of the tournament isn't to raise money for breast cancer: it's people from a specific club and age group who want to meet their peers and have a fun event. As a nice extra bonus, they decided to donate the proceeds of their event to a charity. What could be wrong with that?

If it were marketed as the 30+ Women's Foil event, or the NEFA Adult Women's Foil Circuit, or The Tournament for Jane, or Go Home 15-year-old Boys sabre fencers................ Any of those things would be fine. It's not; it's marketed as "Fence Against Breast Cancer". Since it is called what it's called, I assume--- and maybe I assume incorrectly, but I certainly have a valid basis to assume--- that the fundraiser is the primary thing happening. Apparently not, I guess, but if it really is meant to be an age-limited event for fun with the charity as a "nice extra bonus"..... why is it marketed the way it is?

It's also been more heavily advertised by the division than other tournaments of similar size-- or larger ones. There isn't exactly a link on the front page of the website for the 6 weapon open happening the same weekend, or the C & Under happening the weekend after that. Not bad, just an odd precedent.

When this thread started, I was just vaguely uncomfortable with the fact that the organizers made no easy way for me to involve myself-- Even if there was some text on the same page describing how to sponsor a team, how to get involved with the walk, someone to email to help out with the organization, I would have felt much more comfortable. But really, that was my only uncomfortableness.

But the bit Brad mentioned has made me much more uncomfortable. Someone involved with the event has suggested that the organizer would only agree to involve himself if it were a charity event-- which is fine-- but should it be a division recognized and sponsored event? If every event was a fundraiser for some charity or another, the division wouldn't be able to run things in the way we've become used to....

So what's the precedent? Is it that anyone can do it? One event a year in the division? Two? As long as it's not really big? Who decides these things??


Note: The reason that this division has so little problem is because people (like me) look so carefully at division business. I'm not too worried that the division is going to create a Halfway House for Unwed NeoNazi Meth Addicts, but I am interested in the process.....

[bjacobs]

I stand corrected...several "wrong things" having been pointed out.

[alewive]

I am in the habit of looking not so much to the nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered. -- Robert Louis Stevenson