How Locally Involved Are You?

[nyacfencing]

How involved are you with your local division and/or section?

[KD5MDK]

I'd like to express my amusement that the near majority of answers (7/16) so far are that the respondent is an officer of their divison or section.

[keith]

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

I'd like to express my amusement that the near majority of answers (7/16) so far are that the respondent is an officer of their divison or section.

The nature of fnet and the fact the poll is public would be expected to skew the result that way.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!


The poll is errr... not optimally worded. It is perfectly possible for a respondent to be able to truthfully answer yes to more than one of the alternatives. Furthermore, there is no specific alternative for "I am somewhat aware of local affairs"


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[wbowman]

Originally Posted by PeterGustafsson

Hi!


It is perfectly possible for a respondent to be able to truthfully answer yes to more than one of the alternatives.

That was the problem I had with it.

[HDG]

I can think of several people who could choose both the 1st and last options...

[tbryan]

I would probably have very little involvement or understanding of my division's affairs, but one of my teammates has been on the division board for the last 3 years.

Of course, now that I know more, I have even less of a desire to be involved more.

[FoilBlender]

Someone tells me that there's a tournament I can fence in -- I go fence
I think that's about it :P

[nyacfencing]

Originally Posted by PeterGustafsson

The poll is errr... not optimally worded. It is perfectly possible for a respondent to be able to truthfully answer yes to more than one of the alternatives. Furthermore, there is no specific alternative for "I am somewhat aware of local affairs"

That would only make sense if I wanted a count of people involved in each activity, and not if I wanted a distribution of how involved this community is as a whole.

Plus... even though more than one answer might apply... it is clearly a scale of involvement and I think each person will know which option best applies to them.

[HDG]

Originally Posted by nyacfencing

That would only make sense if I wanted a count of people involved in each activity, and not if I wanted a distribution of how involved this community is as a whole.

Plus... even though more than one answer might apply... it is clearly a scale of involvement and I think each person will know which option best applies to them.

In fairness, I answered only for my division; my section answer would have been completely different.

[needle]

I'm in the "I have very little involvement" bucket, when I really would like to be in "keep up to date" or even "regularly attend" bucket. The problem is that our division/section website (in my personal opinion) is very uninformative, and often extremely out of date.
For example, division website talked in future tense about qualifiers for about three weeks after they happened. It's kind of hard to be involved, if you don't know when and how much you can rely on timely information.

[pacer]

I became involved as an officer of my division primarily for two reasons : 1) to find out what was happening and 2) because no one else was going to run for the office.

I have definitely learned what is going on. I've told my husband the next time I consider running for such an office that he is to grab either Stratego or Diplomacy and have me play a game. Most people are great to work with, but inject the politics of club finances or rivalries - and it can become a real learning experience. Other than that, it has been a great way to meet a lot of good people!

The first year I was in office, it cut way into my fencing time. The second year - a motor scooter accident took away most of the season. So I won't run again (for at least a few years ) I think I'll just fence.

[edew]

Originally Posted by HDG

I can think of several people who could choose both the 1st and last options...

Oh yeah....

[edew]

Originally Posted by pacer

I became involved as an officer of my division primarily for two reasons : 1) to find out what was happening and 2) because no one else was going to run for the office.

I have definitely learned what is going on. I've told my husband the next time I consider running for such an office that he is to grab either Stratego or Diplomacy and have me play a game. Most people are great to work with, but inject the politics of club finances or rivalries - and it can become a real learning experience. Other than that, it has been a great way to meet a lot of good people!

The first year I was in office, it cut way into my fencing time. The second year - a motor scooter accident took away most of the season. So I won't run again (for at least a few years ) I think I'll just fence.

Not only should you not run, you shouldn't ride a motor scooter either!

[pacer]

Don't worry I won't!
Actually I should be watching out for "right wingers" ( ie, drivers in the right lane) who want to secretly change sides (turn left without signalling). This MOR'er ( actually riding in the left lane) was there first! I ended up with bad bruising, the realization I am not immortal and the discovery I have lousy muscle memory.

I used coming back from the long break to have my coach break my old "bad" habits. Slowly but surely I've developed smaller parries and disengages and seem to "see" fencing differently. By taking it slowly, I've learned I can set my own tempo and not just react.

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by pacer

the realization I am not immortal

You died or otherwise received contra-indicatory evidence?

Information about having survived a bad crash should be an indication of higher odds of your being immortal, no? Didn't you ever see Unbreakable?

-B

[pacer]

I received contra-indicatory evidence - Pain.....

I generally ignore the fact that I am getting older. When I hit my 50th birthday, I told my kids they could buy me presents suitable for someone with the age of the sum the digits of my age. I continue to enjoy that bike, the funny movies, wild sunglasses and silly cards. My estate planning is sadly deficient and I still ignore the AARP membership invites (AAA gives the same travel discounts anyway.)

I haven't seen "Unbreakable" ( i'll put it on my list) and firmly believe the accident could have been bad but fortunately wasn't (for me - the bike was totaled however, which is a whole 'nother' story regarding insurance, dmv, etc.)

I'm all better and my kids say I'm not acting like an ol' lady anymore.
All's well that ends well...

[Elendae]

I used to be on my division's board, but the politics turned much uglier than I was willing to deal with. I'm not competing this year, as I'm still recovering from knee surgery, but I do end up hearing about what's going on.