Thoughts from the shower...

This is the blog post that caused all the commotion. The only changes are the names are now only initials, the addition to the history of the August show, and I deleted the last sentence that said I would be the treasurer next year. - - - - -

Because of recent events on the email system I was reminded of many things.

First, I have been a member of this club for many years without incident. I was elected to the board about the time of the first term Anne O'Reilly was president. During this time we began to have trouble with our August Show. The first I remember Ron Scott also chaired this show. Do to internal commotion and Ron's desire to not do that show we selected another chair for the show. T.R. was chosen and began several years in that role.

As time went on our location became difficult to retain. Finally Hershey refused to let us rent the space which was the old Hershey Airport. We had to scramble to find another location. (Oops! I forgot that we had one year that we held a show on our date up the river with the Mid Susquehanna Valley KC before we went to the winter show described next.) It did not happen so we agreed, by the suggestion of T.R., to hold a show in Gettysburg the first weekend of December. As the plans moved forward for that show, and we got monthly reports on what was being planned, it did not sound like our usual style of show. At one meeting, I asked Tom "what's in it for us?" This was when we were told that we could not have a judges' dinner. Subsequent to my question Tom resigned the job and we had to take over about 6 weeks before the show. Barbara Casey and I became joint chairs and we began with no knowledge of what had or had not been done. A show happened. Chambersburg held a show the day before at the same location. We about broke even financially and decided that there was no future for the time of year and location to grow the event so we gave up that date.
This was the first time I made enemies by asking a question.

As the show chair, I asked the other club's chair many questions. This did not go over very well and resulted in a very nasty confrontation the day of our show. This was the start of a second adversarial relationship, this time with F.C.. This is the second enemy that resulted from questions.

Most recently, I have felt that I needed to ask questions of L.S. and B.B. about the April 2010 show and found that I was afoul of both of them. As president of the club I feel it is my responsibility to try to keep everything on an even keel.

The first question that went astray was when in the January meeting I asked why we had not signed a vet practice for our April Show. I asked the question because I had been asked by Susie who had been asked by the vet why he had not been contacted. He needed to work out his schedule. In the past he had been contacted by then.

When I asked that question in the January board meeting the only person who answered anything was B.B. who said that the practice that his wife works for was interested in sponsoring our show but that they did not have any funds in the budget for that sponsorship. At least that is what I heard, and several others in attendance also heard. We went ahead to direct the show chair to contact the practice that we have used in the past and contract with them.

After this event I was told by L.S. and B.B. that that was a decision that the showchairman should have made without any outside interference from the club.

The second question was in the context of email. I asked about advertising. This and the fact I sent my response to the board caused another explosion.

This is the third time a question caused an enemy.