Oh, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!
Some of us really need to get a reality check here --- put some things into perspective.
Folks, this is a VACUUM CLEANER COLLECTORS CLUB.
It's not a convocation of international business people making billions of dollars in commerce or the stock exchange, nor is it an above-top-secret fraternal order where all sorts of mad conspiracies and plots are being hatched to take over the world, nor is it a high-level think tank that sets agendas and trends for the entire civilized world.
It's just a few nuts who love vacuum cleaners old and new.
Yet to hear the way some collectors are interacting with their fellow collectors, making federal issues over the tiniest, pettiest, most small-minded grudges and grievances, endlessly beating the same dead horses over and over and over again (egged on, no doubt, by people behind the scenes), you'd think this WAS some kind of global power we're involved with here.
"I won't join as long as so-and-so is in charge."
"I think this place is being run by Nazis."
"I think people are planning to run off with the Club Treasury."
"I don't like the way the Web Site is being run."
"I don't like the Newsletters."
"I don't like the conventions."
Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, BITCH!
And it's funny how the same people who are always BITCHING about the things they don't like about the Club, or the officers, or the Web Site, or the Newsletter, are unwilling to step up to the plate to make things better. All they want to do is sit around on the sidelines and complain.
And I, personally, for what it's worth, am really tired of all this bickering, of people turning every contrary opinion into a quarrel worthy of another world war.
E N O U G H ! ! !
And those who weren't around to see what the Club was like in the past really do need to stop pissing and moaning about the way things are now. Because they don't really know what they are talking about. They were not there in the past and are in some cases getting some very biased revisions of Club History.
You want to know what the club was like? Ask the REAL founding members -- not people who came along later and are now CLAIMING to be founding members.
Yes, in the Club's earliest days, when there were a dozen members, things were a lot different.
There was no treasury because the club co-founders paid for everything out of their own pockets, or just "passed the hat" occasionally for expenses.
There was a very, very rudimentary newsletter that reflected the technology and skill level available at the time.
There was no web site.
And there also were not a couple hundred members to manage, none of whom can ever seem to get along with each other in a mature and grown-up manner. There's always a couple of disgruntled malcontents hiding in the wings and stirring up trouble.
If any of you had ANY idea of just what a thankless job it is to fulfill ANY of the Club's official functions, you'd shut your mouths about the horrible job you think people are doing.
You really just have NO idea the kind of B.S. that goes on that most people never are aware of.
NO IDEA.
But back to the early days of the Club ... If you wanna talk about when things first started to go downhill, well, how's THIS tidbit to chew on (for just one of many):
The Club's original co-founders' policy was not to allow vacuum shop owners or dealers into the club, and they had a number of good reasons for that policy. Once that policy was vetoed and people from "the business" entered the picture, the Club became a completely different thing.
I am not going to go into a lot of details by rehashing history again; I just want to make a point -- in a very general way -- that the Club has ALWAYS had problems of one sort or another, and the problems we are having now are NOT because we have some kind of power-mad dictators in office.
(Nor, for that matter, is it because we now allow people from the business in the club -- I was just trying to make a point that that was one of the first major shifts in the demographics of the Club, and a change that did not come without more than a few bumps and bruises. Including more than a few bruised egos.)
The problems we are having now are occurring mainly because people are sitting around talking a lot of s#!t about those who ARE active in the Club, who ARE taking office, who ARE running the Web Site, who ARE putting out the Newsletter, and who ARE minding the Club's finances.
(And on that last note, I can assure all of you that none of the Board members or elected officials are dipping their fingers in the club's cash register. Just how much, really, do you think there IS in the Club Treasury, anyway??? ***GET-REAL.***)
Can I please remind everyone again: This is a club of a bunch of eccentric, colorful, yet everyday people who collect vacuum cleaners. There are no world leaders here or international finance brokers or global trendsetters.
That's all.
This thing should be fun. Casual. Friendly. And people should be able to express their opinions about different machines and what-not without other people dissing and insulting them and then going off on wild rants when things aren't going their way in terms of how the Club's various functions are attended to. To the extent that they have to be shown the door because their comments and actions get so out of hand. Over VACUUM CLEANERS.
Come on, folks.
Get a grip.
Please.
It's not all that.
Can't we all just get along???????
