A Volunteer's Frustration...
 

So... yesterday I had someone come up to me and unload on me about how unfair it was that we are offering Stumptown members preferred registration for the Slosh event at Blue Lake. He seemed to think that we were trying to make sure only Stumptown members got to play at Blue Lake, and that was not fair to him because he didn't want to join Stumptown. At the same time he took the opportunity to make sure I knew the only reason anyone is playing in our Slosh series is so people can get rated rounds in time for Worlds in 2014, and no one will be signing up for them next year.

I can't even begin to tell you how much this entire exchange pissed me off. Not only because I thought his entire argument was absurd, but also because this was someone that I have repeatedly gone out of my way to help many times over the years. I can't event remember how many times I've paid his entry and let him pay me back. Perhaps, it was this fact that has made this whole ordeal so hard for me simply "Let it go!".

First off, I announced the preferred registration for Stumptown members before we ran a single Slosh event this season, so this should not have been a surprise to anyone who took the time to read the announcement. Also, the disc golf course at Blue Lake Park would not even be there right now if not for Stumptown & Next Adventure. As individuals, we disc golfers do not wield much clout. However, when we band together as a group, like we have with Stumptown, then people start to take us more seriously and we can get things done. Even if you don't want to be involved in a club, just the act of joining will help that club get things done. Intelligent people understand this, so they do join clubs whether they plan to be active in that club or not. They understand that good things will get done in their name... and that is what matters to them.

Now... can someone please tell me why it is unfair that members of the club who helped get Blue Lake in the ground should not have first chance to register... for an event that club is running.... at a park that club helped install? Because I'll be honest, I do not see this as being unfair at all. I see it as a small reward for people who are actually helping us get things done.

Thanks for listening...

Jeff Hagerty
President - Stumptown Disc Golf.

PS: In the event you have not heard this before... Stumptown Disc Golf is a 100% non-profit organization run completely by VOLUNTEERS. Not a single member of this club profits from their hard work. Everything the club does is done altruistically, with the sole goal of helping promote disc golf in the Greater Portland Metro area. If someone tells you otherwise... they are lying. Period.

"Even if you don't want to be involved in a club, just the act of joining will help that club get things done. Intelligent people understand this, so they do join clubs whether they plan to be active in that club or not. They understand that good things will get done in their name... and that is what matters to them." This was my favorite part. I joined Stumptown a couple months ago, prompted by it being easy to join online, my long time admiration of what Stumptown does and has done, and so I could possibly play the Blue Lake tournament.

Disc golf is full of really awesome people. Also, disc golf is full of worthless, ungrateful, unhelpful shit birds who never do anything positive or giving and just take, take take, and complain. Fuck them, fuck the shitbird in this story, and fuck all the finger pointers who whine about all the stuff "the club" doesn't do while taking full advantage of all the club's hard work.

put a bird on that shit and fuck it?

Love Stumptown! Love Blue Lake! Love the Slosh Series!... Love Jeff Hagerty!








Love,
Dan Brown


P.S. Who was it!:chinscratch:

:puke:

Ditto to all of this. You can PM us with said shitbird's name so that shaming may begin around the region.

To clarify, for the uber-sensitive types. I'm kidding.

Except I want to know the name. :)

maybe the guy's a member of another club, and maybe he's misinformed, and maybe he'll see the error of his ways and come around...but I think it'll be harder for him to do so if we all pile on here. and if people really feel the way he implies they do about stumptown (i'm absolutely not sure they do) then they are wrong. but I am sure that it will do no good for us to act like dicks like this guy did.

thanks to the people who are trying to bring the disc golf community around here together. jeff's one of them, and dan brown's one of them and there are a lot more of you out there.

from jeff's story he has every right to not give this guy the time of day anymore. I would probably do the same.

garry

Thanks everyone. I didn't bring this up with the intent of hanging this guy out to dry, so I won't be naming him, nor will I be holding it against him. I really just wanted to make sure everyone knew exactly why I felt what we were doing was FAIR and that we told everyone well ahead of time.

With all of that said, I really think we need to start teaching Chess in school. Clearly Checkers isn't working out for us, since we can't seem to think more than one step ahead these days. ;)

Jeff is entirely on track with his thinking.

Membership is important
membership means something
membership should have privledges (not just could... it should!)

side note: Membership means so much in how you relate to the community.

"Hi, I'm a board member of the non profit disc golf club named Stumptown disc golf"

- "Nice to meet you. So you can speak for them - how big is your membership and how many people do you represent?"

These are almost verbatim the exact questions any official or agency will ask to evaluate how much your input is worth. Who are you, and how many people do you represent?

One of the great ways to enroll membership is in offering benefits to membership besides commodities. Instead of just relying on "become a member and get a [shirt][disc][etc]", the ability to provide a benefit that costs the club nothing is fantastic! I've advocated for members priority registration or.. gosh, I'd even be good with a members only event/drive.

Club run events around the country charge non-members more to play in their events. Its the nature of the game. Clubs set up events that offer something tangible to the players and ask in return that they support the club. That support comes either in membership or non-member funds.

Stumptown has always agreed to keep the SLOSH events the same cost for members and non-members, partly because they are smaller events and because if you are not a PDGA member you have to pay $10 extra dollars on top of the entry. In our case we are offering an early registration for members of the club, sure it costs you money to join the club but there are also benefits to the club. If you can't see past the money that it costs you to join then you are never going to understand things like this. Its your self serving right to complain but rest assured your opinion has little weight with this crowd and complaining and debasing Stumptown to the President, TD of this Series and one of the Directors for the 2014 Worlds Committee is a pretty stupid way of convincing someone to see your way.

Clearly this person does not see the benefit of joining Stumptown and probably will always hold a grudge. However when they are on the outside of the Amazing event Jeff has planned for SLOSH #4 at Blue Lake looking in on the waitlist they surely will realize that even though they see no value to Stumptown the 10 bucks sure would have been worth a chance to compete in the first PDGA event at Blue Lake.

just wondering if you, Jeff , were the "frustrated volunteer" in the thread title
or was the complainer the "frustrated volunteer":
as in, had he volunteered time/effort to Blue lake work party[ies] and was bent about this effort not allowing him to register early vs. paying a $10 membership with no volunteer effort would allow someone else to register early?
this doesn't change the points you go on to make, but may shed some light on where he was coming from/ his thought process
your personal history of helping him out and the jab about who and why folks play the Slosh didn't help his argument
Slosh players with "X" under the 'current PDGA' certainly aren't playing for the rating and i expect next years' Slosh are gonna fill just fine

“Membership has its Privileges!”
 

that’s a pretty effective slogan.

Jeff
It’s too bad some shit stain ruined your day. Why is it always in the morning so you have all day to think about it?

Is the DG a pDGA member? If so throw the ass under the bus.
If not As TD just make current pDGA member first, Current stump 2nd and then fodder last,

I am a firm believer in club only events. There should be other ways to join the club besides payment. Asking the same commitment that you or I give “to volunteer locally…” for the betterment of the sport, locally!” Sweat equity is what I am talking about. Big or small organized work parties benefit all.

With this being said
This does not give any yahoo the right to work on the course without proper supervision and direction is vandalism plain and simple.

Not every DG has the vision for long term goals on course design. In fact more of my experience is getting to clean up someone else’s mess. The Sequoia just in front of #2 SeaTac is a glaring example of some dumb ass who thinks he/she knows better then the 6-8 who have 100’s of hrs given building the course.

Our biggest problem is some players see no worth in the efforts to build and maintain a course. They believe it has always been there or it just fell from the sky one day for their exclusive personal pleasure. Screw the rest of you I am the most important thing. Until we can show how valuable our efforts been/are really worth; the time, effort and expense we few give freely and yes sometimes foolishly. just so some one disc pony can chew me a new one?

I think not
jub

I wasn't going to play the Slosh at Blue Lake. Until I read this.

Now I'll do it just to help make sure the ingrate doesn't get in!

Oh, and this:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ :bowing:

Love DGOD, too!

Genius. :yay:

Jeff I think you and Stumptown have done an outstanding job with all of the courses that you have put in and still are. I love ya Jeff and all you do!!!! Please don't let this one person bring you down and stop your speed forward and the progress you have achieved. Disc Golf Rules!!!!!!!!!:biggrin2:

Well, here are 555 people who it wasn't...

Thanks Tree Love,
Now I know my Stumptown number.

Jeff,
I'm sorry about this event happening to you.
I had a similar issue about the ace pot and memberships three Slosh years ago.
I posted my opinion and got quit a back lash from this very forum.
Stumptown members are very loyal.
I was trying to understand something and was trying to make my point. Again, quit a back lash.
Then, you posted the details of "why".
I said Thank you but I disagree and I did not play the Slosh that season. My choice, my loss.

I may not even attempt to play the Blue Lake Slosh BUT with all that I like about what you do and the things I see Stumptown doing, I decided to join Stumptown when I signed up for the next Slosh.

With your story, I look back and see a little bit in what I did. GOD, I hope I wasn't even close to that F 'n bad.

Sometimes we have our opinions and sometimes we should keep them to ourselves.

Again, sorry for what happen.
Hope you keep the faith in what you are doing because I'm sure that there are more of us that "THANK YOU" than that guy. No more letting him slide.

Sincerely,
Phil

Jeff,
I think you're being too hard on yourself if you're losing sleep over this guy's point of view. I for one couldn't tell you that it's unfair for Stumptown members to get first shot at registration, sounds very reasonable to me. As pdxdiscer mentioned, the guy may have a justified (to him) reason to get his shorts in a twist over having to wait for the 2nd round registration, but until he steps up to TD his own tourney, it's not up to him. He's completely out of line. I get so tired of seeing these stories about guys that seem to feel they're entitled to have everything they want without contributing anything for the cause. They always seem to complain the loudest.
Even up here in Washington, we know how much Stumptown has done to make the DG experience in the PDX area as great as it is. For some reason some people think a genie in a bottle makes courses happen. Actually, I think i'll go to the Stumptown website and send in my $10 for a membership as i've taken advantage many times of the hard work that they've put in, most recently Stub. Thanks for that, guys.

I think any event should be open to anyone, fairly and in a fair venue. I've volunteered my time at more than a course or two...even some that didn't "belong to my club". I have never wanted to subscribe to excluding anyone because they didn't help build it or weren't a member of a club.