Sent:
The Club Has always Previously welcomed Children as members but insisted that they have a parent or guardian with them.
Hi Goeff,
as i was a member of this club at age 12, i am biased! I was allways made welcome at that age and not thrown out untill at the age of 22 i did a thing for which i could not be forgiven.... I aquired a B LICENSE (I still have it)!!!!!
Despite this i feel compelled to offer the same oppertunity to others that was offered to me, and if i don't i will feel a fraud!
I feel that this will have to be put to the membership, and if they decide then i will stand by them. If they decide that youth are not welcome I will feel that they have changed the spirit of the club, but that is their right!
I hope i do not offend too many people with this attitude, this is not something i am doing to annoy people ( i save that for Ian Hope & Terry), it is just that i wil allways feel that you should do unto others as you would expect them to do to you (unless they are bankers, Planning Officers or MPs).
Enough ranting, over to the membership!
Trevor
G6ALJ (B License, upgraded without consultation).
Thoughts as a member not Chairman. 03/04/12 09:32 PM
To: Trevor Collins, hvicary@..., Keith Anderson
Subject: Minimum age for club membership.
Dear Trevor, Howard and Keith,
Following on from what Trevor mentioned last week about allowing a 6 & 12-year old into the club, we need a decision about this quite quickly. I am uncertain if we have a minimum age in our constitution, in which case this will be self-evident, but if not then we need to sort this out now.
Personally speaking, given today's difficult situation regarding child-protection, and bearing in mind that apart from Helen, Ian's XYL (of sorts), we are a bunch of mainly retired-elderly grumpy old men, and I think it will be dangerous to allow kids of that age into the hut. Not only that, but many of the members might stop coming if the hut becomes a child-minders every Friday night; we are not the Cubs or the Scouts, and I feel we should stipulate a minimum age of 16. If we can't reach agreement, then we should ask the members – I think they would not want children around any more than I do.
I have enhanced CRB disclosure for my church duties, but I try not to get involved with youngsters of that age unless I really need to, and even then I make sure I'm never alone; we live in different times to our past, and I think it's hassle we could do without. The MARTS do take 16 year-olds, but they insist they always have one of their parents with them, and we must do the same for the sake of everyone at the club.
Can you reply ASAP please; we need agreement on this before they suddenly turn up one evening. Keith DRM said he thought that 6 was far too young for many reasons, but we could possibly accept the 12 year-old if we felt happy as a group, but ideally they should be a little older.
73
Geoff
