Today, I removed all my events from the club's event list. This "club" is really a Meetup group. It is controlled, not by a group of elected volunteers or a board of directors, but by one person who is considered the owner of the group by Meetup Corp. All other users of the group are incidental to Meetup Corp, and the realities of the Meetup world in general.
I took the leadership of that group in the fall of 2009. I became the owner for exactly two years, almost to the day. I was a really novice paddler then and knew nothing of club dynamics, politics, or managing groups on the water. That group gave me a tutorial in all of the above, and more. Sometimes it was more than I wanted, more than one person should be volunteering to do. It was rewarding as well.
In October 2011, I handed the ownership and reins of WKC to another person. I had a solid two years of experience and stepped down in to an assistant organizer role. I continued to be one of the chief event hosts and organizers, running roughly 75 events a year.
That's me above, fifth boat from the left. And that's my buddy Deke, on the far left in the floppy hat.
During the last four years inevitable changes have occurred within the "club." Because of the structure of this group there was never any discussion about changes. Over the last two years we have watched as the event list became more and more commercial. More and more outfitters and organizations were allowed access to the event list. As their "events" began to take up more and more space on the list, the actual events run for fun by me and a shrinking handful of other hosts were squeezed further and further down the list. The barrage of paid events run by outfitters and organizations was overwhelming to me. Many of the other event hosts quit posting one by one.
I was approached by a number of paddlers asking me to take the reins of WKC back. They wanted a return to the fun and full list of events that we once had. They wanted the paid advertisers to go away. I was, and am, flattered. I did in fact offer to take the group back but was declined by the current owner.
I am still listed as an assistant organizer. Or, that is, I am still listed today. That could change at any moment should the current owner decide to give me the boot. This is a risk I understood when I set out to take all my events down this morning.
WKC gave me many fond memories. I have in many ways outgrown the group as a paddler but still have much fondness for the paddlers I have met and continue to know. I read somewhere that "in life, we either continue to grow or begin to die." I will continue to grow. I hope WKC does too.
So I'm off to another adventure. I am excited now. In life one needs to make room for change, room for the extraordinary. That is what I did today. I made room for change. It is all good.
I bid my club an adieu or at least, a fond parting and see ya on the water folks!
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