When we were kids in the post war years (World War 2 not the Boer War!) we used to play improvised cricket. Improvised because we had no proper equipment, wickets were a flattened old metal dustbin, the ball was 'anything round' we could find and the bat was usually a piece of old fencing which, if we were lucky, had been roughly hewn into a passable shape for a bat by one of the dads. (I mean roughly hewn, I can still feel the splinters.) In later life my ten years captaincy of a West Lancashire League side had much to thank those early years for.
However I digress, back to those early years. One day, one of the gang came along with an actual cricket bat, yes a REAL cricket bat. It had always been difficult to get lads to bowl and field instead of batting but now . . . however, this wonderful new situation slowly began to sour because the boy who owned the bat would not allow any decision (always made by concensus) to go against him without throwing a tantrum and if things did not go his way taking THE BAT home. We certainly learned the meaning of the phrase 'if you give me out LBW I'm taking my bat home'. Of course everybody else soon got fed up of this and the owner of the bat was quickly made to realise that our games of cricket were for all to enjoy not just him.
On reading recent letters/articles in our magazine about rules, who makes them, who follows them, who controls them and who ignores them etc. I have been reminded of the attitude of the lad with the cricket bat, namely if the Fancy doesn't do what I want it to do I'll take my bat home and furthermore blame anybody and everybody else because
(a) I never bothered to read my Rule Book
(b) I never bothered to vote for or against the rules
(c) I don't know where I've put my Rule Book
(d) I can't be bothered to try to change things in the proper way and, most importantl
(e) I couldn't give a monkeys about the rules until I suddenly find out they affect me and not in a way I like!
Oh boy, am I going to take my bat home! This certainly seems to be the 'toys out of the pram' attitude of some fanciers.
When I was Chairman of the NPA I was heavily involved both then, and previously as a committee member, in working with others to re-draft the Constitution and Rules on more than one occasion. I feel I know more than most about the difficulties of putting such a document together. You will never suit everyone - it is impossible. What you do try to achieve is a document which best serves the Fancy in its widest sense.
When the current version (2004 edition) was put together it had two big advantages. Firstly the entire membership had the opportunity to vote for or against the document as individuals and secondly, and crucially in my opinion, it contained a procedure for members to be able to propose changes with such proposals then to be put to a vote of the entire membership. Changes would no longer be the sole prerogative of 'the management'.
Believe me, I, and I bet you, know of organisations where members would give their right arm for this opportunity. (Just ask members of the RPRA for example.) We have this facility and if you are not satisfied with something then take steps to change the rules in the correct way. Better still, put yourself forward for the committee - or is it just easier to take your bat home.
Tony's article along with pictures continues in the May 2009 issue of Feathered World
