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Reflections From Tahsis SEND TO FACEBOOK

Reflections from Tahsis: In Recognition of Volunteers

[ed. comments below, click photo for larger image.]
posed Feb 28 2010

If anyone has been trying to reach me by phone for the last week, I’m out of range. An hour and a half drive on a logging road northwest from Gold River takes you to a small village called Tahsis, population 200. This was once a thriving mill town even before there was a logging road as ships used to carry the lumber away to overseas destinations. The mill shut down about 10 years ago and the town has been in decline ever since, but the quiet is enveloping. They’re trying to change their economy to a tourist based model now with some hiccups but it’s beautiful here with fishing, hiking, caving and communing with nature. And even though there is no cell phone coverage anywhere near here there is high speed internet thanks to a government grant so the BCRN editor can still keep the website updated... without any cost to the rugby “taxpayer” as it were. No backdoor funds passed from the Canadian Rugby Foundation, no full time iRB funded staff, just volunteer work in action and that brings me to today’s musings.

Much has been said about Canada’s status as a Tier II nation, economically we don’t generate a lot of money from rugby. We tax those who play to support a National Sports Organization (Rugby Canada) and we receive handouts from the iRB, the Canadian government also kicks in money. But one area where Canada is certainly Tier I is in our volunteer community, visitors to Canada’s rugby community have remarked on it, we kick ass when it comes to our volunteers. Most of our readers belong to a local rugby club so I don’t have to tell you the power of volunteers, you can probably recite a dozen names off the top of your head who have been stalwarts at your club giving up family time, vacation time, evenings, weekends all for the good of the sport. And these are competent people with skills that are second to none, this is the lifeblood of rugby in this country.

So when I was lectured by the head man at the CRF for not showing enough appreciation for a fellow full timer at RC I just about blew a gasket. There are thousands of rugby volunteers in this country who toil without recognition, motivated for the good of the game and for the good of the community. These are the people who I respect and admire. The handful of people who make a full time living off rugby in this country should walk modestly showing the community they realize their privileged status, for it is a privilege to be paid while being involved in our great sport. Some of them do but there are a core group that have a sense of arrogant entitlement to their positions and then wonder why there is a disconnect with the volunteer community. I would like to see it a mandatory prerequisite that any full time employee for Rugby Canada or the Canadian Rugby Foundation have at least two years experience working as a volunteer in a senior club position in Canada. I think that would give them a different perspective and perhaps some humility.

So that’s my reflection for the day, perhaps turning into a rant but when I head down that road and it really makes my blood boil. Time to commune with nature and calm down a bit... till next time.

(And Canada defeats USA in Olympic Hockey, does it get any better?)

 
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