Thursday, January 15, 2009

The Frustration of Being Akela

Sometimes I feel like I don't get paid enough for this. We are taking the cubs away for a week to cubjam, a jamboree organised especially for cubs. It's not cheap but we organised a payment schedule for parents that allows us to pay the money to theorganisers and sort out our own transport and food etc. So far so good.

But there are parents that don't produce the cheque when you ask them to, so you phone them. And then find that it wasn't just being forgetful (these things happen, I've lost count of the number of bills I've paid late) but deliberate. One lot of parents was worried about her child being away the full week. Did she pick up the phone and ask the questions she was worried about in advance so that we could get the cheques paid in and cleared? No. She waited for me to harrass her and would presumably have still been doing so had I not called.

Similarly the other one may actually be on holiday and are still trying to decide what to do. Did they phone me to find out when I had to know and get some idea of what the deal was? No, they wait for me to chase them again before them tell me.

How many more times do I have to say this? When will people get the message? I am doing this for their kids, I am a volunteer, I do this for the love of it in my own time. I don't ask for anything other than a little bit of support now and then. Is asking parents to pick up the bloody phone now and then really too fucking much to ask?

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