Last Friday was the allotment association annual general meeting. To my great surprise I was asked to be on the committee. This involves helping out in the allotment shed/shop once a month, so I am told. In my experience of joining committees it will involve much more than that but they never tell you until they've got you hooked.Our committee are a smashing bunch of people - friendly, helpful, experienced and hard-working. I have often heard the stories of how they saved our site from a Tesco land-grab by their heroic efforts. But they sometimes come across as a little bit set in their ways. Requests for changes are often met with "We've always done it this way" or some similar refusal. But just to prove this impression wrong they appointed six new committee members on Friday, four of whom are young women so they're obviously not as averse to the possibility of change as they appear.
I'm looking forwards to being more involved in the running of the allotments. Whilst it's tempting to produce a whole shopping list of changes I'd like to see, I think it would be much wiser to put the list in my back pocket, roll up my sleeves and get stuck in with helping out and learning the ropes first of all.
2 comments:
Hmm, was your allotment committee mainly made up of old blokes?
The reason I ask is that a friend of mine in London has an allotment and was asked to join the committee.
She was surprised and pleased, so said yes.
Some months later, one of the old boys took her to one side and said, "You know why we took you and the other girl on the committee?"
"We're all a bit long in the tooth so we needed some youngsters who'd get stuck in but most young fellas these day are lazy. Career girls like you put in the hard work.
He paused.
"Plus we prefer looking at young ladies..."
Canny old codgers!
Yep, canny old blokes just about sums it up.
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