adversary, opposition, exclusion, hatred and love, this is australia… by david jarvis

Imagine that we have two parties. Party one is a genuine person wanting to grow their sport. Party two is a genuine and rich person. Party two has worked hard for their money, position and status and they feel justified in protecting their wealth and status, indeed they want even more wealth, status and power, just like party one somewhat does too.

Along comes party one, with a genuine interest in getting something done. They love their sport and want to grow their sport. In their heart they actually just want fair pay for fair time spent and to give their clients a fair deal.
Party two has most of the power in their sport and they are disinclined to share their power and wealth, so they just ignore party one. Party two feels justified, after all, who is this party one to be so enthusiastic about their sport, and claiming they need help straight away, they should do it all themselves. That is what Party two feels, that they had to do it all themselves, so party one should have to do it all themselves too!

Party one keeps going, they do all the normal business type stuff, they advertise, they engage with community, they work, work and work some more. They spend money frugally upon the equipment they need for their service provision, they upskill themselves in their knowledge and experience.

And that does work for party one somewhat, but somethings or someones is getting in the way, or the community doesn’t like them, or doesn’t want the growth of that sport, or party one just isn’t very effective. Party one discovers they are in hardship. So they say.

Hey party two, I really need help please, can you help me?

Party two goes, nope, we aren’t even obliged to help you because such n such. (fundamentally party two just does not care particularly much about party one). Party one is outside of the walled zone of the boys club that exists in that particular industry/field.
Party one points out that party two has the means to help and its constitution expresses it should help the wider sporting community. Party one is factual but blunt, party one is super keen and passionate and that is actually right in the face of party two.

Party two remains uncaring and ambivalent. Party two does not trust party one and never did! Party two wants to protect their established interests, maximise their service provision towards their existing client base whilst minimising costs everywhere else.

Party two continues to ignore party one, not even returning phone calls, non replying to emails, and misinforms party one about party twos constitutional requirements. Maybe party two does the old “we have a massive project on elsewhere and thus cannot assist you at this time. maybe later.”
Mean while party one continues working, but discovers that their resources are thin and getting thinner. Party one has plenty of time and motivation, but no one else is helping substaintly, i.e. the offered help is trivially tiny or actually just creates even more costly obstructions. Party one is going broke literally, not manufacturing that outcome, but actually going financially broke, eventually they’re losing motivation and the community around them are seeing that happen.

Party one = Hi, I really need help, please can anyone help me? I’ve put in hoards of effort, Ive made some headway, but have run up against some obstructive attitudes and everything has stalled. What can I do please?

Party two, continues to ignore party one.
Party one, hey, really, things totally suck here, I am struggling, I can’t pay the bills, my advertising is being removed or I can’t even get advertising up at all!
Party two, silence.
Party one, look I am making a complaint about party two, your own documents say that you’re supposed to be helping stakeholders in our sport widely, and engaging with them, but no matter what I do, you won’t even meet with me and work together.
Party two, I am not required to even notice you, not required to answer your calls, not required to reply email. You have been too enthusiastic, you’ve asked me questions I do not want to answer. I am not available for the foreseeable future.

Party one, yes you are required to reply to me, that is in your own expressions of constitutional requirements.
Party two, fascinating, perhaps you should read these other documents about the really cool stuff we are doing over there!
Party one, hey they are really cool things you’re doing, but none of them help me right now, and your existing documents reveal that you are supposed to engage with the wider community and be inclusive, transparent and caring with all stakeholders in our great sport.
silence… birds chirping.

Party one, I raise a complaint about party two, party two aren’t meeting their own documented and advertised standards, please work with me.
Party two, silence. (i do not even acknowledge your complaints, party one are clearly manufacturing this situation in an effort to dictate terms to me and thus force or coerce me to provide a service which we are disinclined to provide at this time.) We have lots of friends, cough, we have lots of other stakeholders in the industry and are assisting them at this time and thus cannot assist yourself.

Party one, fair crack, i tried to engage with you right from the beginning and I have been obstructed for over a dozen years, by other parties, and now you are doing it too!
Party two, nah mate, i wasn’t even employed in this role a dozen years ago, that’s not my issue. I just don’t like you, go away, you have too much energy and passion and I am ashamed that you are more passionate than myself, and secretly glad that you are failing. So I am really happy that your failure is now nice and public. I maybe, might, if so inclined, swoop in at some time, when you are totally broke and then I will give the dog, that you are, a bone and then maybe, just maybe you will have learned your place and that we are the top dog in the whole country and you have to obey everything we say, or risk not even getting a bone from us.

Party one, look, i didn’t create this situation. I engaged with yourself at every stage, meet all your requirements, worked both with party two and the local community here and within the existing schemes, please help us out, I love our sport lets move forward.
Party 2, we have other things going on right now, I don’t have the time to meet with you. I am glad you love our sport, you should keep loving our sport and keep working without our help (or here is some tiny little bit of help from our very stretched resources)

Party 1. You are required to engage with the wider community, that is in your own published documents.
silence, birds chirping.

the dog eat dog world of the adversarial system which industry, business and sport has created, the uncaring attitude of people who want their stuff for as cheap as possible and are quite content to let other people do all the work, whilst themselves reap the benefits at some later date.

It is called, oversight and government. I know the business tactic is simply this, make the client pay for all the costs or you will go broke, that is just normal business strategy, a fact of life.

Just like if you want to pay your employee $30, then you’ll need to make them provide $60 of revenue or the owner of the business gets not particularly much.

So that is why the volunteer industry uses volunteers, because that industry doesn’t have to pay the volunteers!

So that’s what brands and value adding does, it facilitates the “clients” falling in love with the brand, and then just uses them for wealth creation. Standard business strategy.

Some businesses actually care enough to set fair profit margins, others simply want to totally maximise profit but make it look like they aren’t just all about profit – because looking like one is all about profit, is not good for profit. Others of course go bust, and of course other stuff happens to, like those whom manage to provide a quality service at a fair price/profit and thus develop longevity and good will reputation.

If “we” give the dog a bone, they will guard the yard the bone is in for a lifetime.

Some hold that, just don’t over feed the dog, or they’ll get lazy and disinclined to guard the trivial bone we gave them.

the volunteer industry is fundamentally about using people to the fullest most maximal capacity to maximise the wages of the staff employed by the “non-profit” organisation. That is known, that non for profit organisations actually pay even higher wages than more normal businesses and industry.

After all volunteers cost sweet naff all, which leaves even more money for the employed staff.