LACK OF UNITY IN MOTORIZED ENTHUSIASTS
Why Are We Not Good Followers?
By Del Albright
Why
would you expect a person like me (four wheeler, dune buggier, old dirt biker, wanna-be snowmobiler) who is living the American Dream of Freedom of Expression to be a
good follower? Why should I not be completely skeptical? Why is it we have such a hard time following another volunteer?
Here is what I have found that hinders us from
being good followers.
Well
first off, we are pretty territorial. Turf battles are not uncommon in the
OHV world. Membership struggles are a constant reminder that we want to
hang onto our own; no matter what and no matter how ineffective we or our group might be.
Secondly,
we’re self-serving sometimes. We want our own kingdoms (and trails and
freedoms). We certainly, again, do not want to lose our memberships to
other groups or organizations. I experienced this first hand when I
helped start NAMRC.
All NAMRC does is coordinate, facilitate, and find common solutions to common
problems. But it took several YEARS to even have the first meeting.
I, personally, had to take one public bashing at an annual convention that I will never forget over starting NAMRC. People get pretty possessive about the
sport and organization they love.
Third,
we have learned in today’s society to distrust. We do not trust
government. We do not trust the anti-access folks. And many times we
do not trust each other. And if a big national group is not doing
something immediately recognizable for a local group, the distrust surfaces instantly. And distrust certainly does not generate
unity or donations.
Fourth,
we do not have enough money. The anti-access folks have tons of folks working
full time for their cause. Do we? No. Do we even find room in
our budgets to send folks to important meetings? Sometimes; but it is always a struggle. We are not there enough when we need to be. We
do not have enough full time folks working for our cause. Yet, we still
have wins, especially large national groups like the BlueRibbon Coalition and
their legal team:
Fifth,
I have to address personalities. Yes, I am suggesting that we are
susceptible to personality management – managing by personalities. You
joined your local club probably because you liked the people in it. It is
only natural. We like to associate with folks we like. We operate in
clicks. So if a national figure or group does not wrap your winch, you
most likely will not consider him/her a leader for you. (Read more on Do
Personalities Rule Your Recreation?).
It
would be nice if we could get away from personalities, turf, self-serving, and
all the other things that hold us back. We need to hitch our horses to
one lead horse/group, while still maintaining our individual places on the
team. Old timers who refuse get it, or young whipper-snappers who will not follow the rules, need to park their junk and stay off our trails until they DO get it.
The
bottom line is money. At one time, I ran a large volunteer fire
department as part of my other life. Volunteers were hard to come by.
Volunteerism throughout the nation is on the decline. The solution
inevitably seems to be paying volunteers to volunteer.
People have too
many priorities these days and are just too busy to do everything. So we
provide an incentive -–money. It is the way the anti-access "greenies"
operate. It is time for us to do it too.
Yes,
I would rather put more bucks in my rig. Yes, I would love to have a new
RV. But just maybe, it is time for me to kick some more money into groups saving
our trails rather than get that new goodie this year. Heck, if I do not, maybe I will not have a place to use my junk before it is all over?
It is
time to talk as one; to fight as a team; to be good followers; and to have a united front against
those who want us to park our rigs in the garage and leave them there. Freedom
is at stake.
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Del
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