Sunday 15 March 2009

Well what was all that about?

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to the BAS AGM.
Well I did go and so did about 160 other people.

I was interested to know what all the fuss was about, it was obvious beforehand that some people, for what ever reason, here not happy about the way the BAS was being run.

I have to say that I was happy with the way it was run, it doesn't really effect us a great deal anyway. We do our own little thing down here, plodding on building a herd, a mighty herd, obviously.

Anyway for the benefit of those who didn't go here is my take on what happened.

It was obvious to me from the start that there were a certain number of BAS members who were intent on having a 'pop' at the board. It also became obvious that there are long standing feuds between certain people. Previous board members, previous chairmen indeed and to be quite honest I found some of their behaviour pretty disgraceful. I don't care about their petty feuds and I don't want to know about them. Apparently the central England group don't go to the futurity because they don't like someone who is involved in it. For crying out loud these people need to grow up. They are pathetic. Talk about being childish. It did not reflect well on them and it did not reflect well on the BAS.

I did feel sympathy for Graham McHarg, our leader and a decent man, who looked as if he was expecting a snipers bullet at any moment. I guess the board were expecting some attacks. The board in fact came out of the meeting, in my eyes, with a great deal of dignity and did not resort to the infantile tactics of some of the BAS members. What is wrong with these people? Have they nothing else to do?

Another thing that struck me from the members is that some people want to be spoon fed alpacas. It's as if they want to be led around by their own personal board member and shown how to make a go of being in the alpaca business, or industry or whatever you want to call it.

For goodness sakes what is wrong with using your loaf, getting off you arse and using some initiative? We want this and we want that and we want help with this and that. What is wrong with these people?

Look for instance at Paul and Debbie at Barnacre, they will be on Countryfile later today with their alpacas.
Did they ask the board to get them on the television? I don't thnk so. Did they whinge and whine until someone gave them the TV crew on a plate? No of course they didn't they used some good old initiative and sorted it out for themselves and good for them. If everyone used a bit of initiative and made things happen we would all benefit.

I didn't hang around for the result of the voting and to be honest I was a little bored by 3 O'clock. There was a long drive home, rugby to listen to, alpacas to tend to, and food and drink to look forward to.

I don't know if I will ever go to another AGM but I seriously doubt it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you! I wondered what was going on - it all sounded very unprofessional to me! Glad I didn't go.

Zanzibah Alpacas said...

Sometimes in this life you have to make your own way, as long as you have your own goals and do things right by you, that is all that can be asked of anyone, it sounds quite complicated politics at the BAS AGM, I do think that one can get 'bogged down ' by it all and loose sight in the process of what you are trying to achieve...Glad you went and glad I stayed in Scotland......Jayne

Debbie, Barnacre Alpacas said...

Thanks for the AGM update I did wonder what occurred!

Gerry said...

Well said Mark! The infighting just leaves me cold I must say. Not that the distant rumblings of the comings and doings of the board have much impact on us. Perhaps there's a case for us to set up our own society here. It'd have to be called the SAS - Scottish Alpaca Society. Motto - "Who Spits Wins". Whadya think?