[Chimer]

I only came on to read a bit of banter about the roo, and ran into this lot ….

As a self-confessed bandwagon-jumper I thought I probably ought to join the OSC this season. So I’m trying hard to make sense of all this stuff but can’t see past various entrenched positions. It should all be so simple ….

People join a club and pay a membership fee in order to get something out of it. A football supporters club offers its members as a minimum a sense of belonging. It might also offer tangible benefits, like arranging coaches to away matches. These might be “members only” trips, or they might take non-members too, but at a higher price. Or it might help the club it supports in practical ways, like by painting the terraces in the close season. On the other hand, it might want to do nothing more than meet occasionally for a beer ... fair enough, if that's all the members want.

A club whose members pay a membership fee has no responsibility to tell non-members anything about its activities. You would expect it to, though, if it wanted membership to grow. But it seems entirely reasonable to me that minutes of meetings, details of election of officers, membership lists, info about its finances etc, would be “members only” and therefore might be password protected on a open website which could otherwise be accessed by anyone.

Judging from its website, and Ossyclogger’s contributions to this and earlier threads, the OSC does seem to want to grow and encourages people to join. The line “if you want to change things, you’ve got to join and get involved” is obviously right for a members’ club. The thing that seems wrong to me (from reading the threads) is the business about members not being told what goes on at meetings if they don’t attend. Living 300 miles away, I am not going to drive up to Accy for an hour and a half’s meeting on a Tuesday evening, even though the beer’s better. But as a paying member I would expect to be able to find out what was discussed and decided.

The Ultras, as far as I can tell, do all the things a club do except formalise membership and charge a membership fee. Because they don’t do that, no-one has any particular rights or responsibilities other than those they impose upon themselves, which obviously suits their situation.

I suspect there is much more crossover between the OSC and the Ultras than appears on the board. I like the “Maccawazzagod for OSC Chairman” and “Ossyclogger is an Ultra” signatures and think if both come true we might perhaps all go along happily together (and membership of the OSC would increase).

C’mon guys and gals, give peace a chance !