Preamble

I think our biggest challenge right now is volunteer stress. We're a little thin on the ground - the system as a whole is showing signs of fracture. Key events/portfolios are not spoken for, and several people have been compensating by doubling up on responsibilities - this is a danger sign. There's nothing to panic about - this is part of a normal cycle for a club like ours, and our support base is deep enough to carry us through. We may, however, have to concede that it is better to do a few things that we can do with a reasonable effort rather than 'doing it all' when the cost is volunteer burn out and withdrawal. In any case I thought it might be a good time to do an internal audit, not really with next year in mind, but as a way of mapping a congenial path into the future - the next 3-5 years.

There's a little something here to offend just about everyone. My thinking is that you can all be really irritated at me for a while, but my hope is that, with time, these are wounds that might heal, and that we can all be friends again, one sunny day. I have organized some thoughts under 14 headings plus a summary (which may be all you really need to read), and 2 appendices.