Today's Badger Herald has an article that should be of interest to all Hoofers. Wisconsin leads the nation in private job loss. At the same time, unemployment in Wis. is supposedly decreasing. Say what? How can that be?
Apparently, many people have quit looking for jobs (so they no longer count as "unemployed") and others are fleeing the state. Thus, apparent improvement in Wisconsin's unemployment figures! And since Gov. Walker hasn't laid off a single state employee, the huge and increasing number of state employees is helping to offset massive job loss in Wis. industry.
And that brings us to Hoofer Sailing Club (a state organization), where more and more people are paid rather than contributing their time for free as members of a genuine club would do.
UW-Madison economics professor Steven Deller is quoted as saying, "We just don't know what's going on." Wow. A UW professor said that? I guess UW's pay really can't compete. But he should ask one of HSC's hundred or so paid employees, like paid keelboat "instructors" Chris Frye or Justin Cherniak. They know what's going on.
There are only about 60 paid instructors in the club, plus a few full time staff. Everyone else is volunteers who do most of the work. So, your facts once again are not facts at all,
ReplyDeleteI'll offer a few additions to what the previous commenter said:
ReplyDeleteThe paid instructors consume roughly half of all club funds. Every dollar spent on the questionable 'teaching skills' of Justin Cherniak is a dollar that will never repair a boat.
Most of the work -is- done by volunteers. Paid instructors, as a group, do very little work despite being rewarded quite well. They do even less volunteer work.
Much of the club's funds go towards enriching a select few instead of fixing club-wide problems. Given this, it's no wonder problems have proliferated.
It's no secret that a culture has arisen in the last 20 years in this Club, slowly advancing each year, to infect the Board with paid staff, to serve paid staff money and health benefits and the like, while skimping on equipment. Nothing gets solved financially or physically with the boats because the Wisconsin Union Administrators, well-knowing of these corruption problems, will not lift a finger to correct them, as though they fear these paid staff. Why does a culture of political reprisal pervade this institution?
ReplyDelete