Everything that is special about this community, we have volunteers to thank for it.
Almost every arts and cultural event, dinner, sports team, and community garden have been made possible by volunteers. Three buildings have been constructed in Creemore, thanks to volunteers. Almost everything we love about living here can be credited to volunteers.
The township is going about a committee review in such a way that is turning so many people off volunteerism.
It is true, absolutely, that volunteers must follow the rules of accountability but in order to do so they need to understand the expectations, and then adhere to them. If people aren’t able to fulfill their duties, they shouldn’t be in a board or committee seat, but the same goes for council and staff. Everyone should follow the same standard.
There is no excuse for dissolving a working committee or board without first telling its members that it is an option. That kind of behavior undermines the spirit in which the volunteer work is being undertaken.
It is galling that on Monday, hours before a meeting to discuss disbanding several committees including the Creemore Log Cabin and the Creemore Medical Centre Board, the township held a kick-off to promote its line up of summer events, all of which are either managed and organized entirely by volunteers or rely heavily on volunteer manpower. There is a clear disconnect.
During this term of council there has been a lot of damage done to the goodwill of volunteers and people will only take so much before they bow out. There will be a large void left when that happens. The municipality cannot possibly think that it can fill the shoes of volunteers with a few additional staff members.
Why does there have to be so much animosity around this issue of committee restructuring?
If the chairs of the boards affected had been notified that a meeting to discuss their fate was taking place Monday, members may have been unhappy with the decision but at least they wouldn’t have been blindsided.
It appears that communication is once again at the heart of the matter.
Expectations of volunteers are changing but so far the township has made a lot of waves for a very limited result. Clearview still has many functioning committees and boards and a system to bring them into compliance of new and changing legislation is still needed. This whole process should have been turned on its end. We should have started with creating a system, a protocol, a how-to guide to being the best possible committee. Instead, a number of committees have been cut without any valuable public consultation and we wouldn’t blame people if they saw it as a slap in the face after all the hours they have put in to create something for the community good.
This approach is not going to work out in the long term. Many people are unhappy and they can’t all be wrong.