Small Club Politics 2024
bassinhole reply :
Anyone have a good method for curbing in-fighting and backhanded politics in a small bass club? We have roughly 12-15 boaters, and if things continue the way they are our club may have to disband.
Most recent dispute is around scheduling. A small cohort of our members have determined that they would like to fish a different tour for a few months, but the tournaments conflict with our clubs traditional schedule. The few guys who are hell bent on fishing this other tour have been trying to recruit some of our other members to their cause on the sly and force an issue where there will be very few boats which show up to our tournaments. We discussed shifting our schedule to accommodate, but that opened a can of worms and the majority of the club protested the idea (Perhaps due to the back door nature of the initial politics).
Being recently voluntold into the President position I feel obligated to get ahead of this and resolve the conflict before it causes more in-fighting.
Any Advice?
Bluebasser86 reply :
You can't make everyone happy. Stick with your original plan that the majority like and stick with it. You can't bend to the guys that are trying to cause issues in the first place. If they leave because you won't adjust to them, then you just don't have to worry about them bringing any more drama to your club.
I started a small club or sorts a few years ago and I tried at first to make everyone happy, but it just isn't possible. If you change things to keep a few people happy, then the rest of the group gets mad and it starts a big uproar with it all falling back on you for changing things in the first place. We tried to adjust the schedule last year to keep a few guys happy who couldn't make it on regular tournament nights. It ended up making the regulars upset trying to keep track of what night we were fishing, and the ones that the schedule was adjusted for fish only a handful of times.
So having done it for a few years now, I've taken the "Here's the rules and schedule, take it or leave it", approach. In the end, it doesn't really matter to me, I'll go fishing if I'm the only one that shows up.
Montanaro reply :
Im in one of the biggest clubs in wv with 20 some members. We hold a late winter meeting to set schedule with majority rule on the dates.
There are conflicting schedules and sometimes we have low attendance and have guys fish in other clubs at same time. As long as they pay their dues and show up for a couple torunaments they are in good standing. If they want to leave and others go with them that is their choice...you cant force people to stay.
fishballer06 reply :
On 12/1/2016 at 2:27 AM, Montanaro said:Im in one of the biggest clubs in wv with 20 some members. We hold a late winter meeting to set schedule with majority rule on the dates.
There are conflicting schedules and sometimes we have low attendance and have guys fish in other clubs at same time. As long as they pay their dues and show up for a couple torunaments they are in good standing. If they want to leave and others go with them that is their choice...you cant force people to stay.
Let me know when you need a guest for Stonewall! 
Montanaro reply :
Will do
WTnPuddleJumper reply :
One thing you might schedule your dates on Sundays. Being that most events are on Saturdays that might ease a little tension. It will probably draw a few more boats for people like me that have to work on Saturday. Of course some will not participate due to church. The tournament trail I started has always been on Sundays, and is really been a success! I hope you get everything worked out. Bass clubs should be fun. Period. Good Luck!!!
P.S. and also what Blue Basser 86 said
Steve H
N Florida Mike reply :
Have a vote about it.Go with The vote.Its better to please the majority than the minority.I f the minority doesn't like it and leave,the problem is solved.IF they take people with them,get new members.
RHuff reply :
On 12/1/2016 at 2:27 AM, Montanaro said:Im in one of the biggest clubs in wv with 20 some members. We hold a late winter meeting to set schedule with majority rule on the dates.
There are conflicting schedules and sometimes we have low attendance and have guys fish in other clubs at same time. As long as they pay their dues and show up for a couple torunaments they are in good standing. If they want to leave and others go with them that is their choice...you cant force people to stay.
What Club? I'd like to join a club in the Southern WV area
Montanaro reply :
We are in north
There are some good sticks in some of the south clubs though
gulfcaptain reply :
Our local club we fish other tournaments as well. If they conflict well too bad. We fish one per month with the dates set and vote on the venue of where we would like to fish.....majority rule on this. If we don't like the lake or can't make the date, well you don't have to fish it. But the club is stil going to fish that location and date with or without you. I agree, can't change the whole schedule to fit a few.
Megastink reply :
My old club had a similar issue. We wound up cancelling four out of six tournaments one season. The next year, we made a rule:
The schedule is posted in January. That's it. No changes, unless weather is a factor. If you don't fish the club events, you don't get points which might mean not qualifying for the State Championship.
A few members said that the club events payout/entree fees werent enough to choose it over another event (mostly BFL's). So, we voted on and passed a second rule: all
members pay a lower entry fee per event, but EVERY MEMBER pays all entree fees at the beginning of the year. That way, everyone has a reason to show up, it cost them less to fish, and they're fishing for more money.
ive left the club since, but members tell me that turnout tripled and no one complains. Hope this helps.
bassinhole reply :
On 12/18/2016 at 1:15 AM, Megastink said:My old club had a similar issue. We wound up cancelling four out of six tournaments one season. The next year, we made a rule:
The schedule is posted in January. That's it. No changes, unless weather is a factor. If you don't fish the club events, you don't get points which might mean not qualifying for the State Championship.
A few members said that the club events payout/entree fees werent enough to choose it over another event (mostly BFL's). So, we voted on and passed a second rule: all
members pay a lower entry fee per event, but EVERY MEMBER pays all entree fees at the beginning of the year. That way, everyone has a reason to show up, it cost them less to fish, and they're fishing for more money.
ive left the club since, but members tell me that turnout tripled and no one complains. Hope this helps.
I like that Idea! Low turnout/payout was an issue for us last year. We had a few weekends with only 5 boats...
Megastink reply :
On 1/4/2017 at 9:00 AM, bassinhole said:
I like that Idea! Low turnout/payout was an issue for us last year. We had a few weekends with only 5 boats...
It's a real issue. Fair warning: the people who don't show up to the events are going to have a problem with this. I would call the folks that do show up consistently and talk to them about it one-on-one. Get them on your side so when you present it, you have support. Explain that this is to lower entry fees while increasing payout, and even if you dont show up, you're still supporting the club.
good luck.
Angry John reply :
There are a lot of flakes these days and to have people pay the season up front tends to drive them to come. Is it worth loosing their money to skip the event. If they have nothing invested then a no show is no big deal to them.
Skeeter Dan reply :
On 12/15/2016 at 5:33 AM, WTnPuddleJumper said:One thing you might schedule your dates on Sundays. Being that most events are on Saturdays that might ease a little tension. It will probably draw a few more boats for people like me that have to work on Saturday. Of course some will not participate due to church. The tournament trail I started has always been on Sundays, and is really been a success! I hope you get everything worked out. Bass clubs should be fun. Period. Good Luck!!!
P.S. and also what Blue Basser 86 said
Steve H
What he said.
bassinhole reply :
On 1/4/2017 at 12:17 PM, Skeeter Dan said:What he said.
We played with that Idea, unfortunately a large proportion of our members would be no-go on Sundays due to the aforementioned religious obligations.
Skeeter Dan reply :
On 12/15/2016 at 5:33 AM, WTnPuddleJumper said:One thing you might schedule your dates on Sundays. Being that most events are on Saturdays that might ease a little tension. It will probably draw a few more boats for people like me that have to work on Saturday. Of course some will not participate due to church. The tournament trail I started has always been on Sundays, and is really been a success! I hope you get everything worked out. Bass clubs should be fun. Period. Good Luck!!!
P.S. and also what Blue Basser 86 said
Steve H
What he said.Our Members Go to Church during the week or Sunday evening after the tournament.
lunker louie reply :
I approached my club with the "vote the schedule and dates" . Figure we can do it at our year end "classic". That way only those that qualified (active members) would have a say. Currently we only have a schedule, tourneys / sundays and meetings on Thursdays. Once a month . Meetings are to pick and vote on lake sites. I consider this a waste of time but got shot down as they don't want to change ? Our membership is down and I would like it back up.
J Francho reply :
You want to get rid of arguing, and infighting? Less meetings, smooth events. That's always been the winning formula, from my experience.
Bassun reply :
Depending on what the goal of your club is, and just how relaxed you guys want to be you could always do split days - or best of two day tournaments. It's potentially a lot more work and coordination - but if the club is open to being less strict and willing to work together you could try something like that. Not the best option, but it could be an option if things are definitely on the downward spiral. I think the success of something like that really depends on how good of friends people in the club are. People tend to be more willing and lenient for friends than foes after all...
I wont get into the charter portion of it, but obviously there may need to be some ratification.
J Francho reply :
If the club is in a downward spiral, the dates aren't the issue. It's the club officers' job to find the issue, address it, suggest a solution, and raise a vote. If they can't do that, then when it comes time vote for officers, the ones that think they have a solution should run for that position. That's how clubs work...
bassinhole reply :
Yeah It came to a head last night at our meeting. I believe the problem removed itself. Things should be on the upswing going forward.
Chris186 reply :
Club politics suck, as do all politics. I dont fish clubs anymore, just some local opens. I was actually banned from a small jon boat club, let me tell you the story. My cousin got me into the club back in 2001. I fished the club for a year alone, then got my father to join with me. Now, there was a guy who has been in the club for about 15 years, never won the championship, and once I started doing better than him, for some reason he didn't seem to like that. Well the next year we were fishing a tournament, and he beat me to where I wanted to go. No big deal, I started fishing a spot probably 75 yards or so away from him. my boat was facing the other direction so I wasn't even looking at him, and we started to catch fish. there was no wind so I just stopped the boat and sat in that one spot. he must have seen us catching fish, I glanced over and he had moved closer to us. I kept fishing, and I noticed he had moved closer yet again. He got within about 25 yards and started screaming, "Hey give me some room here! Im trying to fish you are crowding me!" I looked at my father like what the ****? So I said to him, you came towards me, I haven't moved, What the hell are you talking about?! The guy then started to move back away, and after that day we had a couple more run ins like that on the water. He would cut me off and always say I was crowding him.
We ended up winning the team championship that year, I won the individual championship and lunker for the year. It was really a great fishing year. We didn't fish the club full time after that, just a handful of tournaments the next couple years before we got out. I then sold my boat and moved on to a bigger one. A couple years later I decide to jet another jon boat, and I wanted to fish that club again. I asked my cousin who was still int he club if there was room to fish. He said I'm pretty sure, just show up at the first tourney. Now, I haven't heard anything or seen anyone from that club in probably 7 years by this point. So I show up, and my cousin is there and a couple guys I was friendly with. But everyone else was new, no idea who they were. So we go to sign up, and the guy doing the sign ups asks for our names. We tell him, and he was like ooohhhh, you guys, we will have to wait for the president so we can vote on it. I was like what the ****? The that guy comes around the boat and was like oh, you guys can't fish! The he goes around the parking lot yelling they shouldn't be allowed to fish, they never did anything for the club, they were talking **** about us all over the internet etc etc. None of that is true, but this went on for probably 10 minutes, then the president showed up, who was an old member and was friendly with me.
So the president says I'm gonna talk to him, and about 4 or 5 guys go behind a truck and start talking. Now I'm standing at my boat waiting, but can't really hear what they have to say. The rest of the members including my cousin are at the ramp just hanging out. So the president makes his way over there, then comes back over to me and was like oh, yeah there is too many hard feelings so you aren't going to be able to fish. I said, i dont know what the hell his problem is, and the president was like me either, nobody else cares if you fish or not just him. He has some kind of issue with you fishing so we can't let you fish with us. Whatever then, I packed up and went home. Takled to my cousin later on, he told me that the president never came over and asked anyone else if it was ok, just came over and said they aren't fishing. He also told me that that guy with the problem did the same thing to someone else on the water that day and there was a big blowout between them. Its too bad cause it was a fun club to fish, most of the people were friendly with the obvious exception of that D-bag who got me banned.
J Francho reply :
Trust me on this.....if what you say is true about that dude, eventually, he'll be fishing alone. I watched a club of 30+ dwindle to four because whiners and cronyism.
Chris186 reply :
On 1/28/2017 at 12:11 AM, J Francho said:Trust me on this.....if what you say is true about that dude, eventually, he'll be fishing alone. I watched a club of 30+ dwindle to four because whiners and cronyism.
Last I heard, last year he only fished 4 of the clubs tourneys, and they usually have about 12-13 a year. My cousin still fishes that club part time, and even he says its not what it once was.
TheGreatOne reply :
On 1/27/2017 at 11:57 PM, CD1542 said:Club politics suck, as do all politics. I dont fish clubs anymore, just some local opens. I was actually banned from a small jon boat club, let me tell you the story. My cousin got me into the club back in 2001. I fished the club for a year alone, then got my father to join with me. Now, there was a guy who has been in the club for about 15 years, never won the championship, and once I started doing better than him, for some reason he didn't seem to like that. Well the next year we were fishing a tournament, and he beat me to where I wanted to go. No big deal, I started fishing a spot probably 75 yards or so away from him. my boat was facing the other direction so I wasn't even looking at him, and we started to catch fish. there was no wind so I just stopped the boat and sat in that one spot. he must have seen us catching fish, I glanced over and he had moved closer to us. I kept fishing, and I noticed he had moved closer yet again. He got within about 25 yards and started screaming, "Hey give me some room here! Im trying to fish you are crowding me!" I looked at my father like what the ****? So I said to him, you came towards me, I haven't moved, What the hell are you talking about?! The guy then started to move back away, and after that day we had a couple more run ins like that on the water. He would cut me off and always say I was crowding him.
We ended up winning the team championship that year, I won the individual championship and lunker for the year. It was really a great fishing year. We didn't fish the club full time after that, just a handful of tournaments the next couple years before we got out. I then sold my boat and moved on to a bigger one. A couple years later I decide to jet another jon boat, and I wanted to fish that club again. I asked my cousin who was still int he club if there was room to fish. He said I'm pretty sure, just show up at the first tourney. Now, I haven't heard anything or seen anyone from that club in probably 7 years by this point. So I show up, and my cousin is there and a couple guys I was friendly with. But everyone else was new, no idea who they were. So we go to sign up, and the guy doing the sign ups asks for our names. We tell him, and he was like ooohhhh, you guys, we will have to wait for the president so we can vote on it. I was like what the ****? The that guy comes around the boat and was like oh, you guys can't fish! The he goes around the parking lot yelling they shouldn't be allowed to fish, they never did anything for the club, they were talking **** about us all over the internet etc etc. None of that is true, but this went on for probably 10 minutes, then the president showed up, who was an old member and was friendly with me.
So the president says I'm gonna talk to him, and about 4 or 5 guys go behind a truck and start talking. Now I'm standing at my boat waiting, but can't really hear what they have to say. The rest of the members including my cousin are at the ramp just hanging out. So the president makes his way over there, then comes back over to me and was like oh, yeah there is too many hard feelings so you aren't going to be able to fish. I said, i dont know what the hell his problem is, and the president was like me either, nobody else cares if you fish or not just him. He has some kind of issue with you fishing so we can't let you fish with us. Whatever then, I packed up and went home. Takled to my cousin later on, he told me that the president never came over and asked anyone else if it was ok, just came over and said they aren't fishing. He also told me that that guy with the problem did the same thing to someone else on the water that day and there was a big blowout between them. Its too bad cause it was a fun club to fish, most of the people were friendly with the obvious exception of that D-bag who got me banned.
I would have followed that dude around the lake all day fishing all up next to him , slamming rod lockers, casting giant 5 oz spoons past his boat, cutting him off all kinds of sh&$ like that , but that's me! Dude would have a few black eyes fishing in my club for real
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