University of Limerick Kayak Club

Hey guys,
I wanted to go to gower on St.Patrick's Day, so I messaged safety. Said as long as it was a clubs trip than its okay. I posted on the forum. Then 5 hours later, I got message saying I needed 3 people and captains approval. Its never been a thing before, especially because gower is a surf trip.
No bother, I message when I find a third person, captain and he says get safety's approval. Safety doesn't write back. I was told I need both approval.
Its very disappointing given that in the short space of time, one unconstitutional gear ban as been issued. I was really worried I'd get a gear ban so I didn't go.
As per constitution, you need captain and safety or captain and another commmitee member.

How do we all get on the same page here and read the constitution?
This isn't the first time it hasn't been followed and it feels very directed at whoever the captain decides to break constitution on rather than treating everyone fairly. I feel if I'd taken the boat anyway, I'd be the first to get a gear ban, even given the circumstances that its wasn't against rules and I made every effort to get safety's approval.

I've been personally impacted by this, not getting to go to gower is huge for me. Being a med student I've limited opportunities to paddle, and it was really important to me.
The captain said that he needs safety's approval for river trips as he needs a second opinion. The three most run things in Limerick by the club is castleconnell, gower and glens. Should there be definite legislation written about these? It seems mad to me can't make a call based on safety on these rivers, as they are well known, common and members in the club have high knowledge on them.
Shouldn't the role of a club be to facilitate and empower members to practise and paddle? Not having no communication and in turn directly affecting paddling.

Also, when I asked about it, I got no message back of course.
Its not an effective way to deal with an senario, is just no messaging back. I've already brought it up at the last committee meeting and still ghosting is the preferred method of answering queries or having suggestions.

I've also paddled gower sessions at least 6 times, so I'm confused how me and simon would have been a safety risk.

I did in the end get an apology issued by the club, after roughly a week of no response.

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At the end of the day it’s the captain and safety officers decision when it comes to any trip involving club gear. Having been in both roles during my time in the club there’s a huge amount of responsibility that comes with them. It also takes time for the new committee officers to settle into their roles and effectively carry out their duties. On top of all that they also have their own lives too and while it can be frustrating that sometimes a timely response isn’t forthcoming from one officer or another they still deserve to have time away from the the club too.

As a new captain there can be a million and one things to take into consideration when it comes to approving a club trip as even in the unlikely event of something happening it comes back squarely on the shoulders of the captain should something go wrong. Not everyone is an extremely experienced paddler or would feel comfortable yet making the decisions without extra advice.

That’s just my takeaway based purely on your post and my experience in the past. You can’t always get every decision right.

I respect that there is time needed to adjust. However it took me about 20 secs to look up on the constitution and also, not writing back because you're busy is understandable however not writing back and you've seen the messages or because you're not giving the person the respect of answering their queries is ridiculous.
As for not having enough experience, it took me another 10 seconds to google gower and see its a grade 2. It's not a particularly huge decision, also if there was any ambiguity on the protocol, I wonder why no one asked you the spare committee member who has done both roles?
I don't see why the constitution is consistently not being followed, and why this has to negatively impact paddling.

My entire point is;
If you don't know constitution, why aren't you reading it? Why is it being made up as we go along?
If you don't know what do to do, why aren't you asking peter, darragh, stephen, eoin hayes, all these people who know full well what to do?
Rather than informing members of wrong protocol and then not writing back when you're called out?

Treks like these definitely contribute to general participation in the club, and behaviour like these are completely demotivating.

viewtopic.php?t=20215

This post has been pinned on the top of the forum for years and explains the rules clearly. They're not something new. And if someone isn't replying to a text it only takes a moment to ring them

Yes, it is nothing new, hence why I'm so confused why I'm not getting accurate information.
That's actually a very helpful point, I can definitely ring in future. Thank you