RRC Archives

oh, and one more thing. The RRGCC also has a very bad habit of turning off volunteers. That's their biggest problem right there.

Yeh, if I had known Cheapholds, Arno, Shull, Odub, et al. were going to be selling things at Roctoberfest I might have brought more cash. I'm from Evansville Indiana and we don't have a Red River Gorge click that is constently informed about happenings in the Red. Truthfully, I don't know that I would have heard about Roctoberfest if I didn't work at the local climbing gym, wasn't a member of Ray's site, or never visited rockclimbing.com... I would assume some climbers in this world don't use any of these.

Anyhow, I can tell the RRGCC is trying to communicate more now since the turn of the year. I hope this continues. Someone should consider getting fax numbers from local climbing gyms and gear retailers so they can send out fliers for Derby Fest. Local meaning 500 mile radius in all directions.

From what I remember from the ECO, Derbyfest was scheduled for the weekend(?) of 29-30 May.

If that's so, why isn't it plastered promently on rrgcc.org?

(No offense vic)

andy_lemon wrote:I'm from Evansville Indiana and we don't have a Red River Gorge click that is constently informed about happenings in the Red.

i'm a lexington local and i'm hardly informed, of course i don't really try either.

the leaders of an organization are the face of the group.
in my brief brushes with the inner circle i've found them confrontational and the more unfriendly people i've met at any crags. you would think the opposite. i am a member of rrgcc and i support our effort. i only hope this style is not mucking up the waters in dealing with the oil co.

I agree with most of these posts and opinions. Communications and lack there of, has been the RRGCC biggest short comming but I have seen a lot of improvement in the last few weeks. I have no idea how much work/money is involved with keeping the climbing community( outside of Lexington Ky) informed, so for me to criticize their lack of communication isn't fair.

I think the RRGCC needs to work harder on spreading out the work load. The MP is important right now but other things can't be ignored..ie Derby Fest.

If Derby Fest is happening this year, people OUTSIDE of Lexington Ky need to know when, where, how much, etc.. This will be a very important event to raise more money for the next payment on the MP, that would be just as important as the current legal issue.

Communications from the Coalition has been improving significantly (but has a lot of room for improvement still). An important issue in the initial post for this thread was that there are a lot of climbers who still have negative impressions of the Coalition. It is going to take a while to get through to those people who currently have a negative view of the Coalition. Consistent and complete communication over time will go a long way towards rebuilding trust for these folks.

I think that Eagleman's post about 'contradictions' from the Coalition points to another issue. He is pointing out that there are a lot of people who just don't operate in the world of land management, the legal system, interacting with government bureaucracies, etc. so they just won't understand the 'whys' behind what the Coalition has to do to protect and support climbing in the Red. Improved communications is a big part of helping with this, but there will always be some climbers who don't understand the limitations and requirements of an organization like the Coalition. (Also, there will always be folks like Joe who don't value the compromises that are required of inherently political processes like those the Coalition has to use to get anything done.) Basically, you can't please everyone.

I see a theme...communication. Let me ramble on with an opinion for a minute.
Take a moment and think about everything the RRGCC is doing right now. Entering into a legal battle with an oil company, taveling around to cities trying to communicate with the members, buying 700 something acres of land, keeping up with a gigantic bureaucratic governmental agency (US Forest Service), planning fundraisers to pay for land, etc, etc. People its a full time and some job by a bunch of volunteers. In typical human fasion we want more without giving any, want it all spoon fed to us. It doesn't take much time to go to the Coalition's website and look up the answer to questions or post a question on the message forums. So yeah the communcation could be better (It has been moving in the right direction the past couple of years. The past few weeks the updates to the website on the MP legal battle have been great.), but sometimes members might have to take some initiative to get information.

So what does the Coalition need? To name a few things money, updates to the kiosk at Miguel's (since this is the center of the universe for some climbers in the Red), and more dedicated volunteers.T

Communication? I will gladly provide more.
4 more presentations are scheduled this week... all taking place in GA. One of them is the first ASL presentation offered by the Coalition.
Upon my return, I will take on the task of updating to the Kiosk at Miguel's. Shortly, thereafter, the April newsletter will come out. Somewhere, I will reconstruct the rrgcc's web site. I will also make sure that ALL new members receive their personalized Welcome Letter, and that all renewing members receive a personalized Thank You Letter. Ah, yes, the newly constructed database will now come really handy.

As Steve mentioned, if I pass out, please do not resuscitate... just go to www.rrgcc.org and obtain all the information you want for FREE.

I hope, at the very least, to obtain a smile on your face, and hopefully to see you become a member of the RRGCC or renew your RRGCC membership.

Amen Steve
What a bunch of whiney babies. If you want to know something. Ask and ask again if necessary, in a respectful way. If things aren't run to your personal satisfaction perhaps you could offer a hand in making them happen and sometimes eventhough you work your ass off making something better, you still get criticized for the things that aren't working and sometimes, one even has to step back, take a deep breath and be patient Get used to it, thats life.