Ronnie Hillbagger wrote:
You ask what I (and many other MBA members) hope to 'pragmatically achieve'. Well that is simple:
1. The MBA should sever all ties with Allan and his book and do this publicly. This includes his new bothy cash-in book due to be out next Spring.
2. They should refund any and all monies received from the Bothy bible. Again publicly.
3. The MBA should publicly apologise for getting this 'bothy commercialisation' issue so badly wrong and publicly state that they will not do anything like this in the future.
4. And preferably strip Geoff Allan of his MBA membership as, let us not forget not only has he cashed in on bothies when asked by the MBA trustees to 'help' with the An Cladach closure he simply refused to do so. Does that sound like a bloke that has the future well-being of bothies at heart?
I hope that answers your questions.
Ronnie, just having a look at the list of things you wish to achieve, and for all the bluster it amounts to very little.
1. Easy to do but has little effect.
2. Refunding money is going to harm MBA projects.
3. Why a public apology? Who actually wants that and what good would it do?
4.Strip the author of the
evil book of his membership. Seriously? What good does that do other than, the MBA loses another £25 a year or whatever the fee is. You or the MBA cant ban anyone from the bothies no matter how much you wish to.
So what you have achieved there is - the MBA loses thousands of pounds but it is able to sit on the moral high ground judging and criticising all others (which appears to be a common theme) who are not as squeaky clean as themselves. Basically achieving nothing possibly less than nothing.
Instead of blaming other people, if you really care about the bothies, instead of the mud slinging why not come out from the shadows, get involved attend the AGMs and I'm sure you could make a difference.
If this thread has achieved one thing above all others it will have put people off getting involved in the MBA. If it had as big a readership it would probably do more damage than has allegedly been done by the
evil book.
As a famous contributor on WH has said on occasion -
"Can you imagine being stuck in a bothy with that lot?"