timeimmortal

I’m witnessing the most unfortunate debate evolve at present that I do believe I have ever seen in the Mixed Chorus executive to date.  And the worst part is, it’s taking place entirely in the electronic realm…there’s not even another person I can see at the moment that I can speak to in a sufficiently harsh tone of voice in what might be a vain attempt to coax their collective heads from their current resting place somewhere inside the group’s collective large colon.

I believe it was Kissinger who said that students politics are so petty precisely because the stakes are so very small.  While I’m sure there’s plenty of examples of petty national — and international — politics that one can find to demonstrate the general falsehood of Mr. Kissinger’s pronouncement, it does seem applicable in this case at least.  The stakes are insanely small, and the politics petty in the extreme.

It began innocently enough — one member of the Chorus sends out a group-wide email suggesting a car pool — for those of us who will not be accompanying the Chorus on its spring tour — to make the two or three hour trip to see the Chorus perform its final concert of the year.  This is something of a chorus tradition, as the final concert on any tour is typically the one that many Chorus alumni attempt to make it out to see.

What follows the concert is an event called “Skit Night”, wherein members of the Chorus perform skits, songs, or other little acts for the amusement of their peers.  It’s a way to unwind after a long tour, and to reflect on the comedic moments of the previous year (and in this group, such moments are never in short supply).

This innocent-enough suggestion becomes an issue when one of my fellow executive members sends out an email suggesting that only people who have come on tour should be able to perform at Skit Night, and that no “outsiders” should be allowed in to Skit Night.  Which is odd, because the initial email about planning the car pool was sent to a mailing list that is only subscribed to by current and former members of the Mixed Chorus, and right away one can ask a question: who are these outsiders that are being referred to?

The rest of the executive that has responded has more or less come down in favour of the “no outsiders” policy, and to be fair I can kind of see where they are going with it from an insurance standpoint.  That said, the only “outsiders” that would be present at the event, if any, would be alumni of the Mixed Chorus, or spouses of alumni or current memebrs.  I realize one can never be 100% certain, but it would seem that we can probably give such people the benefit of the doubt — after all, they themselves have been in the Chorus before, and have managed not to harm anyone during that time.

But in our society, where litigation is so commonplace, I can understand the concern to a certain extent.

What really gets under my skin, however, is the suggestion that only those people who have come on the tour should be allowed to perform a skit or other act at Skit Night.  What is this?  A university choir or a high school clique?  Executive members thus far seem split on the idea of whether or not this policy should be enforced; I cannot believe it is even being contemplated.

But then, the real issue here is that many on the Chorus executive have feelings of animosity for the person who sent out the initial email suggesting a car pool, and any suggestion or action he makes is instantly taken as an affront and a controversy.

In a sense, I suspect that the reason that the initial email and its sender received such a poor reception is because, unlike many of us on the executive — myself, I confess, included — he shows intiative in regard to things like this.  Everyone on the executive knows as well as I do that alumni attendance at the final concert is traditionally higher, and if any of us had been on the ball we’d have sent out the email coordinating the car pool ourselves.  Like as not, the person who sent out the initial email loves the Chorus deeply, and wants people to be able to experience it as much, and as richly, as possible.  Car pools and road trips, and Skit Night in turn, are ways in which that can be done.

And instead of praising him for his initiative, my fellow executive members see fit to label this as a controversy, and to behave in a manner I would have hoped most of them would have abandoned at the age of sixteen.

And why?  Because someone shows some intiative and does their job for them?

Evidently.

I hate student politics.

~ by Kenneth on April 20, 2007.