If people don’t want to pick from what is being offered will they be prepared to handle the job of procuring and supplying all the merchandising we offer? It’s a big job with no pay and I’m sure Barry would like an easier retirement.
For once, you know just this one time can you all pick from the damn list of items on display and not try to make Barry’s life harder.
I say this because if you all push a bit more you’ll be able to make him quit. And I doubt there’s a big queue of people wanting to take over from him.
Don’t forget, it’s his hard work that collects the money that pays for the servers you use, something costing around £200 ($240) a month at present.
It was not my intention to make Barry‘s life more difficult, and I have expressed many times the great respect I have for the MT and the time and effort they put into this.
But I also expect that it is possible to have an open, democratic discussion on essential aspects of the SOTA community. Nobody said that the MT must do the work for this, I am sure we would find volunteers for the artwork and logistics, and/or donors for required budget.
The least I wanted was discouraging Barry or anybody else from the MT from continuing their great work. At the same time, I kindly ask you to consider that the message you are sending may turn off SOTA participants, to put it mildly.
To repeat what Andy says - please choose from the poll above. The poll will close this evening and, if it is not completeely definitive between the two top runners, I will try another poll to decide between them.