fair suck of the sauce

[True Blue]

This is a problem of email etiquette and group dynamics.

I'm in a swim squad, mixed, nine of us altogether. We train two hours a week, which is not a lot compared to most squads. Average would be six hours. It's like going to the gym and doing a workout is all. We pay for a junior coach who works for the Aquacentre, in the squad fees per six months. The coach's role is to organise the lanes and equipment and plan the training. He's a friendly, harmless, young kid of 16. He seems to enjoy it.

One of the girls in the squad sent an email round last night saying "Hi everyone, it is time to start thinking about buying a small gift for Max to say thanks and to also say hopefully we have him again next term. In the past we have purchased a visa with an amount of money on it. As there is 9 in the squad I was thinking $25 dollars each may be ok. If this suits everyone please let me know. Also, please feel free to come up with other suggestions for a gift if you have any."

$225 seemed excessive for a regular gift. So I rang a mate, he reckons his squad give a $50 gift voucher each term. So I sent a reply all " Hi all
My understanding is a $50 gift voucher is standard . I think we're being a bit excessive with $225."

Then comes back a half page letter, saying what a fantastic coach he is, and that he deserves at least $200, but you can put in what your comfortable with!" Then follows another of her mates agreeing 100% with her summation of him deserving the excessive gift, and what a great idea it was. A classic email gang-up. But the cracker was the follow-up to the fanletter, where only my response was highlighted and visible and it read "Hi all, I just wanted to ensure that all correspondence re Max's present does not have him in the address list....."

Classic. She sent original email to all of us AND the coach, requesting money for a present. I reply all, as I assume no one would be stupid enough to include the coach in a discussion about a present for him. Then her third reply she realises her mistake and emails everyone with only my one and only original response, making it look like I was the culprit, and the 'just wanted to ensure...........'

Five emails were sent to me after my one and only one line reply. Tonight I will be seeing one of them. I will hand her a $10 note.

Honestly I don't care about the two girls, and the others in the squad did't get involved. So am feeling cool about my decision. But I will say having principals may save me money but is it worth the stress.

[Jellly]

Damn...$25 is tons to ask for, just for a gift. The chick that asked for it must be pretty thick/ ignorant to ask for that much.


Haha if I was the coach I would have been pretty happy when that email got sent, expecting a $225 gift. And then ending up with a lot less. How much did the coach receive in total, may I ask?

[4.cerealz]

This is a problem of email etiquette and group dynamics.

I'm in a swim squad, mixed, nine of us altogether. We train two hours a week, which is not a lot compared to most squads. Average would be six hours. It's like going to the gym and doing a workout is all. We pay for a junior coach who works for the Aquacentre, in the squad fees per six months. The coach's role is to organise the lanes and equipment and plan the training. He's a friendly, harmless, young kid of 16. He seems to enjoy it.

One of the girls in the squad sent an email round last night saying "Hi everyone, it is time to start thinking about buying a small gift for Max to say thanks and to also say hopefully we have him again next term. In the past we have purchased a visa with an amount of money on it. As there is 9 in the squad I was thinking $25 dollars each may be ok. If this suits everyone please let me know. Also, please feel free to come up with other suggestions for a gift if you have any."

$225 seemed excessive for a regular gift. So I rang a mate, he reckons his squad give a $50 gift voucher each term. So I sent a reply all " Hi all
My understanding is a $50 gift voucher is standard . I think we're being a bit excessive with $225."

Then comes back a half page letter, saying what a fantastic coach he is, and that he deserves at least $200, but you can put in what your comfortable with!" Then follows another of her mates agreeing 100% with her summation of him deserving the excessive gift, and what a great idea it was. A classic email gang-up. But the cracker was the follow-up to the fanletter, where only my response was highlighted and visible and it read "Hi all, I just wanted to ensure that all correspondence re Max's present does not have him in the address list....."

Classic. She sent original email to all of us AND the coach, requesting money for a present. I reply all, as I assume no one would be stupid enough to include the coach in a discussion about a present for him. Then her third reply she realises her mistake and emails everyone with only my one and only original response, making it look like I was the culprit, and the 'just wanted to ensure...........'

Five emails were sent to me after my one and only one line reply. Tonight I will be seeing one of them. I will hand her a $10 note.

Honestly I don't care about the two girls, and the others in the squad did't get involved. So am feeling cool about my decision. But I will say having principals may save me money but is it worth the stress.

stupid bitches with their trust funds always piss me the fuck off. i'm a student paying my own way through school and i've had to struggle to figure out where the rest of my week's meals were coming from, yet dr. so-and-so reallllllllllllly deserves a pedicure.

fuck them.

you may look like an ungracious bastard to some passive-aggressive bitch who just has to show her cooter to mumsy or dadsy to fork out money for a gift (do you even know what this bitch is going to purchase? because i've definitely gone "in" on a gift that i wholly did NOT approve of), but obviously she doesn't understand the "real" world.

in the real world, no one gives a shit how well or how poorly you've done your job so long as you have that job and you're getting benefited from it. notice how i didn't say "paid" - unpaid volunteers get some sort of payoff for what they are doing, otherwise they wouldn't do it. there is no such thing as a human being doing a selfless act. so, what, your coach needs rewarded for....doing their... job? wow. i WISH the rest of the world worked like this. my folders and notebooks would be so bedecked with gold stars that it would blind the innocent passer-by on a sunny day.

[True Blue]

You are right about them being spoilt. Interesting that they are the two gun swimmers also. Their endorphine high would be much more powerful than mine. Maybe Max turns them on in some way. i don't know!! he's a kid with braces!! go figure. Swimming lap after lap your brain needs some sustenance. I usually go over recent conversations, or the every tee shot and fairway shot from the last round of golf. I can never remember putts (too many). But these two maybe they get off on fantasising about Max. Dunno. Dont care!

I saw Max and we had a smile. He is cool. She went and bought him a $200 visa card debit, and sent an email asking for $22 each. I think i'll hold out until prompted, as i feel my offer of $10 will be taken as an insult. And then put in $20 at the end of next term.

Asking for money can be a tough thing. I organise a 5-a side soccer team. We have two teams with 15 people in total. I pay for everyone up front $308/person, and then send an email requesting payment by EFT. It takes two weeks, and everyone has paid. In two years I've never had a problem with anyone not paying. I think how you ask is important. With this gift she asked for feedback, I gave it and then got a serve for doing what she asked. It doesn't feel right!

[Agent Provocateur]

IMO if the coach had coached for free then $225 gift is not excessive and would be fair enough...But since the coach is paid for his work no gift at all is required...
Plus it also sounds like he really doesn't do very much to earn the payment....

We pay for a junior coach who works for the Aquacentre, in the squad fees per six months.

[LedZap]

Yeah , just wrap up an old trout and give it to him.

[True Blue]

I piked it, floundered around, took the bait, had a whale of an excuse, but clammed up and handed over a lobster. (colloq. A$20 note)

[Agent Provocateur]

Yeah , just wrap up an old trout and give it to him.

That's what I did to this arsehole one time....I gave him one fillet of raw fish....Except I didn't wrap it....Instead I left it in his car...Under the drivers seat, held up by the springs....
By the time he found my gift under the seat you could hardly breathe within 10 feet of his car
He couldn't get rid of the smell so he couldn't sell the car...I think he sent it to the wreckers....

[True Blue]

That's what I did to this arsehole one time....I gave him one fillet of raw fish....Except I didn't wrap it....Instead I left it in his car...Under the drivers seat, held up by the springs....
By the time he found my gift under the seat you could hardly breathe within 10 feet of his car
He couldn't get rid of the smell so he couldn't sell the car...I think he sent it to the wreckers....

I did something similar to an arsehole once, well not quite as dastardly, but before he drove across the nullabor from melb to perth, I put a dead fish in his front left hub cap. He never found out who did it, and always assumed it was a mate. Listening to him tell the story was beautiful. The temperateure had reached 50 C, or 122F in the middle of the desert. The fuel in his line was evaporating, before it could reach the engine, and the car was cutting out. He pulled over on the side of the road, and couldn't believe the stench. He had been smelling something, but thought it must have been coming from outside. So he drove with vents closed. But once he pulled over, he worked it out.