Waiting List?

A QUESTION OF NUMBERS

A small but increasingly vocal group is lobbying for a total freeze on any further enrolment in the Club. In its opinion, we need to put a cap on membership with a figure of say, 50 and all those (beyond that number) wishing to join Big Laaf will have to be placed on a ‘waiting list’.
“Otherwise, it becomes very difficult to manage,” opined Srichand Arora. “The more members there are, the more there would be divergent views, only leading to chaos and confusion. Where is the bonding between us then? Just for the sake of their subscriptions, we cannot ruin the ethos of our Club.”
The opposing view to this is that more the members, more the revenue, and that is good for the financial health of the Club.

Prabha Kapoor

As Lt Col Angad Singh (retd) put it: “Why should it bother anyone if people want to join? We are getting money with every new member and we should welcome this. The more the merrier.”
In Kiran Prakash’s opinion, it is always better to contain ourselves to a “small, cohesive group of like-minded people” rather than go for big numbers.

Pushpa Gupta distributes khir kadam

As of date, our membership stands at a robust 54, the last to join being Prabha Kapoor and Sadanand Pawar. “We don’t even know half the members,” is the complaint of ladies like Santosh Tyagi, Harbans Kaur and Monthi Serrao. “The closeness we once shared is gone. We feel lost in a crowd!”
Newer members have another complaint. Not knowing the ways of some habitual late-comers, they take strong exception to old-timers who “come at the fag-end of the exercises looking hungrily for something to eat”.
On this, surprisingly, many old-timers are one. “If somebody is not interested in exercising, why be a member? Is it only to eat?” is the common refrain. What remains unsaid is the extra financial burden on those hosting a treat. Where arrangements for 15-20 people should have sufficed, they are suddenly confronted with 50-odd members, each having a rightful claim on the pie.
Already the pruning exercise has begun. Five so-called “sleeping members” have been identified who will have to be dropped to bring the membership figure below the 50 mark. Phone calls will be made to some others who, for some reason, have been erratic in their attendance – the idea being to remove such deadwood by March 31 and start the new financial year on a clean slate.
Bihari Milwani:
This is what my wife says: "Already you are having sweets almost every day on the occasion of birthday or anniversary. I don't understand what exercises you are doing. If the number (of members) increases, only God help you!"