Are there any SVP members on the forum?

[Rob2]

I was first invited to join an SVP conference in 1963 .

Since then I have been a member of three conferences which includes the present one I’m in .

There have been quite some changes in those years .

 

[TheLittleLady]

Yes, as volunteer and later an officer for many years. Our conference shut down a couple of years ago because of inside politics with the state conference

 

[Rob2]

Yes, as volunteer and later an officer for many years. Our conference shut down a couple of years ago because of inside politics with the state conference

That is sad , @TheLittleLady, .

You speak of “the state conference” .

I wonder what its equivalent is here .

We have the local parish conference .

Then we have a District Council which is made up of about 8 local conferences . .

Then we have the Central Council which covers the conferences in the diocese .

Then we have the National Council for the whole of the country .

Where would your state conference fit into that lot ?

It is interesting that there were inside politics with the state conference , because our parish conference is having problems with our District Council .

 

[TheLittleLady]

I meant district - old age

 

[Rob2]

I meant district - old age

Yes , I know all about it @TheLittleLady .

I’m not certain that I got all the councils’ names correct in my post .

When my second SVP conference closed , along with the parish , I was out of it for a few years .

Then three years ago I moved house and moved into a new parish whose SVP conference I joined two years ago .

But first of all I had to go through the diocese’s safeguarding procedures which are very strict in the UK . That was new .

I have found that there is a lot of red tape and bureaucracy which was not there before . I put a lot of that down to the internet . It’s very easy for central councils or district councils to forward a load of stuff via the internet at the press of a button . It wasn’t so easy , and so didn’t happen , to write out or print out stuff , put it in envelopes , address the envelopes , pay for postage stamps , and then post it to a large number of conferences .

The district council now has officers who play the policeman a bit . They are laying down the law , and quite frankly they are getting under the skin of some of our conference members , which does not bode well for the future .

I’m wondering whether this has been your experience …,