Motorbike "club" dilemma question?

[Count Steer]

What I have learned from a lot of "bikers" is that a lot of people are users.

It's not just bikers, lots of groups are like that. Usually there's a group of old mates who see fresh blood arriving and start pondering what jobs they can dump on you while you're still keen.

Then you end up doing the admin, making the tea (taking the bookings, running the membership, being Treasurer, writing the club newsletter etc etc etc). Eventually you get brassed off and quit and you never hear from or see them again as the mates focus on waiting for the next mug.

This may be the voice of bitter experience speaking - never offer help to a village AmDram group.

@Count Steer making a drama out of a crisis ...

(Amateur thesps are as big as bunch of petulant luvvies as the real thing. All they want is to be in the spotlight and they think that spotlight is triggered by their spellbinding presence rather than the poor sod in the lighting box. Similarly, costumes appear by magic along with the sets, props, sounds, seating, audience, funds..........).

[demographic]

Pretty much the same situation as when someone finds out I'm a carpenter, they all have some jobs they could do themselves but just don't have the time, blah blah blah.
I just fuck them off right from the start and say I'd love to do it but unfortunately I'm washing my hair on the weekend (had a skinhead since I was 20) or that I have a very important dog to walk.
Pretty much all my work comes from subcontracting on proper sites and I have zero interest in moving someones furniture about before I can even start work or fitting doors in houses where I have to carry them outside so I don't mess up the fucking carpet with shavings.

I just tell em that ^ if they persist, I'm a real people person

[Rockburner]

What I have learned from a lot of "bikers" is that a lot of people are users.

It's not just bikers, lots of groups are like that. Usually there's a group of old mates who see fresh blood arriving and start pondering what jobs they can dump on you while you're still keen.

Then you end up doing the admin, making the tea (taking the bookings, running the membership, being Treasurer, writing the club newsletter etc etc etc). Eventually you get brassed off and quit and you never hear from or see them again as the mates focus on waiting for the next mug.

This may be the voice of bitter experience speaking - never offer help to a village AmDram group.

@Count Steer making a drama out of a crisis ...

Sound more like he's making a crisis out of a (n amateur) drama...

[Horse]

All they want is to be in the spotlight and they think that spotlight is triggered by their spellbinding presence rather than the poor

Ah, another Rank Strand pointing person, eh?

Anyone much cop attack it would know to 'find' the light. Never mind standing where the Director says, adjust slightly until in the brightest zone for a spotlight.

'Stealing the limelight' hasn't been a thing since elektrickery invaded the halls.

[Bustaspoke]

Pretty much the same situation as when someone finds out I'm a carpenter, they all have some jobs they could do themselves but just don't have the time, blah blah blah.

I'm a time served spark & tried not to mention my trade when down the pub as I'd often get requests to do minor electrical work in houses.One good thing about being a former spark is that now I just tell them that I'm not up to date on the latest regs.
When people found out that I was the photographer for a few close friends weddings & later for their family christenings the requests would come in again but I always refused them.The only exception was for the landlady of our locals 40th,if I refused that one I'd have got barred!
One of my old pub mates was a car sprayer & he would never mention his occupation to people in the pub for the same reasons..

[JackyJoll]

Tell them you’re a radiation protection adviser. Even if that elicits some worried query about someone’s Tilley mantles or fossils, my informal advice is “Don’t lick it.”

[mangocrazy]

In the 1980's and early 90s I did a fair amount of photography at the Isle of Man and managed to sell work to Superbike magazine, and Honda and Suzuki (promotional posters). It helped offset the cost of the camera gear. lenses, film etc. but never even fully covered the cost, let alone made any profit. So one day I got a letter from HMRC saying they'd heard I had an undeclared business sideline. I had to go to a fair amount of effort to prove what I'd just said above, but they accepted the explanation. It left a nasty taste in the mouth as someone I knew fairly well had dobbed me in.

Fast forward a few years and I had taken a job in Sheffield but still retained my house in Stafford. A friend was living there and paying rent under the fully authorised 'rent a room' scheme, and I came back at weekends and had a mate to chat to when I got back. A mutually beneficial arrangement. Blow me if I didn't get another letter from HMRC querying me renting out my property and not declaring it. Once again I had to explain the situation and again no further action was taken.

So by now I'd narrowed the field down and the suspect was a former colleague in Stafford who I'd kept in touch with. He let the mask slip when we were at an ex-works do and under the influence of drink he started having a go at me saying my contractor's wages at Severn Trent were coming out of his pocket and he was going to write to the chairman to get me terminated. I'm sure he did, too.

Then a year or so later out of the blue this same SoB rang me up asking if I could photograph his daughter's wedding at mate's rates.

Suffice it to say I've never heard from him again...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Do I what I do....be completely lacking in real world skills anyone else would want

Mrs D does some photography, mostly running stuff. She's an official parkrun UK photographer. She just point blank refuses (politely) up front if people ask her for a favour in that field. Keeps it simple.

[ZRX61]

And then another bloke caught me at the bar and asked if I can spray his Vincent?

Was talking with the owner of these two at Willow on Saturday. The closest one had been parked inside his parents house. He showed up to the christmas party to find his mum had decorated it with lights & dangly ornaments etc, & his relatives had piled prezzies on it...
It no longer lives at his parents house.

[ZRX61]

One of my old pub mates was a car sprayer & he would never mention his occupation to people in the pub for the same reasons..

Took a while to explain to the roomie that she needed to stop saying "Oh, Rick can fix stuff like that.." to her friends.

[Noggin]

And then another bloke caught me at the bar and asked if I can spray his Vincent?

Was talking with the owner of these two at Willow on Saturday. The closest one had been parked inside his parents house. He showed up to the christmas party to find his mum had decorated it with lights & dangly ornaments etc, & his relatives had piled prezzies on it...
It no longer lives at his parents house.

But, it's an ornament if parked on the house, so might as well decorate it But at least they got him to move it and use it by decorating it

It's not just bikers, lots of groups are like that.

Doesn't even have to be a group with a "theme" - I know a ton of people here and have known most for around 10 years. Sadly I hear from very few of them unless they want something - info on local stuff, info on medical stuff, loan of crutches/slings etc etc ; and especially info on taxis/transfers/prices for these (even though everyone knows I don't work in the office anymore, so don' have that info)

I've basically stopped replying to people now until it's too late to be useful!!! The people that keep in touch year round are different, they can shout for help and I'll reply and do everything I can to help. The others can go find info elsewhere!

[Jody]

Good painters can be hard to find.
People would rather give work to someone they know.

IMO You'd be doing them a favour taking the work ?!

[dern]

I've done favours for friends of friends on bikes and cars, fitting/fixing stuff they're not comfortable doing themselves or some welding. I won't just do a job for someone but I will do the job as part of showing them what to do. Even so I think some people just think it's a cheap alternative to paying to getting it done and you don't hear from them again. It's kind of shitty imo. Established friends I'll help any time but people I don't know I'm not so keen any more.

[Yorick]

I used to get many requests to pop round and fix their computer. Was a sucker so gave in usually. But one request in the pub got me peeved so I said "Will you wash my car while I'm fixing the computer?"

They replied " Sorry, I don't work for nothing". I said "ditto".

The silence was deafening