When I attended university I joined two clubs. The roleplay (Gaming) club and the Fencing club. Freshers week at university is kinda a bit overwhelming when you're young. I'd caught up with an acquaintance, which because of the history between us was extremely uncomfortable. But after being bopped on the head with a rubber mace, I decided I needed a backup hobby and my Father had done fencing at secondary school.
I'd also had some past history of being stalked by a member of that local gaming community in the city. So I needed another space to be a part of in case my stalker turned up.
I marched up to the stand, partly to escape the bopping and well the other stuff. On the stand was a laid-back young man in his third year at university. Between the way he was dressed in double denim, and his friendly attitude he was a major factor in my recruitment. I also really wanted to learn to fence.
So I joined, and I stayed a member of that fencing club through university. I did the various roles of Treasurer, Vice President and President. I tried my best to ensure that there was a transition after leaving university to a capable pair of hands.
That didn't quite succeed due to an absolute chancer who persuaded folks to vote for him. He then backed out two weeks into his presidency. Luckily the person I suggested should be the Vice President took over. He was a more than capable pair of hands. He saved the club for the next year and when he graduated, ran the city fencing club as well.
It was my first taste of community dynamics. I had been persuaded to be president by the previous president. But I had no idea about the small behind-the-scenes politics. I'd not wanted that person in place partly because of his attitude to fencing. He'd told me at the beginning that Fencing was a small sport and he thought he'd get high in the rankings.
Now there's nothing wrong with ambition. Nothing wrong with aiming to get as high as you can in the rankings. Fencing is a martial sport. Its whole thing is about outthinking your opponent. Forcing them to make the mistake.
When a beginner is picking a sport and has the arrogance to think that because it's a smaller sport they will get medals; It is a wee bit of a red flag. The thing is Fencing has a lot of really good grassroots fencers. Some of whom should get picked for the Olympics but because of their background get overlooked or plain frozen out. Then Britain wonders why its amateur fencers can't get medals.
I digress. There were a few other factors that felt off as well. So I really hoped he wouldn't win the vote. But since I was leaving university, it wasn't up to me.
So the President who backed out, didn't do that well fencing in Student Competitions, but he still saw a chance for power. Were there a few things I could have done differently? Yes. But I was young and green in experience. Fencing like other sports has community issues much like any community and we are ill-prepared for abuse and manipulation.
My fears were proven. The thing is, there's not a lot of power in a small student fencing club at a small Red Brick University. There is a lot of responsibility. You have a duty of care to the young folks who come to learn fencing. You have to ensure student's safety when you're all away at a competition in a different place. Sometimes you have to host a student competition, which means there's a duty of care to other universities' young folks too. You have to recruit the next generation and find the next folks to take over in these administrative roles. You want to encourage folks to become coaches. People are the lifeblood of the sport.
I loved being in that Fencing club, I loved being a part of that small community. I loved serving it in the various offices I performed. To be honest I also loved defeating my opponents and getting medals. Especially if said opponent said how they loved fencing left-handers as they could beat them.
She didn't that day.
Even a few years after that tenure I fenced at the City Fencing Club which consisted of many former university club fencers. We'd had quite a few young female fencers who started at the club. I helped them. So It was always a surprise a few years later if they saw me in the local coffeeshop and stopped to say hi.
I like to think I contributed to a part of their lives they had fun at. I hope in some small way I inspired them to get what they want from life.
I also knew the other university Fencing folks from the local inter-university competition and the fact that sometimes we fenced with them. Fencing means a lot to me. Fencing is the reason I met my husband who lived in a different city.
I used to take the train down to visit when we were dating. One day on the train, I saw one of the other university fencers. He was going down on the same train to visit his partner.
Over the three-hour train ride an idea formed. I'd often lamented that it was a shame Aberdeen didn't have a fencing competition for folks in the North East to come to. The other cities did, even Inverness. When I spoke to my fencing friends in my club, they didn't think it would be possible.
By the time we'd come off that train, we had decided to try and create a competition.
There were a lot of steps involved. But over several months the five of us, including both our partners met in my small flat to start. We took on different roles, but the main pusher who got us into the press was the friend on the train.
I organised the first few years of sponsorship at my engineering company. My partner donated the web domain and the server space.
The first year it was a small competition, it remained small, but every year the same people came. It kept going even after I left the city. Mainly because of my friend and his partner.
In time they needed to retire and then pass on the competition to a new team.
I'm sad it's gone now. But it happened because of help from my community. It happened because of the relationships over the years I fostered to get to that point. I have happy memories of those first few years, helping to set it up and tearing it down.
Every great community has some vital folks, who roll out the welcome wagon and check in on how people are going.
It makes no difference if it's an online community or an offline community. It's how we come together for something we love doing.
It is always a privilege to serve your community.