The hash, I believe, is unique in that it has no professional core or cadre. Somewhere within the structure of virtually every other \u201cvolunteer nonprofit\u201d athletic, social, or charitable group \u2013 be it Road Runners USA, the national bike teams participating in the Tour de France, even Girl Scouts International \u2013 there\u2019s a CEO, a CFO, a secretary, and a fund raising staff, all drawing salaries from the organization.<\/p>\n
But the Hash House Harriers, with tens of thousands of members and well over 1,200 established clubs around the world, operates on a purely voluntary basis \u2013 no money, no salaries, no formal organization, not even much of a paper trail \u2013 and yet we manage to do many of the things our \u201cnonprofit\u201d cousins do: we plan, raise money for, and host regional, national, and international events; we keep records from those events and pass on surplus funds to the hosts of future events; we create and maintain national and international channels of communication between clubs and members; we even have our own magazines and web sites where we organize and announce future events.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s great, but if you\u2019re like me, you appreciate all that in an academic way. To really understand how volunteerism makes the hash work, you have to look at a smaller, more comprehensible part of the picture \u2013 your own hash, for example. I\u2019ll take as a given that you love the hash. You love the trails, the camaraderie, the whole hash experience. And you can take as a given that the other members of your hash feel the same way.<\/p>\n
Who makes the good times happen, week after week, month after month? Volunteers, investing time and sweat because they love hashing. Someone has to lay the trail. Someone has to get the word out to members so they know where the start is. Someone has to schlepp the beer and bags. Someone has to get the snacks. Someone has to pull the circle together and lead us in down-downs and song. Volunteers make it all happen.<\/p>\n
So, we finally get to the point of this rant: What have\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0done for the hash lately?<\/p>\n Most hash groups I\u2019ve been part of have 30 to 60 regular members. Out of that, four or five\u00a0can be counted on to volunteer for and fill mismanagement positions, as long as the duties aren\u2019t too demanding. Maybe one or two others are willing to take on the really hard jobs, like beermaster or scribe. A larger group \u2013 ten to fifteen hashers, say \u2013 will be your regular hares, and another five or so will hare about once a year. The rest \u2013 the majority of hashers in most clubs \u2013 never offer to help. They\u2019re there to enjoy the good times the volunteers create. Adjust these numbers if your hash is larger or smaller, but I bet you\u2019ll find the ratios are about the same.<\/p>\n By now it should be obvious this rant is directed at non-volunteer slackers. Yeah, you . . . isn\u2019t it about time you paid the hash back for some of the good times it\u2019s given you? You know the answer to that question, and it\u2019s Yes.<\/p>\n So what can you do for the hash? Not all of us are great orators, born to be grandmasters or religious advisors. Not all of us have the writing talent to be good scribes. Not all of us have the patience \u2013 or the junkyard car \u2013 needed to a beermaster. But one thing any of us can do, once in a while, is lay trail. And what\u2019s the one thing every hash seems to be chronically short of? Hares! C\u2019mon, you\u2019ve been putting it off long enough. It\u2019s time to hare a trail for your hash!<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to hare all by yourself, unless you want to \u2013 most hashes are more than happy to pair inexperienced hares with experienced hares. You don\u2019t have to worry about not being a great runner \u2013 after you lay your first trail you\u2019ll never worry about that again. You don\u2019t have to sweat getting caught \u2013 the experienced hares will teach you the tricks you need to know. You don\u2019t have to invest a lot of time scouting and practicing a trail \u2013 sure, it takes a certain amount of time and effort, but it really isn\u2019t that hard. You don\u2019t have to top every trail ever laid \u2013 but once you start thinking like a hare, you\u2019ll start to get a lot of great trail ideas you can put into practice. You can find some good discussions on haring fundamentals and tricks\u00a0here<\/a>, but the best thing to do is to talk to the experienced hares in your hash.<\/p>\n Now here\u2019s the best part (you\u2019ll have to trust me on this for now, but after you hare you\u2019ll know it\u2019s true): haring adds a new dimension of fun to hashing. There\u2019s nothing to beat the thrill of laying a good trail, then finding a high place where you can watch the pack flailing about in the shiggy, trying to find On-In. It\u2019s a little like being Satan for a day. Try it \u2013 you\u2019ll like it!<\/p>\n You owe it to the hash. We all owe it to the hash. You know it\u2019s the right thing to do, and once you\u2019ve done it you\u2019ll not only feel good, you\u2019ll want to do it again and again. And just think \u2013 once you hare, you too can walk up to the slackers and say, \u201cSo what have\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0done for the hash lately?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The hash, I believe, is unique in that it has no professional core or cadre. Somewhere within the structure of virtually every other \u201cvolunteer nonprofit\u201d athletic, social, or charitable group \u2013 be it Road Runners USA, the national bike teams participating in the Tour de France, even Girl Scouts International \u2013 there\u2019s a CEO, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hash-house-harriers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25537,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25536\/revisions\/25537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}