Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bureaucracies
Organizations
Disorganizations
ACA
Some body or some group has to do it. If we want water trails and rules and guidelines to get things done in a safe way, we have to have little mini-governments or organizations that are...well,...organized to get these things done. Enter ACA and BCU to organize training and testing for instructors and to establish safe guidelines for all.


As an ACA certified instructor I must maintain my instructor trining reuirements, belong to the SEI (as a safety committee) and be a memeber of the ACA. Well, imagine my surprise when I got a notice saying that my ACA membership had lapsed and would I send in the dues please. This, I was informed, could be done on line. Yeah, right.

Ever try to get something done on their site? After a few days of no joy, I received another notice that my SEI dues were due and, wouldn't you know it, they could be paid on line. So I tried again with a curious success result. I was able to pay, but the site then thanked me for joining the ACA. Argh.

I e mailed and got in contact with a nice human being who looked things up and said there was enough in my account to take care of everything, would she like me to do so? Yes, I answered by e mail; and thank you.

So far, no further response, no cards in the mail. I know the site has been updated and give them all the benefit of the doubt while they work out the bugs. But work them out they must.

Paddle safe...
DS

3 comments:

RoyM said...

thanks for the reminder...so I went to the ACA site to renew my membership (family)
they charged me double...still waiting for my e-mail back.

I should of just sent a check in the mail

I should of known it wasn't up and running correctly after your post:>)

Silbs said...

Same with me....they said they would redistribute the money to cover my various dues

SherriKayaks said...

Don't expect your card anytime soon. I sent my registration and check in to the ACA the beginning of August for my membership which expired in September and got my card around November. They are apparenty experiencing some technical difficulties.