All summer long the "FESA is abusing St. Johns County taxpayers" thread has averaged 10-20 posts every day. We have been at this club since it became FESA and the vast majority of the posts are factually incorrect, or one-sided or an isolated instance.
I used to think it was one or more disgruntled FESA parents because some of the information (names, initials, dates, locations, events, etc.) are consistent with reality at FESA. But after reading all these posts all summer long I am calling B.S. on 90% of what is posted there and I am conviced it is the work of a competing club that is trying to cast a negative light on what is actually an overall well-run club.
Is FESA perfect? No. Does it occassionally make bone-headed decisions in regard to players, teams, events, etc. Yes. But it is overall trending in a positive direction and it provides a great player/parent experience for thousands of families.
What makes me think that 90% of the posts are a propaganda campaign? Just read through a smattering of them and you will see that vast majority are written in the same "voice" with a particular style and choice of words. How many people refer to the families at FESA as "the legions?" That phrase is used constantly. Or the hundreds of posts about what happened with the composite ECNL team for Nationals? I am familiar with what happened with that and I don't know of any families that feel that poorly about - especially enough to post about it several times a day for 8 weeks!
Plus, whenever anybody challenges the negative poster to bring these "supposed issues" to the leadership or BOD, their only response for not doing that is "fear of retaliation." There are dozen of ways that these issues could be surfaced in a constructive way without a specific family's name attached to it. I'm calling B.S.!
I used to think it was one or more disgruntled FESA parents because some of the information (names, initials, dates, locations, events, etc.) are consistent with reality at FESA. But after reading all these posts all summer long I am calling B.S. on 90% of what is posted there and I am conviced it is the work of a competing club that is trying to cast a negative light on what is actually an overall well-run club.
Is FESA perfect? No. Does it occassionally make bone-headed decisions in regard to players, teams, events, etc. Yes. But it is overall trending in a positive direction and it provides a great player/parent experience for thousands of families.
What makes me think that 90% of the posts are a propaganda campaign? Just read through a smattering of them and you will see that vast majority are written in the same "voice" with a particular style and choice of words. How many people refer to the families at FESA as "the legions?" That phrase is used constantly. Or the hundreds of posts about what happened with the composite ECNL team for Nationals? I am familiar with what happened with that and I don't know of any families that feel that poorly about - especially enough to post about it several times a day for 8 weeks!
Plus, whenever anybody challenges the negative poster to bring these "supposed issues" to the leadership or BOD, their only response for not doing that is "fear of retaliation." There are dozen of ways that these issues could be surfaced in a constructive way without a specific family's name attached to it. I'm calling B.S.!
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