In Spite of Us: My Education in the Big and Little Games of Amateur and Olympic Sports in the U.S.

Rating:
Summary: In Spite of US
Review: The review printed by Amazon that accompanies the advert for the book is clearly written by someone who has never worked in the amateur sports arena as Dave did. There are many of us who work as paid staff or as a professional/volunteer (someone who does not get paid but is expected to perform as if he/she did and maintain another career and family life at the same time)in a similar role to that of Dave with members of a Governing Body whose motives are either self preservation because it looks good on a CV or who, in spite of their considerable talents, spend their time fighting for their personal little issues or simply micro-manage. The book should be compulsary reading for anyone wanting to join or be elected to a sports NGB or who is simply going through the motions as a Board member.
Fortunately sport is changing, albeit slowly because its 'customers' are more demanding and more enlightened now than 20 years ago - they are less prepared to be seen as somewhere down the pecking order of priorities after the elected officers and in some cases staff too.
For anyone who wants an emotional journey in this amateur sports world which still exists - told in an honest but dramatic way (which makes it easy reading) then this is the book - it is also worthy of re-printing and free distribution in the wider context of organisational change and governance/management issues.