The Four Bones of Coin Clubs and Other Organizations

Longacre

I was reading the Canadian Numismatic Association's E-newsletter. I am not sure why I still get it, because it has very little to do with coins, and its attempts at humor consistently come up short. Occasionally, there is an interesting item, such as the one below. I just thought I would share it because it seems to be true. What do you think?

"THE FOUR BONES OF COIN CLUBS
Ross Kingdon, Editor of Timber Talk, official publication of the Canadian Association of Wooden Money Collectors (CAWMC) included the following in the February 2007 bulletin:

Someone once said that the membership of an organization is made up of Four Bones. There are the Wishbones: people who spend all their time wishing somebody else would do all the work. There are the Jaw Bones: people who do all the talking but very little else. There are the Knuckle Bones: people who knock everything that others try to do. Finally, there are the Back Bones: people who get the load and do the work.

I hope your club is made up mostly of people with Back Bones!"

DUIGUY

That hits the nail on the head !! This holds true at the workplace also.

Zoins

So can the "old guard" be considered Knuckle Bones at many clubs? What kind of bones should status quo leadership be classified as?

Geoman

Within our local coin club (24 active members) we have probably 6 members for each "Bone."

What is interesting though........ is that the 6 Back Bone members who do 90% of the work are the 6 youngest (ages 16-38). So I think our club will make it and not slowly disappear.

CoinHusker

How about "Bone heads"? So stubborn, set in their ways and hard headed that it's their way or the highway. Our club has a few of those.

ricko

So very typical of many organizations.. .especially 'club' types...which is why I do not join. I think the Boneheads are classified with the knuckle bones... although, coinhusker, I do agree.. they deserve a separate category. The 'idiot' bones soured me on social groups long ago.... and in my work organization, we fire the idiots. Sure makes a company more productive when filled with backbones. I must admit though, it is a constant 'deboning' effort. Cheers, RickO

edix2001

Don't forget the hambone, taking credit for everyone else's work.

Michigan

With nearly every kind of club or organization (numismatic or otherwise) you have a small core group of people that do 90% or more
of the real work keeping the thing going and the rest just show up and might lend a hand or two in certain situations if asked but you can't
expect them to contribute anything in an ongoing basis.

Thats life.

RichieURich

This thread is a classic! Thanks for making the original post, Longacre, and thanks to all who responded!