Ban on Heriot-Watt now lifted [04/Jun/07]
Here is a cautionary tale. At the very beginning of May a member of staff of Heriot-Watt Sport Centre was struck by a falling target stand whilst he was working in a store cupboard. Although no members of the Archery Club were on site at the time, this resulted in a total ban of Heriot-Watt AC from their own university's facilities from 3rd May onwards.
Representatives of the Club were summoned to a meeting with the Director of Sport and Exercise and were basically lectured on a range of safety issues. The archers were told to tidy up the 3 areas in which archery equipment is stored, put up more danger signs when shooting outdoors and create a new committee position of Safety Officer. After another meeting to confirm this had been achieved the ban was finally lifted in time for a practice session on Monday 25th May. The ban lasted 3 weeks, despite being about an afternoon's work.
Given that the target stand must have been dislodged by the member of staff in the first place, the unusual array of unrelated conditions imposed on the HW Archery Club seems clearly disproportionate. The Club and Sports Union have clashed over practice times in the past but by issuing a total ban, HW Sports Union have effectively held one of their own clubs hostage, since "do this or no practice time for you" is a pretty powerful negotiating position. I can't condemn this attitude strongly enough and I imagine it's not one that greets the rugby club.
In happier news for the Hairy Watters, they have a new website, not hosted by the university on heriotwattarchery.org.uk as well as a new committee, details of which are in the Contacts section. Thanks to outgoing Captain, Arran Curran for the information in this article whilst new Captain, compound Dave Hall faces a Sports Union clearly unafraid of imposing heavy sanctions. He must be hoping that nothing falls over between now and freshers' week.
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