You
could say this weekend’s Trader mood was volatile. Poor business, unfavourable
press, and concern over some license renewal letters that went out during the
week all had impact. Add in a TRC agenda item about a demerit points system for
Traders and the drums were beating loudly.
Demerit
systems are unlikely to get a good reception from independent business people
like QVM Traders. As one Trader said many of us refused to accept our School
Headmaster’s instructions and probably one reason we ended up at QVM is because
we wanted greater freedom in our business lives than regular employees are able
to achieve.
Toeing
the line is not our strong point, but the observation was made by another
Trader that if there is to be a demerit system it should apply equally to all.
There are rules that we want our neighbours to follow, and most Traders believe
that bad behaviour should be policed. The last thing we want is un-structured
preference being shown to some Traders over others. A carefully balanced,
structured points system would treat everyone fairly.
Let’s
not go too far down this track because the subject is up for discussion at the
next TRC meeting and more will be revealed in due course. But perhaps we can
make one suggestion – change the name - drop the Demerit Point nomenclature and
call it a Trader Community Co-operation Rating. That sounds a lot more positive
and something we might even have accepted from our School Headmasters.