Double Standards

The Oxford Dictionary defines "double standards" as "informal rules, ethics, or principles that are defined by dominant groups and applied to some people and not others". A classic example would be one person writing 30 emails praising the committee of a bushwalking club and being thanked profusely, while another person writing 30 emails suggesting improvements to the club has their membership cancelled for "vexatious emails".

The committee seems to have assumed that the former Webmaster is a terrible person and then judged his behaviour accordingly. This is a common and problematic phenomenon, often rooted in cognitive biases - one of which is known as Confirmation Bias.

Confirmation Bias is a particularly potent cognitive bias in committee settings. Once an initial assumption of guilt is formed, committee members may unconsciously seek out, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms their pre-existing belief, while downplaying or ignoring evidence that contradicts it.

The Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee has been guilty of double standards - and Confirmation Bias - for the past two years. Some examples are shown below.

See also Double Standards for Facebook Editors and Double Standards for Committee News.

1. Distribution of documents When President John Kubale received the the David Campbell complaint email in September 2023, he distributed it to some committee members - John Souter, Kynie Evison and Brett Davis. This is detailed on the SECRETS page. When the Webmaster learned that the President had kept the document SECRET from some members of the committee, Brett distributed it to them, just as John Kubale had done. Nothing happened to the President, but the Webmaster was almost expelled from the club for doing exactly the same thing as the President - on a charge of "conduct prejudicial to the interests of SBW"! - see the "Private and Confidential" letter sent to Brett after a SECRET Shoalhaven Bushwalkers committee meeting.

2. Correspondence When people exchange correspondence with the committee, a summary is recorded in the minutes - e.g. "Request from Fae Folkes for prize money for Christmas in July" or "Emails to and from Kirsten Mayer in response to our query about fees for Associated Members”. When Brett sends correspondence to the committee - like complaints or suggestions or disputes - there is no summary - e.g. "50 emails received from Brett Davis in the period 20th January to 9th April 2025 which have all been forwarded to committee members" or "7 emails sent to Brett Davis". Is that how minutes are supposed to be recorded? Is this honest and open and transparent? The committee is deliberately keeping the content of the correspondence with the Webmaster SECRET so that club members are not aware that complaints and suggestions have been made, and that two disputes that were current at the time were the real reason for cancelling the former Webmaster's membership.

3. Sacking the former Webmaster from his Facebook Editor position In early 2024, Brett Davis was sacked from his Facebook Editor role after adding a post to the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers Facebook page which told club members of an article written by club member Joe Nethery about the club's longest serving President - Karen Davis - and her newly created list of the Shoalhaven's high points that would make interesting walk destinations which she called the Karens. The article appeared in Wild Magazine, along with a link to the list which Brett had uploaded to his own web page (which was no longer a business site but just a site where he put information to make it available to everyone). The article is here - the Karens article. The article was great publicity for the club and obviously of interest to members - but the President and the committee disagreed. When President John Kubale saw the post he ordered Annie Heppell, the SBW Facebook Admin, to remove Brett Davis from his Facebook Editor role. This was yet another example of a President making up the rules as he went along, because it is up to Annie as the Facebook Admin, or the SBW committee, to make this decision - not a bullying President. Brett appealed to the SBW committee to get his job back, but the SBW committee backed the President and gave the following reason for the dismissal ... "The committee deemed that your Facebook post was inappropriate under the Club’s Facebook Policy that ‘Our Facebook page exists primarily for our members ... [and] ... the promotion of our club ...' whereas your post promoted Wild magazine and your personal website" - see the complete PDF here - committee Brett Letter Facebook.pdf. While Wild magazine and Brett's website were mentioned, it was no different to the mention of unrelated businesses by other Shoalhaven Bushwalkers Facebook editors in the past few years, none of which resulted in their expulsion from the club - see Double Standards for Facebook Editors and Double Standards for Committee News. The SBW committee victimised Brett (again), made up a ridiculous reason for his dismissal, and revealed their own double standards all at the same time!