Autistic Leadership Spill

Autistic Leadership Spill

August the 24^th do you remember where you were?

Why am I asking you about this date in particular?

What’s with all the questions?

Am I training to be a detective?

Am I a journalist who has stopped you as you’ve come out of Aldi juggling your groceries because you forgot your single use plastic bag?

Even though you smugly told yourself that you wouldn’t forget to take it.

And now on a rainy August the 24^th some jouro from some network is canvassing your opinion on this particular date, and your trying to work out what to say so that you don’t come across as a wanker and end up being laughed at by Peter Helliar from the Project during one of his segments.

But I digress I’m talking about the leadership spill which played out in Canberra and which resulted in Australia having a new prime minster (our 5^th in 5 years!!)

Meanwhile over on Facebook another coo was taking place…..

I am a member of a closed Autistic Support group here in WA.

A description of the group reads as follows

“WA Autistic Adults is a networking space and cyber-home for Autistic adults living in Western Australia.

The group is a safe place for Autistic members and is not open to non-Autistic people. 

We will be holding regular face to face meets at different locations across the metro area.”

So what leadership spill are you going to be talking about then Nick you may well be asking yourself?

Well it’s this one.

See back when I joined this group they had a different name and different admins were running the page.

The spill that I am referring to happened after one of our monthly meetings.

One of the original founders of the group let’s call him *Jim* (not his real name) decided after one of our Sunday monthly meetings to step down.

Now not much is known as the reasons for this sudden departure but when he stepped down he not only abandoned the group, but he also took the original name with him along with the logo design.

What followed was me getting a lot of notifications and having to vote in poll after poll from what we should now call ourselves to what did we want from coming along to the meetings and the group in general.

The name of the group was then swiftly changed; a logo wasn’t implemented but an Autism meme has taken its place for the time being. I’m sure that someone will design us a new logo?

And then it became playing the blame game and the accusations, and a lot of finger pointing as well as a lot of very colourful language (which was beyond the pall really)

So I stepped back and cancelled all the notifications that I was receiving via Facebook

I didn’t need the stress and I certainly didn’t wish to read nasty vile comments

Because what was once a friendly group had now turned into a twitter backlash which you see being played out when celebrities or politicians send a tweet and everyone and their dog suddenly can’t wait to share their opinion with the entire world in 140 characters.

For now, whilst I am still a member of the group I have stayed away and will not post or participate until the hatred and anger have died down.

Which is a shame for a group which prides itself on being as per the group’s description

“A safe place for Autistic members”

If it’s such a safe place where other Autistic Adults can come together to share their experiences and get information from others about NDIS plans for example, then why am I not feeling that?

Carry on the Conversation

What are your thoughts? What would you have done in my position? Have you experienced anything like this in an Autistic Support Group?

Let me know in the comments below.

As always, I can also be found on Twitter: @AutisticNick9 and at my email autisticnick9@gmail.com

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Thank you for reading and I will see you next time for more thoughts from across the spectrum.