Speaking for no one but myself . . .
I know you are speaking the truth and I have seen some of the pettiest, small minded, and and the most downright silly reasoning (if you can call it that) go into consideration of a new member.
Usually these people invent these rationalizations to avoid having to say they don't like the person.
I truly wish they would just stand up in the meeting and say, "look i just don't like the person, can't see past that, and don't want them in." It would save hours of debate on points the person really doesn't care about anyway.
Of course this isn't always the case and sometimes I have seen people make dispassionate decisions based on the good of the chapter with a clearly defined criteria.
Let me change "sometimes" to "once".
I am offering general criticism/advice and even when using the word you, I mean it in a general fashion.
Usually we would not take up an older member, based solely on that reason, only if we felt threatened in some way by their supposed perspective or maturity.
I am not even going to touch the woman vs. woman issue
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