A world of disenchantment

I met a 16 year old man recently from Wales, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.  He is a member of a regional peer led organisation (which shall also remain nameless) of politically active young people.  He'd recently attended a residential and I asked him how it had gone.  "Rubbish," he said dolefully. "We had 80 people, and there was probably only 20 who actually wanted to do the workshop and the others were there for a fun weekend away.  People were talking and shouting when other people were making speeches, if someone was late they held the workshop up for an hour sometimes, and then people were playing dance music really loudly at 2am."  I asked if the leaders had been there.  "Oh yes," he said.  "Even the Chief Exec.   I felt really weird because I actually wanted someone to tell us off.  I am worried that we are going to lose our funding because if I was a funder and had come in and seen what was going on, I would have thought it was a waste of money.  But it's almost like the Chief Exec's decided not to intervene because it's peer led.  You can be peer led and still achieve things, can't you?"  I told him the answer was yes, and felt very sad that an enthusiastic, politically active young man was rapidly becoming disenchanted with youth leadership.  He is currently drafting a letter, co-signed by contemporaries who are also worried, to the Chief Executive, expressing his concerns.