I was at the AWC monthly meeting yesterday evening, and it was the first time in 3 months that I didn’t have to run it because the woman that is our President is back from her 3-month sojourn in the US. She went home abruptly right after Christmas as her dad was dying, and ended up staying until this past weekend. She’s a powerhouse and we’ve really missed her, especially on the board. And especially as right after she returned, she got THREE messages, from ALL THREE of our Activities officers saying they are 1) stepping down immediately due to personal reasons, 2) stepping down as soon as possible due to personal reasons and 3) not going to run again next year due to personal reasons. AUGH!
Two of them have two small children and the other has had a really tough year with joblessness and a bad breakup, but AUGH!! All three at ONCE. Activities are the backbone of our club and if we can’t find replacements, I’m not sure what we’ll do. The one who is staying out her term has been in the position for 3 years, so fair enough and even number 2 has done it for a year and a half, but it’s still a bummer as the two of them have done a fantastic job. The other one has been a bit of a disappointment, unfortunately. I really like her but she doesn’t seem to have engaged at all or helped organize much and she has an antipathy to FB where the majority of our board communication takes place, so she’s been mostly out of the loop to boot, which certainly hasn’t helped.
There always seems to be some sort of drama where clubs and organizations are concerned, but it’s a shame as we had a really good, outgoing, organized, energetic group this year and I hate to see it fall apart in the middle. Finding replacements is always difficult…heck, finding people to step up at all every year is difficult, and having to do it again in the middle of the season is just aggravating. The President contacted one possibility last night but got turned down. I’ve sent messages to two others this evening, so fingers crossed at least one of them bites.
People ask me why I do it, why I’m still involved, and why I care, but I still feel like I’m contributing something, that I’m of use and of worth, with the knowledge that I have, the history I remember, and the skills I can provide. A lot of what I do, as the Membership officer, appeals to my OCD tendencies as well: being organized, keeping lists, sending reminders, maintaining the website pages, etc. It’s fun, and it’s not that much work. Plus I get to meet and talk to new people all the time, and there are lots of cool, interesting people out there.
Our speaker last night was a woman that was very active on the board several years back. She works as an English home-language teacher and she’s a very active gardener, growing the majority of her (large) family’s own produce. She’s been a guest speaker for us on both subjects in the past, and we asked to her to do a repeat of an intro to the Swedish school system at last night’s meeting. It turned out to be a huge hit, with a good turnout, lots of very engaged participants and tons of questions, to the point where she was panicking a bit about getting through her entire presentation. It’s an interesting subject for a lot of members in our club right now as we have lots of people new to Sweden and lots of people with younger children, just getting ready to start school. And things have changed even since MY kids entered school 15 or so years ago, so it was even interesting to those of us with grown kids!
I got my printed blog book for 2018 in the mail on Friday last week and spent some time skimming it and realized I spent most of the first part of last year bitching and moaning about how busy it was at work. And guess what? It hasn’t changed a bit. We’re still slammed. In fact, today I sent out a message to all of Corporate Marketing and all the regional marketing people to give them a heads up on possible delays handling their requests due to the crazy amount of work coming in right now. At least the recruitment for another Graphic Designer for our team is underway. I hope we find someone really good and REALLY fast, because we sure need them! But within the next week, I should be completely done with my monster project and able to concentrate on all the baby monster projects that are constantly biting at our toes.
Today, at lunch, someone mentioned that one of the women in another department is trying to start a choir at work. I haven’t been in a choir in nearly a year. Hmmm….
Recent good things: Dinner last week with D&C and dinner THIS week with D&C. Good talks with both my kids. Blue sky and sunshine, with cold temps. Getting a big bonus at work, YAY! (though now I have to spend it on a plane ticket home for Martin)