I’ve been on a lot of boards. OSM. Mid South ASPRS. GA URISA. TNGIC. Four of the five are hard to deal with. The Georgia URISA board never quite was that difficult. There is the normal insanity that comes with every board. Resignations. Anger. Drama. Conferences. Workshops.
I appeared at my first conference in 2006 by calling in sick to my normal job and coming to Athens Georgia for 3 days. Went to talks. Went to meetings. Went to the social. They had rented out a bar that I’m pretty sure had changed names 4 or 5 times since 2006. I passed by it Tuesday night on my way to the 2014 Social. We left the 2006 social in a taxi. One person jumped up and said I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME. So we ended up at the Georgia Theatre. I think I was there until 2 or 3 in the morning watching some band that has no doubt changed names 4 or 5 times since 2006.
Tuesday night I found myself sitting at the Georgia Theatre with one of the original “don’t wanna go home” group from 2006. Since Then I’ve changed positions on the board 4 or 5 times….North Georgia Subchapter Chair, Education Chair, VP, President, and Finally IPP. At some point during educations chair I had a meltdown – divorce. I didn’t really feel that the board was very cohesive at that point. So I had to make my first confessional – “This meeting I planned won’t happen unless everyone helps because well……” and they all came – every one of them…from up to two hours away. So I sat at Gainesville state college with a group of people who understood more than I thought and talked about some mapping application called OSM no one had heard of….. So I got through that meeting and kept going. It was always a nice break coming to Atlanta from Chattanooga for the meetings. I actually miss the drive back to Chattanooga last night. I typically would take the longest way home possible to sit and think. Last night I didn’t have my normal texting buddy….I had a 10 minute commute to the duplex. I piled into bed and here I sit.
I’m a firm believer on boards need fresh blood. If you don’t it gets stale. It’s a problem with one of the boards I was on – no one wanted to let go. So it’s got just painful and I resigned. I resigned from the OSM Board because I sucked at treasurer and I could barely get a handle on my account much less another one.
So now what? I’m not quite done – I’ve got two more emails to send, one more function to preside over, and I can go gentle into that good night for a bit. I’ve got a few more things I want to do…a few more problems I want to cause….but I don’t have to do it while on the board for Georgia URISA……Because they would always win for my attention.
http://instagram.com/p/tMGIrJjDc7/
