Friday, April 11, 2008

Thank Goodness for Board Meetings

I just got home from a 6.5 hour meeting...yes, on a Sunday...of the Executive Board, which I sit on, for the non-profit group I'm a member of, which took place in a city 1.5 hours from where I live. Whew!!

I'm the incumbent (and, after today, re-elected) local events organizer; it's something I'm pretty good at and thoroughly enjoy. It's also something I'm rather uniquely positioned to do, in that I'm the only person living in my city who is willing to organize an event each year :) I also help with events in the main city, the one 1.5 hours from where I live.

We held our annual planning session today. I filled in as Secretary, since that position is vacant right now. We hammered out the strategic plan for upcoming events, membership development, fund raising, and outreach today. We're a hard working gang.

I think I appreciated this event more than I would have at other times in my life, since my week at work was frustrating. I'm not appreciated for my ideas or willingness to try new strategies at work; whereas I am valued for those things in this non-profit organization, and I needed the ego-boost this week. Monday brought the event of being told at work that my list of ideas collected from the staff for agenda items at staff meetings had to be pre-approved by my boss before anybody else could see it. I work for a control freak, I'm slowly going crazy...she doesn't trust me to run informal staff meetings for chrissake, and it's not like she's there to run them herself most of the time...hence, why we've only had 3 staff meetings in the last 10 months.

Here's the touchy part though - I want to leave, but I'm participating in the wedding of one of my co-workers (who I genuinely like) in August...and our boss is officiating the wedding. I really don't want to burn that bridge before the wedding unless I really have to. So, I'll just mentally and emotionally prepare myself to move jobs for now, and sustain myself on the appreciation I receive for my community contributions. And, who knows, there might be a miracle and I could get everything I want out of my position after explicitly stating my requirements at my annual review in June.

I'll also go to yoga!!!!

Three good things:
1. Being on a non-profit board is great for my resume!
2. I won't have an extremely uncomfortable day at my friend/co-worker's wedding if I haven't quit yet.
3. I'll be nice and distracted when Charles leaves in a few weeks. :(

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