SusanofO
Posts: 5672
Joined: 12/19/2005
Status: offline
|
I will take on little personal challenges sometimes, that maybe some other people are either too smart or too scared (maybe for good reason) to take on (of course I have no doubt many have stories like this they could tell):
1. When one of the volunteer organizations I'd just joined 3 months earlier lost its President, I got elected (I had volunteered to be V.P. - I never dreamed I'd have the actual job of President - and at the time, I didn't think I wanted it, either). I didn't know the other members very well, and it was a fairly large chapter (over 200 members).
At the time, our chapter of the organization was a mess, and in a state of chaos. We were lacking almost all of the officer(s) - we had no: Newsletter Editor or publisher, Vice-President, or Treasurer (the previous one had left town with another member, having stolen almost all treasury funds), and the membership rate was drastically dropping every year, because there wasn't very much for members to participate in, as far as activities that would attract them to events, or a meeting (IMO). The chapter seemed to have had, for the past several years, a series of lack-luster, uninvolved officers, and people were less inclined to attend events or meetings all the time.
I wanted to make a positive difference, but I was brand new and knew nothing about how to run the chapter, and I'd never been President of anything - I didn't know much about the organization, either, yet. I took a few weeks to look through some old boxes of "stuff" about the organization (in its more glorious past), and also talked to some of the Presidents and officers of other (more successful)chapters, and formulated a "game plan" to get it back on its feet.
Having never-before even used a personal computer, I learned how to compose and edit the newsletter (a fairly large one at over 25-40 pages, and which won a consequent national award), and figured out how to navigate the weird rules for bulk mail at the post office to get it to the members. I also found other officers to fill officer vacancies (no easy task, but I found good, reliable people to fill the vacant offices, after some earnest searching and reicruiting).I think it's harder to recruit people to volunteer, than to do paid jobs sometimes, simply because they are volunteer positions - and people can easily opt out - it has to be attractive to them to begin with, to want to participate.
I also instituted (and coordinated - it was a lot of work at first) traditions that have survived in the organization for over the past 12 years, and helped to reatin members: An annual Holiday party, a Summer picnic, Hallowe'en party, and began four special interest groups - one for reading, visiting art museums, dining, and movie-going. Which inspired, apparently, a few members to start others as well.
So we now had "stuff for members to do". Gradually, people became more interested in attending meetings and events (because there were some to attend!) I also personally phoned almost fifty members who had dropped out, asking them to an event (most re-joined). I got re-elected President for 3 years after that - and then just opted out (I had other organizations I belong to that needed me more, I thought, so someone else took over).
But some people said I was the best President they'd seen for like 20 years -(and I knew they meant it). I increased membership by at least 20%, for 3 years running (almost unheard of in our chapter - active membership too, not just the number of folks who joined but never participated). I also retained many members who'd been contemplating leaving.
And when I joined - I hadn't really anticipated doing any of that - it just sort of dropped in my lap - and it was a challenge, and an interesting one at that - also scary, at least at first. I could have only given it a half-hearted attempt. But things were such a mess, it was more fun to see if they could be completely re-built, almost (to me).
2. When I was an undergrad, I got a Summer internship in Marketing reserach that was supposed to go to a grad student, but I'd interviewed for the job anyway, and at the last minute the grad sudent took another job, and the President hired me instead. He was this older (60ish) man who had a paternal, kind attitude towards me, but he was also very much a business person, and I knew if I didn't perfom, he might fire my ass right out the door, too.
On the first day - he gave me a list of projects so complex that I was to complete by Summer's end - that I was a bit scared - I just wasn't sure I could do it (but of course I never said that). I now understood why the internship was intended for a grad student - but it was such a good opportunity, I wasn't going to quit - I had no choice but to figure out how to do the work.
So, I just went to the library every night, to figure out what I was going to do to solve this or that, and also talked to some of my old professors at school, and they'd give me some hints, and then I felt better. I gradually got into some kind of "comfort zone" with the work.
Pretty soon, I was tackling all of the projects (I worked alone, and had no assistant), and the President just thought I was great. He would say to me: "Well, I wouldn't have hired you if I didn't think you could do the job, and boy was I right about that." It made me feel really good. It was a real internship - I wasn't just doing filing and that stuff. And it helped me land my first "real job" after I graduated. I was so glad I took the job, because it really scared me at first, but it was a real opportunity for me.
3. I got a kid's father, at the children's shelter where I volunteer, prosecuted for sexually abusing her. She kept telling me things he did to her - but apparently she wasn't telling anyone else - not even her social worker. Since I am "just" a volunteer - I had (at first) a hard time getting any of the admnistrators to hear me - and she was slated to go back to living with both of her parents soon (including this father).
I jsut wouldn't give up - I couldn't stand the thought of her going back there to have to live with him. And nobody (admin. anyway) at the shelter was listening to me - it was very frustrating. I finally called her Guardian ad Litem (sort of a foster legal aid person) and got them to contact the administrators at the shelter - and together we made sure she never had to see his face again, if she didn't want to see him.
And she is now living happily with other foster parents. I feel really good about that - because so often, things don't work out that way, it seems (but there isn't always the option to act, as in this case. But sometimes there is, and people don't which is bad news, I think).
There are more things I could list, but they are all the same in that they all seem to involve these little weird challenges I could just as easily have passed by - but for some reason, I didn't.
- Susan
< Message edited by SusanofO -- 1/26/2007 5:49:46 AM >
_____________________________
"Hope is the thing with feathers,
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all". - Emily Dickinson
|
The Submissive "Brag" Thread - 
Profile
RE: The Submissive "Brag" Thread - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread