Saturday, August 23, 2008

Hail to the Chief

Well, now I've gone and done it. In spite all of my careful boundary-setting and my "Just Say No" proselytizing, I am now officially and hopelessly overextended.

As if full-time working motherhood wasn't enough, last spring, I agreed to be President of our neighborhood Women's Club. I really don't know what I was thinking.

"I know you work full time," pleaded my neighbor who was in charge of putting together our slate, "But you'd make such a great President! You're organized, you're a great communicator and you have that leadership thing going on." Flattery, of course, will get you everywhere.

And then the kicker, "Plus, I really don't know who else can do it besides you." Guilt.

I had been involved in the Women's Club for the last few years, but had been very careful to take on jobs that were easily manageable -- ordering pizza for our Halloween party, taking minutes at our Board meetings and welcoming the handful of families that moved into our neighborhood. I've loved being involved -- it's been a great way to meet my neighbors in our little subdivision, all of whom are, thankfully, lovely people.

My nominating neighbor swore that she put together such a great slate for me that my job would mostly be about marshaling the troops. Another neighbor and former President assured me I could do the job mostly via email at night.

The thing is, I want to do the job. For one thing, I'm a total sucker for high-falutin' titles that start with "P" and rhyme with "Esident." But it would also give me a tiny glimpse into what it might be like to run a voluntary non-profit organization, a career aspiration I've been thinking about lately. Plus, we plan to live in this house for a long time. If I say no now, chances are they'll come back to ask me again later. There's really no escaping it, so I might as well get it over with now.

Of course since I reluctantly agreed to take on the job, one Board member has totally freaked when she found out what her job actually entailed and we've had to scale back her duties. And two of my Board members have told me, "Oh, I'm not really very good on email." Just great.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it kind of lacks the "wow" of being the POTUS who I hear has people failing all over themselves to be delegated to.

Not good with email? Who isn't good with email?

Anonymous said...

its interesting to spend time at you place

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Anonymous said...

this one is priceless. the not good with email thing is something that i have heard many times before. those of us (of a certain age) who stayed in the workforce moved seamlessly into the technical world. but women who stopped working in the early 90's never had that skill. actually, they learn mostly from their kids. amongst all the other things i can't say no to, i have become the IT help desk to the masses.

face it, we are a personality type. and there is part of us that thrives on it.