August 15, 2014
Dear Everyone:
I’ve known about this for about a month or so, but now it’s official.
I am the most recent President of the
Mt Diablo Chapter of
ARMA
International.
The previous President, “Callie”, mentioned it to me during a phone call
last month. Her husband
suddenly decided to retire from his job and they are currently in the
process of moving to Idaho, with many, many dogs.
She raises Huskies for the
Iditarod Dog Sled Races.
No doubt the dogs will be much happier in Idaho than here in the
Bay Area.
But for a while there things were sort of in Limbo.
Then I started getting the official emails that come to the
President, and “Callie” was not included in the addressee list.
So I forwarded one of the emails to the rest of the Chapter
Board, since we needed to schedule a Planning Meeting to prepare for the
coming year. And I cc’d
“Callie” so she would know what I was doing.
The next thing I knew, “Callie” contacted all of the Board, myself
included, and announced that the Planning Meeting would take place last
Saturday at the home of the Pacific Region Coordinator.
So I wasn’t the “new President” as far as she was concerned, even
though she was the one who notified ARMA International that I was.
A few hours later, we all got an email from the Pacific Region
Coordinator that we would be meeting at a restaurant in
Concord,
not at his home. And
that the meeting was restricted to exactly two hours, no more.
(Trouble in Paradise?)
At the beginning of the meeting, the Pacific Region Coordinator rather
pointedly asked if I was “prepared” to step into the position of
President. I assured him
that I was and lo, I became the newest President.
Three cheers.
Someone once told me that “you get as much out of ARMA as you put into
it.” We’ve had our share of
Presidents who did as much, or as little, as it pleased them to do.
There was one who accepted the position, then never showed up at
meetings because his company kept sending him to Europe and Asia.
He became known as The Absentee President.
Then there was a certain
City Clerk who did absolutely nothing that any
of us could see. I found out
later that this person is “a legend” among the various City Clerks in
California for getting the job and then proceeding to do nothing until
forced out of the office.
Whereupon she would move to another city and start over again.
She even offered to be our Chapter Secretary at one point in the recent
past. I had my reservations
at first, but decided to wait and see.
Sure enough, within a few weeks her email address suddenly ceased
to exist (useless@city.ci.ca.gov) and we never heard from her again.
I suspect someone in charge at that city took one look and booted
her out as quickly as possible.
Just out of curiosity, I looked her up recently and discovered
that she is currently
trolling through cities in
Southern California,
having burned all the bridges behind her up here.
On the other hand, we have had some pretty wonderful Presidents, too.
“Callie” did a fine job, although I noticed that she seemed to
have taken on the responsibilities of the Program Director, since the
Chapter doesn’t happen to have one.
The Program Director is in charge of finding Speakers for the
monthly Chapter meetings.
She even had one lined up for the first meeting in September.
The only problem with that is the President who tries to do everything
him/herself. I’ve seen that
before, too. That can burn
you out pretty quickly.
Something I plan to avoid if I can.
So be resigned to learning a great deal more about the happenings
at ARMA this fiscal year.
It’s all a balancing act.
Love, as always,
Pete
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