June 30, 2017
Dear Everyone:
Today is my last day as the President of the
Mount Diablo
Chapter of ARMA International.
Tomorrow I will become the Immediate Past President.
Who will the new Chapter President be?
That’s a very good question.
If there are no more questions, class is dismissed.
Which is to say: I have no
idea. The important thing is
that it will not be I. I am
(finally!) off the hook.
Three years ago, our then-President, “Callie” went scampering off to
Idaho with her
freshly-retired husband and many, many
husky
sled dogs, leaving
me holding the bag. At first
it was “business as usual”.
But then a couple of years ago, the bottom dropped out, much as it did
with the
housing market about a decade back.
Suddenly, people weren’t coming to our monthly meetings the way
they had before.
We had no idea why, although I, personally have a theory, to wit:
People don’t come to meetings for one or more of three reasons:
1. They don’t want
to. 2.
They don’t have to.
3. They don’t need to.
We floundered for a while, trying to come up with meeting speakers that
would be “interesting” enough to lure people in.
Not much worked.
In the meantime, our Vice President sort of disappeared down The Rabbit
Hole. We didn’t hurry to
find a new VP since the Members weren’t exactly beating down the door to
participate. Then last
April, the Pacific Region Manager, “Barry”, sent an email message to all
Chapter Members informing them that, if they didn’t come up with a new
Board by the end of the month, he was going to shut the Chapter down.
The deadline came and went.
Then “Barry” sent out a new email to those people who had responded to
his “ultimatum”, inviting them to a special teleconference to “discuss
new Leadership”. When we all
called in, “Barry” asked for volunteers to “step up” and become Board
members. The silence was
deafening.
At which point “Barry” did a sudden reversal and announced that he would
“allow” the Chapter to continue for another year.
He asked us all to pick a date when we could meet to hammer out
some kind of a Board. The
second Saturday in August was agreed upon.
This would come after the annual Regional Leadership Conference
in Seattle.
Then he invited “interested persons” to attend the Conference,
even if they were just thinking about joining the Board.
And that’s where things stand at this point.
The Leadership Conference is next weekend.
The three of us still remaining on the Board, “Kate”, “Natasha”
and I, met a week ago, at which time I (reluctantly) agreed to attend
the Conference, mostly because “Natasha” couldn’t make it and “Kate”
didn’t want to go all alone.
And no, none of the people who told “Barry” that they were interested in
serving on the Board replied to “Kate’s” emails about going to Seattle,
even if the Chapter paid their way.
Not exactly promising, is it?
The three of us decided, more or less, that if we were the only thing
holding the Chapter together then it was time to let it drop.
But we’ll give those other people the opportunity to show up in
August.
Either way, I’m out of the Presidential
Hot Seat and plan
to stay that way.
Programming Note: No Letter
next week as I will be in Seattle.
Love, as always,
Pete
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