I have not blogged in awhile. Mainly I have been busy working out and planning a wedding, but also I just haven't had much to say. Imagine that! However after last night and this past year serving as a board member for a club I joined as a hobby...I have something to say! Some will not like this but I usually say what I mean, and feel what I say...so there is that. Besides, half my facebook friends are annoyed by my constant updates on workouts anyway and ignore me so this is more for me haha.
So there is that movie with Clooney and the girl from Pitch Perfect, the pretty one. She goes in with this AWESOME idea how to make the company he works for so much better, time and money saving blah blah. Up In The Air, yah I am gonna tell you the end so skip this paragraph if you want to watch it and whatever. So yah a fresh out of college grad pissing off George with her fresh know it all ideas. So George is like, screw that. Step into MY SHOES, do my job, and let's see how good your idea is after that. So they fire people. Major companies actually hire people like George to come out to their company and let their people go for them. FUN JOB! But he gets to fly all the time, hence the title, and she wants to ground him. Have him sit at a computer and fire them on facetime or whatever it is. Brilliant! Saves travel time, expenses, and George can fire someone in Tokyo and Cali in the same day. Smart girl. Well, it is a dick move to hire someone to fire your employees for you because you can't do it yourself but come on, it is a bigger DICK MOVE to have someone fire someone via facechat (emoji sad face.) So he takes Pitch Perfect with him and makes her fire someone and guess what? She cries, quits, the end. Ok so there is more to it but it helps me set the mood for my rant.... hey and maybe some of you want to see the movie now. See George, you should pay me for your advertising and not drink Nespresso....
Anyway I joke when I rant because that's who I am. One of my best friends says I am a person who can be screaming at her one minute and the next I am over it and laughing. Well I love her, so if I am screaming at you I hope I love you because the outcome may be different just saying. (emoji creepy face.) I am who I am. I will tell you how I feel and you bet your ass if you make a comment and say something that is going to hurt said friend or imply she is slacking off or not doing something or any of my friends I am going to stand up and tell you exactly how I feel....and immediately apologize after.
Anyway I have been a member of the board for 2 years. We have made amazing strides this year with the club. It is more diverse and includes members now that may have been intimidated in the past and not felt welcome, it includes all ages. Every single member on that board has done multiple positions, worked hours for free, all because they care about the club.
This year the board took a controversial topic, which most of the members on the board including myself had NO OPINION ON - let me put that out there, and put it to a club vote. It was simple and fair. It was voted on by the club, the math determined the outcome, and it was done. In my whole time in this club, nothing has ever been brought back to the board in question of the board's actions. We were not only questioned, we were accused of wrong doing, called names, yelled at, made fun of. Every single action since has been brought into question. A simple "fun awards" idea for the banquet was brought into question because we might offend someone, whether someone should have voted on something- someone who has voted on EVERYTHING for the past few years and never had it questioned was brought into question. All the good that was provided from the board, all the extra time spent to better the main importance of the club, it was all forgotten. A Facebook post for the entire club to see was made and I tell you, if I was a newcomer I would have been like F THAT, I am not joining that.
Back to Pitch and George. Last night I attended my final board meeting. The new board members got to come for the next year. So a few of us Georges got to listen to Pitch Perfect basically tell us we were unorganized, asked us why we did what we did the year before, questioned our lack of timing and organizing and sharing with club members. Well Pitch, step on up and welcome to the board. Sit down and have everything you do, all the time you spent extra, hours of organizing volunteers, hours of coming up with a solution to include all abilities, hours of making sure everyone got their PR times done because all the equipment was set up and ready to go, hours of organizing so the trip to Indy could go smoothly, hours of making sure the accounts were balanced, members were entered in and their membership was paid. The board members perform many roles, many that you may have forgotten in your quick judgment and quicker tongue to make sure we all knew how you felt about one particular item we decided on, that we have been solely judged on since....
What I am saying is....it is good to have people who complain step up with a solution. Too many times people just complain but have no solution to the problem. Lots of people complained about our decision on this one topic, lots of people had a chance to be on the board this year. 3 people out of over 400 members stepped up to join. The one person who voiced would not even sit through one meeting to see how we did things, to see how it ran, to meet the other members who have spent their free time helping the club and to at the very least respect that. All this for a symbol....I know this symbol means a lot to people, but think of this...
When I became a runner and joined this club I remembered the people. Telling Cory how many great people I met and how joining was the best decision of my life, well, besides him. Half my wedding will be runners and I am proud of it. When I look back at my running years these are the things I will remember. I will remember when I crossed the finish line of my first half marathon and I cried in the arms of my parents and Cory. I will remember training for my first marathon and meeting my good friend Sarah, later forming a group of us that all hang out and do non running things. I will remember all the kind words my running friends said to help me through my injury and the new people I met coming back when I couldn't run with my old group. I will remember the pain I have seen some of my friends go through to accomplish their goals but the happiness and love when they meet their goals and there waiting at the finish line are the people, the PEOPLE they love.
So what is important to you? A trophy that will tarnish and dust on a shelf? A shirt that has some advertisement or race's symbol on it that will hang in your closest and be used to run a fun run in, a time that will either be beaten or not later in life? When I look back on every single thing I have accomplished as a runner I remember my friends, the ones I have made through this club I am writing about. I remember them and the reason I am still in this club. I will not remember a symbol, a trophy, a time. I will remember the feelings and the people that helped me feel that way.
I questioned staying in the club after this year. I will not let the hurt I felt as a board member change the way this club has changed my life and all the good it has brought. Instead I will step back and go back to doing what made me happy....running with my friends.
