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I ran for president of my local permaculture group and got in. Old permaculture group president didn't stand for office again. And pretty much the entire old management committee stood down and new people came in except for the local area co-ordinator.
The Local Area Co-Ord could be a problem - she's old and set in her ways, doesn't like email and won't either read or discuss things over it - it's got to be in person. Which is fine for her because she's retired, but all the other LACs are younger, working, and so what free time they have on weekends they want to spend in their garden. There may come a point where we have to do the run-around her, although I hope it won't come to that.
They're all pretty new to the MC and so far as I know, they're easy to get along with, which is important. It was actually a couple of friends who were going to help out with one of the subcommittees who asked me to think about standing for pres. And then after the meeting, the old librarian (who's decided she can't do it another year, she's been doing it for 6+ years) came up and said that three people were interested in doing the librarian role and they'd probably end up sharing it.
And then yesterday afternoon, I get a message from another member who says she has three people interested in doing the librarian role - and they're a different three people! So I mentioned this to the secretary and we might see if we can find other areas for some of these people to be active in. Because although the old librarian joked that it took three people to do what she used to do solo, it's mostly a case of allowing people a break or to be absent because sickness, holiday, life management.
The sudden riches of members enthusiastic to do something is encouraging - but humbling, too.
Quite a few people came up afterwards to congratulate me (I feel it's kind of like I didn't do much, I just was willing to commit to being president) and say they were excited to see where things went in the next year.
I'm not sure I'm excited per se, but I'm definitely determined - all the more because the weather/fire/drought situation here in NSW is becoming dire, and even if we get the rain we so desperately need, a whole lot of us need to change the way we do things. And we need to get our politicians to change.
That's one of the key differences between the old managing committee and the new. The old were all Baby Boomers, early Gen X, and carry that mindset with them. The world worked for them, it's doing okay - I mean, sure it could do better, but they haven't had to really rebel. They could go quietly-quietly.
The new MC core are late Gen X and Millenial (Xennial, I guess it's called) and I suspect many of us don't believe we can go quietly-quietly anymore. My personality doesn't tend to outright rebellion, but it does lean towards stirring the water - making ripples in my local space until we've got enough momentum to move things along. Which is what I'm going to encourage the group to do. Talk to the neighbours, get involved in letter-writing to members of parliament or commercial boycotts of climate change deniers - do a little more than just toil away in our gardens, not talking to anyone who doesn't look like us or think like us. I want the group to do more reaching out to our neighbours and friends who are asking question and want to know, stand firm in the face of deniers, and invite along the people who are thinking "Look I don't know that I'm sold on this 'end of the world as we know it' activism, but maybe there's something in changing a few habits..."
It's kind of fitting in a way. I've never been a BNF in fandom - I've always started on the outside, then just gone along doing my own thing, pulling people in after me. My fannish influence has never been on the people in the middle - the popular crowd whose names are mentioned everywhere - it's always been among the people on the fringes, unsure of whether or not to come in or go elsewhere. The truth is that the more mainstream someone is, the less likely they are to like me and what I do, or follow me.
So I guess I'm just a little bit weird. And I'm learning to be okay with that.
--
In other news, I have a tree full of apricots. Well, half-full. But half-full of apricots is perfectly okay!
The Local Area Co-Ord could be a problem - she's old and set in her ways, doesn't like email and won't either read or discuss things over it - it's got to be in person. Which is fine for her because she's retired, but all the other LACs are younger, working, and so what free time they have on weekends they want to spend in their garden. There may come a point where we have to do the run-around her, although I hope it won't come to that.
They're all pretty new to the MC and so far as I know, they're easy to get along with, which is important. It was actually a couple of friends who were going to help out with one of the subcommittees who asked me to think about standing for pres. And then after the meeting, the old librarian (who's decided she can't do it another year, she's been doing it for 6+ years) came up and said that three people were interested in doing the librarian role and they'd probably end up sharing it.
And then yesterday afternoon, I get a message from another member who says she has three people interested in doing the librarian role - and they're a different three people! So I mentioned this to the secretary and we might see if we can find other areas for some of these people to be active in. Because although the old librarian joked that it took three people to do what she used to do solo, it's mostly a case of allowing people a break or to be absent because sickness, holiday, life management.
The sudden riches of members enthusiastic to do something is encouraging - but humbling, too.
Quite a few people came up afterwards to congratulate me (I feel it's kind of like I didn't do much, I just was willing to commit to being president) and say they were excited to see where things went in the next year.
I'm not sure I'm excited per se, but I'm definitely determined - all the more because the weather/fire/drought situation here in NSW is becoming dire, and even if we get the rain we so desperately need, a whole lot of us need to change the way we do things. And we need to get our politicians to change.
That's one of the key differences between the old managing committee and the new. The old were all Baby Boomers, early Gen X, and carry that mindset with them. The world worked for them, it's doing okay - I mean, sure it could do better, but they haven't had to really rebel. They could go quietly-quietly.
The new MC core are late Gen X and Millenial (Xennial, I guess it's called) and I suspect many of us don't believe we can go quietly-quietly anymore. My personality doesn't tend to outright rebellion, but it does lean towards stirring the water - making ripples in my local space until we've got enough momentum to move things along. Which is what I'm going to encourage the group to do. Talk to the neighbours, get involved in letter-writing to members of parliament or commercial boycotts of climate change deniers - do a little more than just toil away in our gardens, not talking to anyone who doesn't look like us or think like us. I want the group to do more reaching out to our neighbours and friends who are asking question and want to know, stand firm in the face of deniers, and invite along the people who are thinking "Look I don't know that I'm sold on this 'end of the world as we know it' activism, but maybe there's something in changing a few habits..."
It's kind of fitting in a way. I've never been a BNF in fandom - I've always started on the outside, then just gone along doing my own thing, pulling people in after me. My fannish influence has never been on the people in the middle - the popular crowd whose names are mentioned everywhere - it's always been among the people on the fringes, unsure of whether or not to come in or go elsewhere. The truth is that the more mainstream someone is, the less likely they are to like me and what I do, or follow me.
So I guess I'm just a little bit weird. And I'm learning to be okay with that.
--
In other news, I have a tree full of apricots. Well, half-full. But half-full of apricots is perfectly okay!
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Good luck and have fun with your group!
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