My Life as President in Days of My Destiny

I had 3 meetings in a row today. I know, I'm crazy. It was kind of out of my control. In a way it was best that the meetings were all on the same day and one after the other, as it meant that I only had to make one trip into the next town for all three meetings. The first one was a finance meeting. I'd never attended one before. Technically I don't HAVE to go, but a good president will attend these things to show support. Personally I wanted to anyway in order to get a bit of an understanding on the financial side of this business. I have no diea how to read a budget and so I asked for help today. We went through it but not in the detail I require, so tomorrow I will drop in to the office and the Admin Manager will talk more about it. I was lost but taking notes today. Straight after that was the committee meeting - the first one I lead as president. Last time I led a meeting, it was a general meeting, I had only just been nominated as president, I had no idea what the HECK was going on, I was spinning out and did not understand the lingo etc etc. Today - a mere 4 weeks later - I felt like an Old Timer, lol. I've read SO MUCH in this first month. In fact, everyone is surprised at how on the ball I am, so that's a huge credit to me :) Yay!!! Helen was at the committee meeting and tonight she messaged me telling me how impressed she was at how well I ran the meeting. She added that I used some big words she didn't know I knew (what the fucking fuck is up with that statement.... lol idiot). The thing is, people down here only know me as Mum. They don't know anything about the background to me. They have no idea that I've been trained by the best. They're all surprised at how professional I am in my mannerisms and communication, and how positive I am. It's like dudettes... meet Bernadette!!! Lol. She seriously was such a great teacher to me. She was the Business Development Manager of a business I worked for and SHE WAS GOOD. She organized conferences and events, and she taught me how to pay attention to detail - both in terms of the layout of the room and the way I presented myself and spoke to clients. That business for her was EASY. She came from much bigger corporations before working for this family business - and she shared everything she knew with me. I will FOREVER be grateful. Anyway, so the meeting went on forever. It's my job to create the agenda, go through it, make sure everyone stays on track. One huge challenge for me is that people all talk at once and little different subtopics occur all at once. I think that at the next meeting I really will need to place some ground rules - ie don't everyone all talk at once! (Isn't that common sense, but anyway...) I can see how my presence in this business has already started to change things. The Director told me last week that I have been a breath of fresh air. Isn't that amazing? The more amazing thing is that... I've been told that in previous jobs before!!! So I'm starting to see that I really do have some special qualities that I don't see but that are oh so welcome! That's pretty cool :) I'd sensed a lot of bitchiness in some emails. Basically... the Director is new in her position too, she's been doing her role for about 6 months. From what I can see, the old execs simply have expected way too much from her and on top of that have put the pressure on!!! They've got this whole "We don't care what's going on behind the scenes, we need this report and that's that and it's YOUR responsibility and job on the line if you keep failing in this regard" kind of attitude. I personally believe this is completely unnecessary - firstly, she is still getting her bearings, she's new, give her a break. Secondly, WE ARE HUMANS, not machines!!! Thirdly, how about showing some SUPPORT?!?!?! And FORTHLY, we are not a multi-million dollar organization where it's easy to get away with that shit - we are a small organization where the committee members work VOLUNTARILY!!! (The Director is actually paid staff, but the women placing the pressure on her aren't.) Yes we are an important organization in this region and provide some really amazing services - but don't you think this attitude is a little too much!?? So I've been really stressing - verbally and via email - that we are all a TEAM. That no-one is above anybody. That we are all EQUAL, simply with different ROLES. That yes, we need to be responsible for each of our roles, and that yes, we need to hold each other accountable - in a SUPPORTIVE and RESPECTFUL manner. And I know that I've earned respect already for at least putting that out there. It felt nice to lead that second meeting today. I think people were quietly impressed with how I groomed myself and how I led things today. I think there is room for improvement though - I think I closed off agenda items a little too soon at times. But it's all a learning curve! The third meeting, the executive meeting, was meant to be much more casual and over lunch, but that didn't happen, as one of the ladies was unaware of this and so she wasn't ready to leave. We were all starving and tired and we knew it would be a short meeting anyway so I decided that we'd stay put. I didn't lead this meeting in the same way as the committee meeting, because the old execs were mostly talking to the Director and reinforcing expectations. One of the ladies comes across as very bitchy (particularly in the emails), but the ex President told me to give her a chance. I was told that actually this lady is very good at what she does and very passionate about it, she just has some blunt ways and it's just how she is. I'm glad I was warned about that, because I was able to see in person that this really is the case. Of course in the emails, it comes across really terribly, but in person.... she just tells it like it is. I was told that many people find this hard to swallow when they first meet her. All I wanted was to know whether she is like that by nature, or whether there were personal conflicts going on, because I needed to know what I was coming in to and how to work with whatever it is. I was so glad that in person I got to really see that well... she doesn't mean any harm and she does indeed have good rapport with all the other execs. By the time the third meeting was over it was 2pm. The first meeting had started at 9:30am and I had not left the room except for a toilet break. CRAZY!!! Little L was being cared for in that same building and when she saw me she was so happy!! She'd drawn me a picture of a "colourful octopus" lol. She did REALLY well there today, she'd never been there before or with those carers before. There was one of her normal carers at this building today, and I think that really helped. (Not that she was nervous or anything.) When we were in the car, she said to me, "I missed you today mummy," I was like, "Awwwwwww I missed you too!!!!!!!!!!!!" I do miss those days where often we would just walk outside, hang out with the chickens, check for eggs, go for a little walk, hop on the trampoline, read stories, jump, play hide and seek, etc etc. I didn't expect all of that to stop as soon as it has. Not that it has STOPPED, but it certainly has diminished. I certainly have less physical energy for these things - but it's because of this that I put more effort into making them happen and actually enjoying it all the more!!! (Not that I DIDN'T but you know what I mean.) My mind has been constantly mentally busy for the past month, I've even been dreaming about all the stuff I'm learning... but this week I've noticed a change. I've noticed that my brain is slowly starting to settle down again, so that's a positive. I had a thousand emails coming through and I have found out in recent days that that is NOT the norm and in fact it's been a crazy month for everyone, email-wise. The reason for all the emails was lack of following procedure on behalf of staff. So basically they went ahead and bought something without following protocol and so naturally the consequence is that there are things left to be urgently followed up on via email and so on and so on. The other thing is that the Director is emailing stuff unnecessarily and today I think she finally understood that really the things she is emailing us about can simply be put into her monthly report, lol. So yes, that's another thing I'm relieved about, to know that the ridiculous amount of emails I've received in my first month as President will NOT be the norm!!!!! I'll be dropping in to the office once a week to catch up with the Director. She is REALLY grateful for this and told me in confidence that the old execs never wanted to do that. Today the old execs expressed concern about me doing this, stating that there's no need for it because decisions can be made in the actual meetings rather than individually and that there would be a lack of communication and so on. I had to then CLARIFY that my drop-ins will have nothing to do with decision making, but rather I'm casually dropping in to simply say Hi, I'm here, do you need help with anything this week, what's been going on, etc etc. Just SHOWING SUPPORT! gosh, why is this so foreign to some people?!?! Lol. So yes... that's the rough update on my life as President.

:)

The other day, the husband of one of my friends (he works at the same place as my husband) was dropping his kid off at preschool at the same time as I was dropping off Little L. When he saw me from about 50 metres away he called out, "Hello, El Presidente!!!!!!!!" LMAO. Then he expressed his "concern" at my lack of security around me, hahahaha. Such dagginess. L himself feigned shock one morning after preschool drop-off because I didn't pull rank with the staff and make them all stand at attention, lololololololololol. Such dagginess, I tell you, lol.

Seriously though, I really am enjoying this new thing in my life. It's been busy and the whole time I have been so confident that it won't normally be as crazy as it has been. It feels good to have confirmation of that. I've been reading lots, gauging things and people, getting a feel for my role, emailing, etc etc... and now after a month I think I'm finally starting to find the balance between all of that stuff and the rest of my life...... it's a good feeling :)