So on Thursday night I went to the Minnesota State Fair -- not to enjoy myself or eat, even though I did both, but to work a booth for a group I'm associated with. (I'll leave it anonymous for now.) I felt bad that I haven't been to be more involved, but helping out at the Fair was a way to make up for it, plus the organizer of this effort (who also happens to be the President of the club) was still looking for volunteers, so last week I told her I could man the two-person booth. By the way, since there weren't enough people to volunteer, she, the organizer/President, would be the one I would be paired up with.
As I alluded to in a previous blog post, no, in fact I did not have to physically shut up some smartass who wanted to challenge my intelligence. In fact the people who came up to us were very nice, and the four hours went a tad quicker than I thought, so that was really good. If I have time next year, I will certainly do it again.
Nevertheless we had some down time, and that's where we caught up on things. We work at one of the test scoring places, for example, and we talked about how projects this year went well or didn't. But we also talked about the club she runs. And she admitted that after about a decade of organizing this, this will be, without a doubt, her last year doing this at the Fair. She loves the club, but the schlepping of the stuff and the set-up before the Fair, the tearing down after the Fair, and the constant begging of people to volunteer (and the inevitable failure to fill up all the spots, thus requiring her to come in) have worn on her. And she hates it.
Again, she loves the club, she is passionate about the club, and she will remain active. But this part? She's over it, I gather. And so we got to talking about this because she asked me if I could get more involved. I didn't really get the feeling that she wanted me to take over this particular job, dealing with organizing the State Fair booth, but if I spontaneously piped up and said, "I'll do it!" she wouldn't have minded at all. But I told her that as much as I want to, I can only do so much -- because, as you readers know, I am a member of another club, my alumni club, of which I am President.
And that's when we got to talking about how much we want to love the clubs we run, but how it's a goddamn pain-in-the-ass to do things, especially when the other putative members of the club won't step up and organize or take responsibility to do something, etc. You see, the busy part of the club calendar starts today, when the first game of the football season kicks off. We have gone to the same bar for the past six years, but because DirecTV does not carry the Pac-12 Network, I had to make sure this other place is a place we can go to for just this one game. I think things are good, but I don't really know for sure. Meanwhile, I will need to go to the other place next week to make sure everything is OK to watch the rest of our season's games over there, because another club might take over the spot, especially if our games overlap. I tried reaching out to the manager, but I haven't gotten any word back yet.
You see, if someone else would be the one to take care of it, that would make my job easier. At the very least, not needing to worry about this gives me the time to worry about other stuff -- such as organizing a fundraising activity, something we really need to do. In the meantime I have yet to squirrel away all the funds I raised through games last year. That's something I should do before the first game of this year, but in about 90 minutes I'm supposed to wake up and take my parents to the airport, so for all I know I might be sleeping from the time I get back to the early afternoon, at which I point I have to get up, shower, and drive to downtown Minneapolis early enough to reserve tables at the bar where we'll be watching the game.
I just complained about running the club. A lot. But please, please understand that I undertake these duties with a loyalty towards my alma mater. And in much the same way I still care about my club even though I feel burdened by some of the things I need to do year after year, I am sure she feels the same way about the club she presides over and that I am only a participant in. We don't regret doing what we do. We just wish we didn't have to do this particular part anymore. And it appears as though this is the last year for her for organizing for the Fair, regardless of whether or not someone will replace her. She at least has the luxury of other people helping out. With the exception of one other person, it's just me.
Alas and alack.
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