In the last two weeks I’ve been nominated for 3 different committees. It started when a friend asked if I would be willing to put my name in for consideration for the School Advisory Committee. She said because I have kids at all 3 levels (high, middle and elementary) that my experience would be a valuable addition to a group that helps make decisions on issues or problems that pop up at the school. I told her that I’d consider it because . . . I don’t know why. She caught me at a weak moment. I could see her point though and the promise of only 4 meetings during the year was appealing.
A few days later the information about elections was distributed and I was thrilled to read the long list of candidates who were also being considered for a spot on the committee. As I read through the biographies I knew I wasn’t getting elected — people with Master’s degrees in public administration, years of experience on various boards and people who sounded like actual grownups. I didn’t even bother reading them all because yay, qualified people who weren’t me!
This week I opened my email to find this subject line staring back at me, “Congrats on your new SAC position!” Say what now? What happened to all those qualified people? All my bio said was that I was mom to kids in both High School and Middle School and I thought that gave me a good idea of what was happening at the school and that I had seen positive changes lately and wanted to help that to continue. I guess that was a winning platform. So, yay me. I went to the first meeting (I guess there will be 6 in all — still acceptable) and liked the other people who were elected and the advising staff members. It’s an interesting committee to serve on because we handle issues and complaints that involve the entire community. I guess things got pretty feisty last year so there’s the potential for drama, but so far everyone seemed very normal and the meeting ended earlier than expected so that’s a sign of good things to come.
Just as I got used to my new title as SAC member (Carter still loves making SAC jokes) another person came to me and said, “I don’t know if anyone has talked to you yet, but your name came up as someone who would be a good addition to our nominating committee for the FRG board elections.” Really? Who are these people that think that anything with the words nomination, election, board and committee would be a good fit with me? I almost laughed out loud. After a few questions I determined that this commitment is a short term one. 1 coffee meeting and 2 mornings — all to be completed before Christmas break. OK, I can do that. (especially because serving short term means I can’t be asked to do one of the long term jobs. Genius!)
Finally, on the Marine side of things (since I’ve already covered school and base) we have a new general who moved here with his wife. I’m so happy about that. Having someone at the top who understands what it means to be here with a family will hopefully bring positive changes to the unit and make it better for families overall. Anyway, his wife asked me if I’d be part of a leadership team to advise and determine direction for our family group. Specifically my job is going to be to coordinate speakers on various topics for our family events. I should probably put some of this experience to good use, huh? So I said yes. I like her and want our unit to be successful. This was an easy one to accept.
Between that and my “job” coordinating children’s church I feel like a professional administrative juggler. I should put that on my bio next time elections roll around. I was chatting with a friend who has been here the same amount of time as I have and I asked her, “What is going on? Why is my name suddenly popping up everywhere as someone to go to for XY and Z?” She replied, “We’re the roaches. We’ve outlasted everyone else.” That’s totally it. I’m a roach. Bahrain chewed up and spit out the previous residents and I’m one of the few stragglers remaining: Queen of the roaches.