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OT - Today's phone call

D

davidwalser

Joined
Dec 10, 2006
Messages
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Location
Mesa, Arizona
This afternoon, I had that feeling of deja vu. I serve on the board of a local professional organization. The incoming board president called and asked if I'd be willing to chair the bylaw re-write committee! 😱 (Some of you may recall I had the pleasure of serving on a similar committee for the AAW this past Fall.) My heart screamed, "No!", but I heard my mouth say, "Sure."

I'm sharing this for two reasons: First, I thought some of you would enjoy the irony. Second, I'm hoping some of you might feel obliged to call the board president and tell her she picked the wrong man. 🙂
 
Parallel Universe.....

Hi David:

On July 1st I become the next president of the Board of Trustees of our local Arts Center (The Octagon Center for the Arts) and guess what our next major task is (besides continuing to raise money)..... ...revising the Bylaws!! At our June board meeting last Tuesday, over half the time was spent identifying specific areas we need to totally re-write. I also was involved with forming one of the AAW's newest chapters [The Ames Area Woodturners], and over the past year I was also writing and revising those bylaws....

Maybe there's a message here?

Rob
 
I know, I know, it's a royal PITA, but by-law rewrites are a sign of a healthy and involved organization. The evolution from old to new allows for changing viewpoints, new circumstances, and new directions.
 
davidwalser said:
This afternoon, I had that feeling of deja vu. I serve on the board of a local professional organization. The incoming board president called and asked if I'd be willing to chair the bylaw re-write committee! 😱 (Some of you may recall I had the pleasure of serving on a similar committee for the AAW this past Fall.) My heart screamed, "No!", but I heard my mouth say, "Sure."

I'm sharing this for two reasons: First, I thought some of you would enjoy the irony. Second, I'm hoping some of you might feel obliged to call the board president and tell her she picked the wrong man. 🙂
Click to expand...

Was it "deja vu all over again" as Yogi Berra has been credited with saying? 😀

Well, it is a good sign that people recognize the need and it is happening before some sort of donnybrook erupts. Repairing damage after the fact is more work than preventative maintenance.

I am glad to hear that it was a pleasure and not a chore for you -- perhaps you have found your purpose in life. On the other hand, you might be the moth drawn to the flame. 😉 In any event, now that your special calling is known far and wide, you are in a Catch-22 and won't be able to refuse any future request.

By providing the phone number, we can attempt to extricate you form this precarious situation.
 
Why?

What's the reason for putting "OT" in front of the thread title? What are you trying to communicate to forum readers by using "OT" in the thread title? Seems meaningless to me. Appreciate insights into why you use "OT".
 
John King said:
What's the reason for putting "OT" in front of the thread title? What are you trying to communicate to forum readers by using "OT" in the thread title? Seems meaningless to me. Appreciate insights into why you use "OT".
Click to expand...

John,

OT is internet forum slang for "off topic". In this case, the forum's topic is "woodturning", so threads about woodturning tools, techniques, and turned projects are all topical. (That's not an exclusive list, but you get the idea.) As a courtesy to those who don't want to waste their time opening a thread that's off topic, it's a common practice to use "OT" at the beginning of the thread's title. That's what I did here.

Next, you might ask why I'd bothered posting an off topic thread. The answer is that, while the thread has nothing to do with woodturning, per se, I thought some who recalled the fun we had with the AAW bylaws rewrite might find it mildly interesting, maybe even a tad amusing, that I'd been asked to head up a similar effort for another charitable organization. We've formed a loose knit community on this forum and we sometimes enjoy newsy bits of information about each other -- even when those newsy bits have nothing to do with woodturning.

Of course, such an explanation does make me seem a bit egotistical. Why should I imagine anyone out there would care about what's going on in my personal life? The answer is that I enjoy reading the occasional OT post announcing the birth of some turner's grandchild or some such. I'm egotistical enough to think some of the rest of you might feel the same way.
 
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