Wednesday, August 11, 2004
And the Week Was
Less than fabulous, better than horrible. Aside from one short trip to Monterey, I spent the week at a funky retreat located in a redwoods forest high in the mountains east of Santa Cruz. It was beautiful, and some mornings we could see the fog below us at the foot of the hills. The accommodations weren't exactly five stars. But I had a bed to sleep on and a place to shower and brush my teeth. So I'm not going to complain about that.
It was exciting to finally meet dozens of people I had worked with via e-mail or talked to on conference calls. In a national volunteer organization, it's easy to feel disconnected, so the chance of being together made the unity much more tangible, which was good. Some pretty exciting speakers graced us with their presence throughout the week. Peter Schurman, among others, the Executive Director of Move On spoke. Carl Pope, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club also spoke. Andrew Boyd, one of the founders of Billionaires for Bush, lead a really fun(ny) 3-hour long culture jamming workshop. John Moyers, founder of Tom Paine, gave a compelling keynote address. And there were a bunch of other rock star speakers and workshop leaders.
Aside from all the speakers, the forest, and the clean(?) air, there was a bit of drama too. IDs, wallets, glasses, and cell phones were lost. Lawsuits were threatened. Unfortunately, I think that some underage drinking went down, and some illegal substances were smoked. The coup de grace, though, probably was our National Director giving her two weeks notice towards the end of the week. Considering that she comprises close to 50% of our staff, and we'll now be Directorless for at least a month, that created a bit of an odd situation, to say the least.
And me? Well, I was happy about some things, and still left in the same mess with regard to other things. I managed to turn out some great student leaders to the conference, whom I think can contribute immensely to the organization. At the same time, I'm still burnt out, still lukewarm-angry about the lack of support accorded to student leaders, and still trying to figure out where the heck I go from here--aside from back to school in ten days! :-/
It was exciting to finally meet dozens of people I had worked with via e-mail or talked to on conference calls. In a national volunteer organization, it's easy to feel disconnected, so the chance of being together made the unity much more tangible, which was good. Some pretty exciting speakers graced us with their presence throughout the week. Peter Schurman, among others, the Executive Director of Move On spoke. Carl Pope, the Executive Director of the Sierra Club also spoke. Andrew Boyd, one of the founders of Billionaires for Bush, lead a really fun(ny) 3-hour long culture jamming workshop. John Moyers, founder of Tom Paine, gave a compelling keynote address. And there were a bunch of other rock star speakers and workshop leaders.
Aside from all the speakers, the forest, and the clean(?) air, there was a bit of drama too. IDs, wallets, glasses, and cell phones were lost. Lawsuits were threatened. Unfortunately, I think that some underage drinking went down, and some illegal substances were smoked. The coup de grace, though, probably was our National Director giving her two weeks notice towards the end of the week. Considering that she comprises close to 50% of our staff, and we'll now be Directorless for at least a month, that created a bit of an odd situation, to say the least.
And me? Well, I was happy about some things, and still left in the same mess with regard to other things. I managed to turn out some great student leaders to the conference, whom I think can contribute immensely to the organization. At the same time, I'm still burnt out, still lukewarm-angry about the lack of support accorded to student leaders, and still trying to figure out where the heck I go from here--aside from back to school in ten days! :-/
