Greetings!
As most of you know, I was seeking a replacement for the position of Programs Chair for 2013.
At last summer’s board meeting, one of the issues on our agenda was what to do about my replacement, as no one was stepping forward to pass the baton to. After discussing a number of options, I made a suggestion to the board: I would stay on as Programs Chair for 2013 if – and only if – each and every board member agreed to take responsibility for coordinating one of this year’s monthly meetings.
To their credit, to my relief, and to your benefit, all of the board members agreed, and were therefore “assigned” a month.
However, we still had one month that remained “open.” At a subsequent BATW meeting, when I explained this to the group of attendees, one of our general members – Inga Aksamit – stepped forward and graciously volunteered to tackle the planning of the last meeting we needed to cover. So, with little fanfare but much behind-the-scenes commitment, 2013 was saved.
I would first like to publicly say, “Thank You” to all of our board members, who have not only agreed to give once more of their time this year, but also have unanimously agreed to take one month in 2013 as their responsibility. I would also like to say that, had they failed to agree, our organization would not be in as good a shape as it is now in terms of our monthly meetings’ agenda.
Recently, several people have asked if they can work with me this year, now that these meetings have been coordinated. I certainly welcome the assistance, and am happy to work with anyone who’s interested in helping to better our organization. I am also hopeful that, by easing their way into helping out with the programming portion of the BATW equation, one (or several) of these individuals will discover that it’s not quite so daunting as they thought, and that they will be willing to take over the position of Programs Chair in 2014.
I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that, although it isn’t something that’s traditionally been enforced, one of the provisions of membership in BATW is that each member is required to volunteer three (3) hours of their time during the course of a year. When you consider that there are 8,760 hours in a year, three is a fraction of the equation.
So please ask yourself how you can contribute your three hours. I’m sure that every one of our board members could use some assistance with what they do, so contact one of them and ask how you can be of assistance. It will be appreciated, and it will be beneficial to the organization of which we are all a part.
Without further ado, here is the roster of the 2013 meetings and the BATW member (or volunteer) who’s in charge of organizing it:
January – Tom Wilmer
February – Erin Caslavka
March – Lakshman Ratnapala
April – Ginny Prior
May – Bill Scull
June – Marc Longwood
July – Inga Aksamit
August – Suzie Rodriguez
September – Karen Misuraca
October – Georgia Hesse
November – Associate’s meeting
December – Holiday party
Please remember to thank them all for offering to plan a meeting that we will all be able to attend, and enjoy!
—Erin Caslavka