being assertive
in which the author considers her place in a new organization and manages to speak up to establish her own boundaries.
at yesterday’s FreeGeek Olympia meeting, I was looking at the agenda on the wiki, and then went to the stub for the minutes, and noticed a note that said “hi, elaine!”
yeah.
so before the meeting got started, I asked to have a discussion of the secretary role (and JC included the facilitator role as well), and said I was willing to take minutes this time but didn’t want it to just be assumed that I would.
“hi, my name is Elaine and I type really fast”
it turned out well, I think…I’m now in a rotating group of people willing to be facilitators and secretaries. as I’ve said, both here & in person, it’s not that I *mind* taking notes, but I don’t like it as an unspoken assumption, and it does interfere with being a full participant in the meeting. so now I’ll get to take some weeks off.
as for FreeGeek itself…sigh. there’s so much to be done to turn that group into a functioning organization. the space is appalling (hot attic up a flight of rickety stairs), there’s no formal structure, no plan for distribution. but there is a lot of goodwill and positive thoughts, which I suppose is something. it gets me into sleeve-rolling-up mode, at least; I’m going to give it another month and see what kind of forward motion we get, and then? I don’t know. it’s not as though I have infinite energy…and I don’t want to waste my new-found whatever-this-is (getting my me back and all that) on something that isn’t going anywhere.
