I worried at first that I wasn't ready to sit on a board of a charitable organization again. I knew I didn't have an endless stream of energy, and I sort of expected to do nothing but fill a seat in order to provide a quorum. Yet here I am, participating in debate, accepting assignments, taking detailed notes to make sure I don't miss anything, and even coming up with a chair report on the fly. For the first time, I could picture myself doing this for more than just one (or even less than one) term. I don't have the level of expertise needed for every aspect of my position yet, but I'm definitely feeling more confident about it. I even didn't panic as much when the president asked me to get up and make another announcement in front of the main lunch group.
Board meetings start at 7:00 am. I get that Rotary attracts business leaders as its primary demographic, and those are the kind of people who would rather get volunteer meetings over with outside of work hours. Here I am, not a morning person, never going to turn into one. I don't know how to relate to weirdos who would rather be going over agendas and budgets before the first cup of coffee even kicks in. Worst 9 months of my early professional life was trying to adjust to the job where arriving on time at 7:30 was considered "late." I made it to the meeting on time today, but I stared like a zombie for the first ten or fifteen minutes. I was lucky to be awake at all, after turning off my alarm and going back to sleep until 6:30. I've fallen asleep (involuntarily) twice since then, and never caught up to where I would be if these meetings started at a civilized hour.
For the record, no, I don't expect them to change a single thing to accommodate me. I'm probably the most transient member of the board. I will stay on it only as long as it remains only slightly stressful. If I start to freak out, I will get myself off of the board. For now, though, it feels pretty good.
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