thanks for the opportunity
As happens on Sunday nights when the airlines delay your departure for 2 ½ hours (its weather and I can’t fault them for that) I was able to catch up on a few things. Reading the blogs on my Google Reader was one thing I was able to catch up on….and man can those posts add up. Whew!
Once I was on the plane, I got started on writing my thank you notes for a fund raising event I am chairing with my wife for the Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives. The event is actually Monday night but I know how hard everyone on my committee has worked thus far and I know the event will be a success so I can write the notes now and they’ll get them Tuesday…with a Chicago postmark!
This wasn’t a long-planned event, however, because a friend of ours who is the association’s Executive Director (and who like me is a BNSME past president) experienced sudden and significant problems with her husband’s health. His long recovery will likely lead to a fairly expensive recovery. The BNSME board of directors decided to convert the December 10th Holiday Party into a fund raiser and I dove in feet first as is my sometimes annoying way.
While none of us ever hoped to be involved in such an event, I think for each of us on the committee the fund raiser is helpful for us. Why? Because when any hits a friend or family member, most of us either want to or actually go into “action” mode. Something bad has happened, we’re powerless to change it or fix it and yet we are desperate to try…anything!
Make a dinner? Bake some cookies? Sure. But if we’re honest, it doesn’t feel like we’re doing enough.
But with this fund raiser, we know the outcome is going to bring the family some relief and it lets us take action…we ARE doing something for the family. So I guess it’s a kind of therapy for the rest of us.
Having not chaired an event for the association since maybe the mid nineties, the only thing I remembered most was that Andrea and I needed to call on people we could count on to get this job done right and done fast (we did this in about a month, maybe less). Some members in the association we knew and some were referred to us but man, were they all awesome. Not like “good job”, more like “great job”. It was a thrill to help orchestrate such talent.
So, to the board and to the BNSME members…thanks for the opportunity. And Tom, get well soon.
