Running With Scissors

A few days after I moved into my new condo, I saw a sign for an upcoming "HOME OWNERS meeting" in the buildings basement. I was thrilled with myself for my new title of home owner and I was equally as excited to attend a meeting with other home owners in my building.

When I got there...I was horrified by the high level of ignorance in the room. A building's Board of Directors are essentially the "brains" behind the "business" (the building). They handle everything from hiring the janitorial staff to the building's operational budget. It's a big deal. And I don't think I would have let anyone on the Board at that time feed my fish. Ignorance galore. During the first meeting, I sat there quietly and took everything in. At the end of the meeting, they asked if anyone wanted to join the Board for 2002. My hand shot up. BOOM! I was on the Board. It was that simple. No vote. No, who are you and what do you bring to the table? Nope. I was a warm body...and that was good enough for them. In the coming months I realized that this group was nuts and completely running with scissors. Reckless. Yikes. I slowly but surely started bringing up different solutions....and I could feel myself peeling the scissors from their sweaty palms.

Several weeks ago, a similar sign to the first one I saw after I moved in went up in my building about an upcoming Home Owners and Board meeting. Everytime I walked past the reminder sign, my stomach hurt. My time is precious. I don't want to dread something that I have volunteered to attend. I have been on the Board for 4 years. I know that I made a huge difference in my building. And yesterday I resigned my post on the Board. It was time.