My intention to blog after each monthly meeting fell by the wayside in the madness that tends to be fall in our household.
The health of our chapter president, who is suffering from ALS, appeared to plateau in the fall. In September, he was confined to a wheelchair, but stil attended our Middle Atlantic Region Conference in Charlottesville, VA in early October. Also in October, he recieved his motorized wheelchair and we was quite good at navigating it through the narrow passageways of the hotel where we meet.
Communication through email took some hits as the president tries to discontinue use of his company email and use only his private email. He is also either infrequently on email or is choosing to allow other chapter leaders to make decisions. This could go either way. As I have mentioned before, even without this illness, I believe he would have been more of a hands off leader!
Our October meeting was a tour of a local construction site, so we held our board meeting at the office of a local architect a week later. Despite the old age of the building, wheelchair access was available into the building and the meeting went off without a hitch.
Our November meeting was back at the hotel where we normally meet. We did not have a quorum present until about 45 minutes after the meeting was supposed to have started. Now, our chapter leadership consists of a board of 13 members, that means a quorum is only 7 people. Our December meeting was a bowling night, so we held the board meeting at a nearby bar that offered some wheelchair access. We never reached a quorum on that night - stuck at only 5 leaders present: president, immediate past president, treasurer, secretary (me) and 1 director. These last two meetings have caused serveral of us as leaders to hold conversations about how to not only get a quorum at each meeting for the rest of this fiscal year, but also make sure that moving forward we have leaders in place who understand what they are committing to.
November's membership meeting was interesting because of some folks who were in attendance. We had a panel discussion on construction site safety and probably had over 40 members present. That is slightly larger than we would normally see, especially in November. Our chapter president, like many architects in town, spent a number of years working at RTKL, the large international firm headquartered, at least for now, in Baltimore. About 8 or so folks that worked with our president during his time at RTKL attended the meeting to see him and support him. It was a touching show of friendship and one that I know our president appreciated very much.
December's meeting, the bowling night, showed us a couple of things about handicapped access. The bowling alley, in the Patterson Park area of Baltimore, is totally NON-accessible. There is a pair of doors at the main entry that offer a total of about 30" of width and then two sets of doors in tandem make it difficult for an able bodied person to enter much less someone with a disability. We were then given the 6 lanes upstairs with no elevator. The original bar that we decided to use for the board meeting proved to be non-accessible and the alternate location had two steps up to get to the seating area where we met. The owners of that bar had some plywood to help get the wheelchair up to the area, so that was a positive.
I find it interesting that many of spend enormous hours making sure the buildings that we design and build offer universal access to persons with disabilities but when faced with planning an event, we drop the ball when one of our leaders has a disability. Our typical meeting site offers wheelchair access, with some difficulty, but it is there. For our November meeting, we were relocated from our usual 5th floor venue down to the restaurant level. That meant a trip through the kitchen for our president, but the staff was great and assisted in getting him through. For December, we didn't even consider the need until the week before the event!
The December meeting was both distressing for me and uplifting. Our president is continuing to loose the use of his hands and fingers. As the muscles atrophy, his hands appear gnarled as if by rheumatoid arthritis. Manuevering the wheelchair's joystick is becoming difficult for him and typing is becoming cumbersome. Fortunately, he has many of the prompts needed to run the meeting already in the laptop, so he need only find the prompt, punch the enter key and the computer speaks his prompt. It worked well for about 80% of the meeting. For the rest, the immediate past president and I assisted! I worry about the future and in particular, his ability to continue to communicate with us. We have good leadership in place, though neither of our vice presidents seem interested in fulfilling their obligations, but that is the subject of another entry. At these meeting, essentially either myself or our immediate past president perform the job that these two VP's should be doing.
The uplifting portion of the meeting came from watching our president and his wife work together to get him set, allow him to run the meeting and then get back out to their van to go home. This was a display of unconditional love. I only hope that I have the courage to do the same should my wife and I find ourselves in this same situation.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Whispers....
The whispers have begun. By that I mean, each time our president doesn’t immediately respond to an email, a handful of leaders begin to send some emails around asking about the president’s health. I seem to be the primary target of these emails, as if I have some special relationship or inside knowledge. I do not. I’ve tried to keep my distance and not get into the president’s personal business, but there are legitimate concerns. However, there are also longtime leaders, members much older and wiser than I, who point out that we can only glean as much information as the president is willing to offer. We have to act as if he is willing and able to lead until he tells us otherwise.
Last weekend, the president confided in me that he was “retired” from his employer effective June 1, 2009, but had continued to work, almost full time, until the end of August 2009. He is now on permanent disability from the firm. He is also confined to a wheelchair; a manual one until November when a motorized one is available to him. Either his wife or son bring him to the meetings and then help him home.
His former firm has graciously allowed him to keep his company email address, but he is unable to access his address book remotely. I offered an email address through our chapter web site’s hosting firm. I’m web master, so I was able to quickly set up the email account and set up an address book with all chapter leaders loaded into it. I’m not sure if he’s going to use it; he hasn’t to date but it’s only been active a week or so.
On the day the president confided his situation in me, I, gently as I could, suggested that he notify chapter leadership of his health and employment status. He has not done so to date.
Last weekend, the president confided in me that he was “retired” from his employer effective June 1, 2009, but had continued to work, almost full time, until the end of August 2009. He is now on permanent disability from the firm. He is also confined to a wheelchair; a manual one until November when a motorized one is available to him. Either his wife or son bring him to the meetings and then help him home.
His former firm has graciously allowed him to keep his company email address, but he is unable to access his address book remotely. I offered an email address through our chapter web site’s hosting firm. I’m web master, so I was able to quickly set up the email account and set up an address book with all chapter leaders loaded into it. I’m not sure if he’s going to use it; he hasn’t to date but it’s only been active a week or so.
On the day the president confided his situation in me, I, gently as I could, suggested that he notify chapter leadership of his health and employment status. He has not done so to date.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Leadership Styles
Our president's leadership style is becoming more and more apparent. He's a hands-off, let-the-committees-run-the-chapter style of leader. Given his personality, this does not surprise me. It does, however, lead me to wonder if any significant progress will be made this year?
Our next board meeting is Thursday night. A longer post will undoubtedly follow that meeting. It will be interesting to see if our wayward 1st VP shows. Several of us in leadership are concerned about his ability to focus long enough to actually run the chapter for a year. We shall see. I have high hopes for the gentleman who follows; he's an architect after all!
The other thing that our president continues to be is very upfront and honest about his condition and treatment. An email this week asked all committee chairs to send in their committee reports as he would be away for a few days and then at hospital for treatment leading up to the meeting. Interesting times.
Our next board meeting is Thursday night. A longer post will undoubtedly follow that meeting. It will be interesting to see if our wayward 1st VP shows. Several of us in leadership are concerned about his ability to focus long enough to actually run the chapter for a year. We shall see. I have high hopes for the gentleman who follows; he's an architect after all!
The other thing that our president continues to be is very upfront and honest about his condition and treatment. An email this week asked all committee chairs to send in their committee reports as he would be away for a few days and then at hospital for treatment leading up to the meeting. Interesting times.
Friday, July 10, 2009
A Brave New World
That's one of my favorite novels - Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It seems apt to something that a group of us are going through.
My chapter is entering a brave new world and I think I'll use this forum to post some observations about it. I'm thinking this might become a pamphlet that other chapters can use when they find themselves in a similar situation.
Today is July 10, 2009. On July 1, 2009, a new chapter president took office. Our new president was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or what is commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease, earlier this year. He is recieving treatments at the best hospital in the world, but unfortnately, the disease appears to me to be progressing rapidly. Last fall, we noticed a slurring of his speech. Folks asked me if he was intoxicated at our meetings. I assured them, as I was certain myself, that he was not. He had never been know to drink to excess and I sincerely doubted that had changed. In November, he confided in me that he was concerned about his speech loss and was seeking a diagnosis, but he too was certain it was ALS.
When the diagnosis came, chapter leaders as a whole were uncertain how to proceed. We didn't want to seem unkind or hurt his feelings in any way. If he wanted to serve, we were prepared to let him serve as president. I guess, we had to reassure each other first of that fact.
The little I know about ALS comes from the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Great book, I highly recommend it. In sinister thing about ALS it is takes your central nervous system away from you piece by piece while leaving your mind completely intact. Our dear president lost his speech very rapidly - after the initial noticing of difficulties in October or November of 2008, by March of 2009, he was unable to be understood at all. Chapter elections were held in March and he was elected president, after serving as 2nd VP and 1st VP. The Nominations Committee had several emails exchanges with him offering to let him out of his obligations. He declined each time, I suspect out of a sense of honor and out of a need for normalcy and aggression to beat this disease.
Unfortunately, he was not forthcoming with many people about his condition and tried to soldier on in as normal a fashion as possible. It was and continues to be extremely difficult. He continues to have difficulty with basic muscles motions, especially his facial muscles. Personally, I continue to be uncertain if I should inform people about his condition; I am concerned about invading his privacy. I never took the opportunity to discuss this with him and he never gave me permission to discuss his condition with others. As folks asked me about him, I rather sheepishly told them what was going on. As time goes by, I think that's what he wanted, but I wish I would have asked and then recieved permission to act as such.
His initial President's Message in our monthly newletter alerted membership to his condition. I felt better about the whole thing upon reading that message.
He attended our national convention in June but was a loner during it. I spent some time with him during our region caucus, but not much other time. I felt bad about that, but have been having trouble with my own feelings and inadequecies about his condition. I mean, my parents worked with disabled adults when I was young. I've been around folks with very serious physical and mental disabilities. I should know how to do this! I'm getting better; more comfortable. But its a struggle for me.
Thursday night was our first Board Meeting with our leader at the helm. He has a laptop with external speakers and software that he can type messages in and the computer speaks for him. Its a good, strong, confident voice. Our president is extremely intelligent and his grasp of the English language is on par with any professor or writer. It was reassuring to have even the computer voice speak words that we know come from his mind.
There were some lulls in the meeting business as he slowly typed on occasion. I think, though I'm not sure, he had some messages typed out before hand. We have a number of new folks on the board and there seemed to be some nervousness about things were going to work. After a rocky start, most present had not recieved the minutes of the previous board meeting and since we were meeting at the president's office, he went to make copies, we settled into the meeting.
When I was president, I let discussion move along, but was quick to have committee business stay in committee meetings, not in the board meetings. Our immediate past president had a similar style. Its difficult to run a board meeting if your only experience is running meetings at your work as an architect. Our current president is an architect, so I'm sure he struggled a bit with the ebb and flow of the meeting. Also, members were quick to fill the voids in conversation and at times, the meeting dragged. But, in general, we got through our business. We started about 5:40 PM, had pizza and beer in the middle, and finished at 7:35 PM.
As we got through Old Business and were heading to New Business, the battery on the president's laptop died. Our 1st VP was not in attendance as he was recovering from hip replacement surgery and our 2nd VP was further down the table than I, so the president wrote a note to me asking me to take over. I briskly worked us through the remaining agenda items, occassionally reading hand notes from the president.
I think the message here, after our first meeting with our new president, is patience and flexibility. And probably a heavy dose of "get rid of your nervousness!"
My chapter is entering a brave new world and I think I'll use this forum to post some observations about it. I'm thinking this might become a pamphlet that other chapters can use when they find themselves in a similar situation.
Today is July 10, 2009. On July 1, 2009, a new chapter president took office. Our new president was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or what is commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease, earlier this year. He is recieving treatments at the best hospital in the world, but unfortnately, the disease appears to me to be progressing rapidly. Last fall, we noticed a slurring of his speech. Folks asked me if he was intoxicated at our meetings. I assured them, as I was certain myself, that he was not. He had never been know to drink to excess and I sincerely doubted that had changed. In November, he confided in me that he was concerned about his speech loss and was seeking a diagnosis, but he too was certain it was ALS.
When the diagnosis came, chapter leaders as a whole were uncertain how to proceed. We didn't want to seem unkind or hurt his feelings in any way. If he wanted to serve, we were prepared to let him serve as president. I guess, we had to reassure each other first of that fact.
The little I know about ALS comes from the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. Great book, I highly recommend it. In sinister thing about ALS it is takes your central nervous system away from you piece by piece while leaving your mind completely intact. Our dear president lost his speech very rapidly - after the initial noticing of difficulties in October or November of 2008, by March of 2009, he was unable to be understood at all. Chapter elections were held in March and he was elected president, after serving as 2nd VP and 1st VP. The Nominations Committee had several emails exchanges with him offering to let him out of his obligations. He declined each time, I suspect out of a sense of honor and out of a need for normalcy and aggression to beat this disease.
Unfortunately, he was not forthcoming with many people about his condition and tried to soldier on in as normal a fashion as possible. It was and continues to be extremely difficult. He continues to have difficulty with basic muscles motions, especially his facial muscles. Personally, I continue to be uncertain if I should inform people about his condition; I am concerned about invading his privacy. I never took the opportunity to discuss this with him and he never gave me permission to discuss his condition with others. As folks asked me about him, I rather sheepishly told them what was going on. As time goes by, I think that's what he wanted, but I wish I would have asked and then recieved permission to act as such.
His initial President's Message in our monthly newletter alerted membership to his condition. I felt better about the whole thing upon reading that message.
He attended our national convention in June but was a loner during it. I spent some time with him during our region caucus, but not much other time. I felt bad about that, but have been having trouble with my own feelings and inadequecies about his condition. I mean, my parents worked with disabled adults when I was young. I've been around folks with very serious physical and mental disabilities. I should know how to do this! I'm getting better; more comfortable. But its a struggle for me.
Thursday night was our first Board Meeting with our leader at the helm. He has a laptop with external speakers and software that he can type messages in and the computer speaks for him. Its a good, strong, confident voice. Our president is extremely intelligent and his grasp of the English language is on par with any professor or writer. It was reassuring to have even the computer voice speak words that we know come from his mind.
There were some lulls in the meeting business as he slowly typed on occasion. I think, though I'm not sure, he had some messages typed out before hand. We have a number of new folks on the board and there seemed to be some nervousness about things were going to work. After a rocky start, most present had not recieved the minutes of the previous board meeting and since we were meeting at the president's office, he went to make copies, we settled into the meeting.
When I was president, I let discussion move along, but was quick to have committee business stay in committee meetings, not in the board meetings. Our immediate past president had a similar style. Its difficult to run a board meeting if your only experience is running meetings at your work as an architect. Our current president is an architect, so I'm sure he struggled a bit with the ebb and flow of the meeting. Also, members were quick to fill the voids in conversation and at times, the meeting dragged. But, in general, we got through our business. We started about 5:40 PM, had pizza and beer in the middle, and finished at 7:35 PM.
As we got through Old Business and were heading to New Business, the battery on the president's laptop died. Our 1st VP was not in attendance as he was recovering from hip replacement surgery and our 2nd VP was further down the table than I, so the president wrote a note to me asking me to take over. I briskly worked us through the remaining agenda items, occassionally reading hand notes from the president.
I think the message here, after our first meeting with our new president, is patience and flexibility. And probably a heavy dose of "get rid of your nervousness!"
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Touch 'em All!
Since the New Year's Day post, some things about the cub scout pack have come into clear focus. I really like my den, even though 2 of the boys are sometimes hard to deal with! Its great spending an hour or so every other week with a group of boys trying to teach them something! The highlights of the year have been the night we built birdhouses, the night we learned knots and the night we did a little architecture by drawing the room we meet in.
The other parent leaders have continued to be a hassle and a disappointment. This past week, I was out of town on the evening of the monthly leaders Roundtable meeting for our district. I could not get a single other leader to attend in my absence. Of particular issue was our committe chair who was especially arrogant about it.
Due to issues with our son and with the school/parish administration, we are taking our son to a public school next year. We knew this was a possiblity in November of last year. We made the firm decision last month, though we are unsure which school. We applied to a magnet technology school, but won't know until March/April if he got in. If he doesn't get in there, he'll go to our local public school.
Since November, I have been trying to decide how to handle scouting. I don't want to make the same mistakes for my son that I made myself - sticking with a less than active troop and not earning Eagle in part because of it. I have been unable to get good parental involvement. I have not pulled out all the stops and have not gotten up in parent's faces, but our troop suffers from a lack of parental interest. I can't believe me getting up in people's faces will change this and I shouldn't have to do that.
So, do I pull my son out and resign as Cubmaster when he changes schools? After this week and lack of support by other parents, I think the answer to that is yes! I just need to do some research and decide which troop is good for him.
As for the CSI chapter, our incoming president with ALS is getting much worse, very quickly. At our February meeting, his speech was so slurred that we could not understand him. Our outgoing president is not interested in serving another year and our 2nd VP isn't ready to be president, he needs the year to prepare. Our outgoing president is worried about her job, so feels that she needs to focus on job and less on CSI. I can sympathise with that. The 2nd VP cold probably do it, he'll just need some help. Obviously, if the 1st VP moves up to president, he'll need a lot of help as well!
I sent an e-mail today to our retired chapter secretary and close personal adviser from when I was president. She relocated to Chicago about 6 months ago. I'll let you know what she thinks!
I suspect we'll need to find another chapter president. I don't see how his speech impediment will allow him to be president much less whatever other degradation occurs between now and June 30, 2010. I don't want to be mean or unsympathetic, but I'm trying to not diminish the gains we've made as a chapter in the past couple of years. We shall see....
The other parent leaders have continued to be a hassle and a disappointment. This past week, I was out of town on the evening of the monthly leaders Roundtable meeting for our district. I could not get a single other leader to attend in my absence. Of particular issue was our committe chair who was especially arrogant about it.
Due to issues with our son and with the school/parish administration, we are taking our son to a public school next year. We knew this was a possiblity in November of last year. We made the firm decision last month, though we are unsure which school. We applied to a magnet technology school, but won't know until March/April if he got in. If he doesn't get in there, he'll go to our local public school.
Since November, I have been trying to decide how to handle scouting. I don't want to make the same mistakes for my son that I made myself - sticking with a less than active troop and not earning Eagle in part because of it. I have been unable to get good parental involvement. I have not pulled out all the stops and have not gotten up in parent's faces, but our troop suffers from a lack of parental interest. I can't believe me getting up in people's faces will change this and I shouldn't have to do that.
So, do I pull my son out and resign as Cubmaster when he changes schools? After this week and lack of support by other parents, I think the answer to that is yes! I just need to do some research and decide which troop is good for him.
As for the CSI chapter, our incoming president with ALS is getting much worse, very quickly. At our February meeting, his speech was so slurred that we could not understand him. Our outgoing president is not interested in serving another year and our 2nd VP isn't ready to be president, he needs the year to prepare. Our outgoing president is worried about her job, so feels that she needs to focus on job and less on CSI. I can sympathise with that. The 2nd VP cold probably do it, he'll just need some help. Obviously, if the 1st VP moves up to president, he'll need a lot of help as well!
I sent an e-mail today to our retired chapter secretary and close personal adviser from when I was president. She relocated to Chicago about 6 months ago. I'll let you know what she thinks!
I suspect we'll need to find another chapter president. I don't see how his speech impediment will allow him to be president much less whatever other degradation occurs between now and June 30, 2010. I don't want to be mean or unsympathetic, but I'm trying to not diminish the gains we've made as a chapter in the past couple of years. We shall see....
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Took a year off!
Clearly, I took a year off from this blog. I'll try to do better in 2009!
I'm actually in a slightly different leadership role - I'm mentoring the current chapter president, about to mentor the next chapter president (who was recently diagnosed with ALS) and I've accepted a position on the national Strategic Planning Task Team. Oh, and I'm also the Cubmaster for my sons Cub Scout Pack! I suspect much of what gets posted here will be about the pack, not as much about CSI!
I took over from a very nice lady whose youngest son bridged over to boy scouts. She was highly disorganized, but had been involved in scouting long enough where she just did things sort of on her own. Part of that was also due to the unruly personality of some of the other moms involved in the pack. Some of these are the same moms who have caused problems with my wife and with me to a certain extent through soccer, girl scouts and various other activities. I suspect I was picked because my oldest son is in scouting and I have a younger son, meaning stability in the job of cubmaster for a number of years - at least 8! Yikes!
Anyway, I've had very little instruction, but have attempted to seek training best I can. The biggest issue is the lack of parental involvement in the pack. That's my goal for this spring - get more parents involved. Right now, the pack is run essentially by 4 people - not enough! Especially when 2 of them will leave next year when their sons bridge to boy scouts. Once I have a larger committee, I can work on getting an assistant cubmaster!
I need to get my thoughts organized on where this post is going, so until then....
I'm actually in a slightly different leadership role - I'm mentoring the current chapter president, about to mentor the next chapter president (who was recently diagnosed with ALS) and I've accepted a position on the national Strategic Planning Task Team. Oh, and I'm also the Cubmaster for my sons Cub Scout Pack! I suspect much of what gets posted here will be about the pack, not as much about CSI!
I took over from a very nice lady whose youngest son bridged over to boy scouts. She was highly disorganized, but had been involved in scouting long enough where she just did things sort of on her own. Part of that was also due to the unruly personality of some of the other moms involved in the pack. Some of these are the same moms who have caused problems with my wife and with me to a certain extent through soccer, girl scouts and various other activities. I suspect I was picked because my oldest son is in scouting and I have a younger son, meaning stability in the job of cubmaster for a number of years - at least 8! Yikes!
Anyway, I've had very little instruction, but have attempted to seek training best I can. The biggest issue is the lack of parental involvement in the pack. That's my goal for this spring - get more parents involved. Right now, the pack is run essentially by 4 people - not enough! Especially when 2 of them will leave next year when their sons bridge to boy scouts. Once I have a larger committee, I can work on getting an assistant cubmaster!
I need to get my thoughts organized on where this post is going, so until then....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)