In a nonprofit organization, sometimes the politics get thicker than the actual cause can support. I don't propose to identify the organization. But in the last day or so, one of my volunteer groups has had some manifestations that are just hard to live with:
Somebody finished a job they'd taken on, didn't tell anyone they had done so, and then became personally offended when a second person volunteered to take the job over.
Somebody else didn't attend a meeting, never responded to requests for a draft of wording on a new project, but when yet a third person drafted some wording, came back to say that it was poorly composed and shouldn't be used.
I get tired when people take out their personal issues on the volunteer obligations they've undertaken. And yes, I know it's a hopeless complaint. I'm just having a bad afternoon. Grump.
I was elected to help administer an internet product selling site, run as a non-profit.
ReplyDeleteI quickly learned, in our chat-site meetings, that even though most issues we deliberated were trivial and inconsequential to the running and maintenance of the site, people insisted on spending time dickering over these follies to the exclusion of every other constructive function. They were troubled by having to think about difficult, potentially sweeping motions.
I ended up being in the dog-house and marginalized because I wasn't willing to play the little games. Imperious bullies and timid groupies dominate the board, and I now simply sit by and listen, because nothing I say has any weight whatsoever.
So I know how you feel.
5:47 PM