Board Minute, Feb. 16, 2020

Upon careful reading of getyourwordsout's rules, I am pretty sure my Board Minute text doesn't count for that challenge, since it's... work-related is the wrong term, but it was a task-oriented thing rather than something written just to write.

But I feel like posting it because I think I don't talk very much about what being on my congregation's Board of Trustees involves in a practical sense. Mostly it's our monthly meeting, where we discuss a lot of things, decide some policy, and portion out some other responsibilities among ourselves. Sometimes it also involves helping organize/run special events or communicating back to the congregation at large. This Board Minute falls under communication: reporting the information gathered from a special event, which the Board then used to make some policy decisions.

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( cut for a vague attempt at privacy )

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The wording of that closing line, incidentally, was chosen specifically to tie in with the theme of this year's Stewardship pledge campaign. I'm not on the Stewardship Committee in a practical sense anymore -- it meets Monday evenings from 5:30-7pm, and I'm at work until 7pm -- but I'm still on the mailing list so I occasionally contribute feedback and I also get to read all the ask letters and stuff ahead of time. And I figure, synergy is a good thing, so why not play into it? *wry*

Anyway, we got some volunteers and some good feedback after the service so I think, all in all, task accomplished. :D

Possible Ponderings: Trust

My congregation does a monthly "theme" called Possible Ponderings, to sort of create the opportunity for people to think about shared topics during that month.

February's theme is trust.

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The theme for February is Trust. Possible Ponderings is an offering of ways you might consider engaging more deeply with the theme or reflecting on the ways the idea of Trust show up in your life. These will also be printed in the order of service each week.

February 2-8: How does "showing up" for others and yourself help to build trust?

February 9-15: Pay attention this week to how you spend your time. What does it say about what you value? How could you better align your time and your values?

February 16-22: What do you say to yourself when you're struggling? How is that going for you?

February 23-29: Who are the people in your life that you trust most? Why do you think that is the case?

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Personally, I feel like week 1 is kind of self-explanatory? And I want to do the week 2 exercise at various points during the year, because I am fairly sure the way I spend my time mostly says I value... hmm... consuming other people's creative works? Also responsibility, in the sense of showing up to work on time and fulfilling my job duties, and community participation inasmuch as I do church committee stuff, and creativity of my own. But I feel like I would probably do better both on a mental health front and on a living-my-values front if I got involved in some groups outside my church, which are centered around Doing Things either for enjoyment or for charitable purposes. Like a hiking group, maybe? Or soup kitchen stuff.

The problem is that A) I straight up do not have the time during tax season, B) transportation can be an issue, and C) the ever-present shadow of my intent to move to Minnesota.

Anyway. Moving on!

( What do I say to myself when I'm struggling? )

...

That got more personal than I was expecting. Oops?

Anyway, I should get back to work.

daily update, Monday Feb. 17

Things done today:

Very little, really! Which is okay; some days are like that. But anyway.

1. Rental company office 9am-7pm. An extremely slow day, though I did give two impromptu tours, one of which I think will result in a rental. (Normally impromptu tours are not possible since the apartments people want to see are occupied by current tenants, and we have to give 24 hours' notification before entering with a tour group, but this semester we have a couple apartments whose tenants are away and didn't find spring subtenants, so we can go in whenever.)

2. Measured myself (this is very awkward to do alone, though at least I now own a cheap-ass soft tape measure and didn't have to try to approximate VERY BADLY with my heavy-duty metal tape measure) and ordered a custom-fit bridesmaid dress for Susan's wedding. I had to do that today since if the bridesmaids don't all order within the same 24-hour period, we aren't guaranteed to get fabric from the same dye lot. I went with a custom fit because all the standard sizes both assume one's hips/butt are bigger around than one's bust (not true in my case, weirdly enough!) and they also all assume that anyone with my bust and hip measurements is like six feet tall, which, ahaha NO.

3. Wrote my to-do lists for the coming week.

4. Listened to the latest episode of Sawbones. It is all about pus and various historical traditions of super-counterproductive wound "care". :D

5. Continued listening to The World of Byzantium. We have passed through the disastrous battle of Manzikert (oh no), Alexius I Comnenus [aka Alexios I Komnenos] has taken the throne (yay!), and the First Crusade has arrived (...oh dear).

And that's basically it. Now I am going to bed because tomorrow I do have several Tasks To Complete and I would like to continue paying down my sleep debt.