I began to test my own will for involvement 10 months ago by attending an Arlingtonian's for Democracy meetup.
Being an outspoken person filled with more opinion than may be prudent for me to share, I wrote an email to the meetup organizer's telling them in exacting detail how I thought they could improve the meeting. I was actually suprised to get a nice note in response saying, "you seem to know alot about this, maybe you would like to come and help us plan."
Being an academic interested in how adults come together in groups to address common causes believed it would be a good way to get involved and pursue my research interests.
Eight months later, after attending a few more meetings, Matt, the organizer for Arlingtonians for Democracy invited me to moderate a meeting for Democracy for Virginia. Okay I said.
It was a great meeting. I spoke with the organizations executive director, Jennifer Boysko, and we established some guidelines for helping one another keep the meeting running according to a set agenda.
When the agenda item for setting organizational goals come on the table, Jennifer gave me the floor and I moderated the discussion. I would offer an item for discussion and then take an order of speakers to address the issue, offer comments, make questions, or to make a motion for action items. It went well and within an hour the group of 22 people had an outline for action in the coming year.
At the end of the meeting there was a call for volunteers to take on duties to help make the plan come to life. I volunteered to be the social outreach coordinator. I know I have a limited amount of time, and I having done outreach work as the Vice President of the Graduate and Professional Association at ASU, I was sure I could handle the responsiblity and that perhaps more importantly I WOULD ENJOY IT!
Each of us has a limited amount of time in this world. We work, we sleep, we enjoy our friends and family, we enjoy our time alone to rest and recenter....but to make democracy work mean we have to donate our time. We need to follow the issues and have an informed opinion., but we also have to be willing to put ourselves out there if we are going to make things happen.
My first contribution as social coordinator was to organize a Holiday Party as suggested by board member Lee Diamond. After two conferenece calls and several flurries of emails we made it happen.
.JPG)
