Oh wait - I’m 8 days late!
We had a wonderful trip to MN over the holidays. I’d love to tell you all about it, but at the moment, time is not on my side. Remember last year when I volunteered to be the Information Officer for the local Little League? Well, a couple people on the Board resigned in December - both of them did registration. So now I get to do registration! And they wanted me to do it on January 5th . . . except I wasn’t in the state that day yet. And, I have no clue how to do it.
So I get to spend today figuring out the online registration for Little League, which maybe wouldn’t be so tough, but one of the guys who resigned was the Treasurer for our Little League, and he decided to transfer our domain name to a different registrar, a registrar that does not host sites, so our site is down! I’ve been on the phone with the previous registrar and the current registrar and both claim to have never hosted a site. I asked everyone on the board and they say they have no clue. So, not only do I need to figure out how to do registration, I need to get our site hosted somewhere, first! Oh, and they want this done by the time we have the Board Meeting Monday night. Sheesh.
And, Girl Scout Cookie sales start today! Of course, none of the parents of the 15 girls in our troop would volunteer to be the Troop Cookie Manager, so Becky and I (co-leaders) get to do that as well. The others said they “didn’t have the time.” Um, we both work full-time AND make the time to have a troop meeting with YOUR girls every single Monday from 3:10-4:30 p.m. I think a couple of you could have gotten together to do the cookies. Anyhoo - we get to get all that set up so the girls can start selling, so that’s another task on the list. Have to have that done by Monday’s troop meeting.
And then there’s that contract that I signed in November, which essentially puts me at working a full 40-hour week. I need to get going on that (no I haven’t started, but they knew there would be delays with the holidays and travel plans). So ya . . . another rather large project hanging over my head.
Yup - this year is starting NOTHING like last year. Last year, I had just gotten laid off and was figuring out how to be a stay-at-home mom. This year, I have a 20-hour per week part-time technical writing/editing job in town, a contract that will last me probably 3 months to fill in the rest of the 40-hour week, volunteer time in Princess’s class room every Monday morning, a troop of 15 Daisy Scouts to lead every Monday afternoon, and a Little League for which I’m responsible for registration and all communication, including the web site.
And I’m thankful for all of it!
What a difference a year makes!
How about you? How does the start of this year compare to the start of last year?
I do believe I would have told the Girl Scout moms to step up or get out. It really irritates me when parents put their kids in something and don’t help the program. If they are too busy then their kids shouldn’t be in so many programs!
I also think that it is a responibility of leaders, who resign, to help you get on track. They are not finished with their job until they have the program up and running for the next person. Monkey on their back!!!
I was involved with Boy Scouts for allot of years and it was my experience that parents dropped off their children and then ran their errands, etc. My co-leader just stood around, so essentially, I had the full responsibility.
I think each parent should at least offer to help on some project and take some of the burden off the leader. Good luck!