I Said I Was SORRY

Last night was a board meeting for my quilting guild. I had been secretary before and thought I had done my time, but last year we had an issue in the guild that I and others thought needed to be brought to an end and my running for secretary would solve the problem.

Last year the member who was secretary was doing things that were making others (me) angry--speaking out of turn, acting like she was in charge, making decisions without input--and she was planning on keeping the job for another year. It was so bad that she (let's call her the mad secretary) announced a change in our fiscal year without any kind of vote--she just decided so we should have all gone along. People were calling me and threatening to quit. I think they called me because I am a long time member and, unfortunately, I agreed with them. It got so that you couldn't meet up with someone without this coming up as the topic of conversation. The solution was to get this woman away from the microphone and put her in the audience again. The years she was in the audience, she was quiet and rarely made anyone angry. During her year as secretary, she spoke at every meeting, often taking the microphone out of someone hands as they were speaking. Every time she spoke, she began with "I wasn't going to speak tonight, but...." and then there would be some really not nice things that came out of her mouth. What we needed was someone to run against her. I was the perfect person because I was willing to do the time should I be elected, I was okay with losing (although I never thought that would happen) and I am well known. I heard the mad secretary decided against another year when I was nominated.

So, here I am taking notes once again. At our last board meeting I wrote the notes to say we would ask our community service person (Linne) for pillow case kits for a kids sew day. Linne took this to mean she HAD to give us kits and she wasn't asked. Really we spoke about whether we had to budget $ for the event or did we have some material in community service that would work and we would inquire. Linne got really angry at someone else who didn't write the notes and I found out from a close friend. I went to Linne and apologised. I took total responsibility for the badly written sentence--in July! So imagine my surprise when it became an issue to discuss at the board meeting. I apologised--again for my badly worded note. How many times must I say I am sorry??? I am really, really sorry!

About the mad secretary--she wasn't happy with me and made it very clear. A little uncomfortable, but manageable. In a chat with a guild member it was mentioned that she hasn't been to a guild meeting since May and I hadn't even noticed. I just thought she was being quiet and avoiding me. Opps.