Dropping the Bomb, and Mission Validation
I dropped the bomb last night at our monthly Board meeting about my leave of absence next year. I'm not sure yet how/if I want to make an "official" announcement to the members, or just let the news float around. And believe me, it will. They took it well, though I was surprised how difficult it was to break the news, considering I've been having the conversation with friends and family for a few weeks now. One of our new Board members said that I'm doing a very brave thing. I'm not so sure about that, as I feel like it's my own failure that is leading to it, and I'm just taking action to clean up the mess. And I reconsidered SO many times over the last week, leading up to our concerts this weekend. But I think the bleak financial picture that was presented for this summer and looking into next year helped cement my logic to them.
In other but related news (in that it's chorus-related), I experienced a "mission-validating moment" yesterday. I'll share an e-mail that I sent via the chorus listserv to explain.
The co-worker I refer to is this one, so she has made an appearance on my LJ before!I just had lunch with my co-worker Erin, who visited our rehearsal last Wednesday night, and thought I would share some of our conversation with you. As I mentioned, she is taking a class on diversity and had an assignment to select someone from a different walk of life, observe, reflect, and create an action plan for how to incorporate more diversity into your life.
Erin has purchased one of our holiday CDs before from me, but has never attended a concert. Her experience is extremely limited around LGBT issues. I would argue that she is the target audience of a key component of our mission. At any rate, after last week's rehearsal, I was planning to offer her comp tickets this weekend. Before I could say anything, the first words out of her mouth were, "ok, you got me. When and where?" and she bought tickets for and attended the show on Saturday night.
At lunch today she shared some of her observations with me. It was a very interesting and honest conversation. Of course she loved the show. And she would tell me if she didn't love it; she didn't like our last holiday CD and didn't hold that back from me -- lol. The thing that struck me most was that she had a stereotype of how gay men dress and look and act (no comments on how I apparently didn't break that stereotype for her). Seeing us out of our tuxes, and interacting with one another, it made her feel a little stupid, but she realized how much diversity there was among US, and how so many of us look like the rest of the world. It's such a little thing, and something that nowadays, a lot of us take for granted, but something to keep in mind. We always say that every time you step onto the stage, it changes someone's life, and it really does!
In other but related news (in that it's chorus-related), I experienced a "mission-validating moment" yesterday. I'll share an e-mail that I sent via the chorus listserv to explain.
The co-worker I refer to is this one, so she has made an appearance on my LJ before!I just had lunch with my co-worker Erin, who visited our rehearsal last Wednesday night, and thought I would share some of our conversation with you. As I mentioned, she is taking a class on diversity and had an assignment to select someone from a different walk of life, observe, reflect, and create an action plan for how to incorporate more diversity into your life.
Erin has purchased one of our holiday CDs before from me, but has never attended a concert. Her experience is extremely limited around LGBT issues. I would argue that she is the target audience of a key component of our mission. At any rate, after last week's rehearsal, I was planning to offer her comp tickets this weekend. Before I could say anything, the first words out of her mouth were, "ok, you got me. When and where?" and she bought tickets for and attended the show on Saturday night.
At lunch today she shared some of her observations with me. It was a very interesting and honest conversation. Of course she loved the show. And she would tell me if she didn't love it; she didn't like our last holiday CD and didn't hold that back from me -- lol. The thing that struck me most was that she had a stereotype of how gay men dress and look and act (no comments on how I apparently didn't break that stereotype for her). Seeing us out of our tuxes, and interacting with one another, it made her feel a little stupid, but she realized how much diversity there was among US, and how so many of us look like the rest of the world. It's such a little thing, and something that nowadays, a lot of us take for granted, but something to keep in mind. We always say that every time you step onto the stage, it changes someone's life, and it really does!