Saturday at the Lake
Most of the people (all but me and another person from Casino) arrived at the camp on Friday night. Apparently lots of fun was to be had. (The staff was telling me how a lot of those staying on site decided to go to the pub - got drunk, and got into trouble. You know the sort of fun? Punch ups, sexual harassment [by both males and females], getting lost in a strange place ect ect)
I arrived about 8.45 Saturday morning, and signed in. We were ushered to the conference room for the first lot of lectures. The conference was opened by the manager of the combined institutes. The attendees was welcomed by the SAO (Student Association Officer) from HO. The next thing was a chat by an out going president about the worth of SA (Student Associations). She was late (predictably so). With 2 minutes notice, I was asked to do the spot, which I did. Lara did finally turn up, and hour or so late.
The usual "We are going to break you down in four teams decided by the colour of your badge..." thing happened. I was in group 1. Our first session was Risk Management. Boring as dog shit and uneventful. Morning tea was next on the agenda, and they had catered for me by providing caffeine free tea.
Next session was Group Dynamics. As someone who spends a fair amount of time studying peoples body poster and speech patterns, I knew this would be a blast... and it was :) The set up is this... There are 9 people in Team 1. The earth has just been destroyed, and we are in a bomb shelter. Unfortunately, the life support machinery will only support 6 lives, so we must decide which 3 we will send to their deaths. The players, given to us in random, were:
* Male - 48 - CEO (me)
* Female - 28 - Small Business Manager
* Male - 23 - Construction worker
* Female - 22 - Professional Athlete
* Female - 34 - Blind person
* Male - 25 - Police Officer
* Female - 15 - child
* Female - 53 - Politician
* Male - 30 - Catholic Priest
So we have to kill 3, and time is ticking... we have 18 minutes to decide which three before the life support machinery exhausts from over work and ceases functioning. The catch is that we must all agree unanimously as a group who should be removed from the shelter. The other point is that the doors of the bomb shelter will open in 3 years when its safe for us to go out.
I knew this would be a dramatic workshop, and it was! Straight away, I took control of the group. I started going around the circle asking people what they were. I pointed out that if we are able to be released from the shelter in 3 years, we will need young strong people to help physically rebuild a civilization (and all that goes with it) as well as of breeding age to help our population growth. The group decided 2 males and 4 females. (I probably would have chosen 3.3 rather then a 2.4 ratio)
Immediately, the catholic priest was eliminated. By his very vows, he cant breed. Gowwwwwwn!
The group debated about the politician and the police officer. For some reason, the blind woman decided to defend and stick up for the police officer. The two of them formed an unspoken pact to keep each other alive. They then started to target me, pushing for the CEO to be gone. At this point (because I ethically believed that myself and the polly should be gone) I just sat back, and let the attacks continue. I did not defend myself. I changed my body posture to one of acceptance and calm. The Female small business manager defended me because of my managerial skills, and the fact that I was male meant I could breed for years to come. This came as a total surprise to me. (People were starting to attack or defend based on the person not the character. It was predictable, but it started a lot faster then I imagined.)
From there we got into ethical debates about how young would the 15 year old have to be before she could be impregnated. Also, how would people decide who bred with who so they didn't become inbred. It pretty much only got worse from this point. I just relaxed and said nothing except that the clock was ticking and we would have had only a matter of minutes left to decide before we all died.
8 people remained, and we needed 6. Suddenly, Kahn who was running this session said that the police officer had a gun with ONE bullet in it. He could kill one person to get the negotiations started again. I am thinking he will definitely kill me so the deadlock will be broken and then they can remove the polly. Nope... this sharp shooter kills the polly, condemning us all because of the fact that the deadlock remained.
Of the 4 groups that did this exercise, we were the only ones to have their whole group die. YAY. In the debrief, Kahn said we had all died because of the four in the dead lock (The police officer, the blind woman, the ceo and the small business manager). He also said i had good organizational skills and that I went quiet at the correct time.
During this workshop, I noticed a few things that were interesting.
* The blind woman (who in reality is a female in her early 30's - From Taree) was a very dominant - in your face - sort of personality. She was abrupt and loud.
* The 15 year old girl (who in reality is a male in his early 20's - From Kingscliff) is mentally disabled.
* The Police officer (who in reality is a male in his late 40's - early 50's - From Murwillumbah) is very selfish and refuses to see reason. He is also pushing a lot of personal agendas.
* The small business manager (who in reality is a female in her early 30's - From Tamworth) is also a dominant personality, but not as bad as the blind woman.
* The athlete (who in reality is a male in his early 20's - From Coffs Harbour) is shy, and reserved, but is actually a very logically minded person. He would be an interesting person to get to know in real life.
* The construction worker (who in reality is a female in her early 20's and is out - From Kempsy) is also a shy and reserved person.
(Our other team members were from Inverell, Armadale, Port Macquarie)
Yay, time for lunch. We were all laughing about that workshop, and what we should have done differently ect. It was fairly neat. Lunch was nachos and it was good! Oh, and OJ - more goodness!
The third workshop we were going to was about Team Work and Communication. It was actually a lot of fun, except for a few hiccups...
When we arrived, we were told to break into two teams which we did. We had to stand so two faced two and their fingers were like a gun sticking out in front of them. A cane (ya, I thought it was funny too) was laid gently onto our finger tips. The rule here is that you must all keep your two fingers on the cane at all times, and that you must raise and lower it at his command by using vocal communication to direct each other. It was very very interesting. Of all the teams he had seen throughout the day, he said that our team of four was the best at this activity. Yay for us!
For our next activity, we were to break down in to teams of 3. Easy enough. From this team of 3, each group had to pick its best communicator, and that person was to sit facing Mark (who ran this session) while the other two sat facing the communicator with their back to Mark. Easy enough also.... I was picked as my teams communicator, and we positioned ourselves as directed. Then the shit hit the fan.
The team to our right started to have a dummy spit. Their team consisted of the Athlete, Blind woman, and Teenager from the previous workshop (in reality, the quiet guy, the loud girl, and the disabled guy). The quiet guy was chosen by the loud girl to be their communicator. The disabled guy spat the dummy big time. "I cant see why he is the communicator. I am a great communicator. I should be the communicator. You guys are fucked. You don't know what you are doing." and it only got worse from there.
He threw his arms in the air, and stormed off with the shits yelling behind him "I am a fantastic fucking communicator. You haven't seen my communications skills. I am the youth officer at my campus. I know how to fucking communicate. You guys are arseholes." Its right about here that I am thinking this is a great display of communication skills right here...
So, he storms off with Mark in hot pursuit. The girl who made the decision was sticking by her guns. The guy who was chosen (the quiet guy) was definitely uncomfortable and said that the team did not elect him to the position, that she had done so. I sit and watch with amazement as this scene of finger pointing and blatant abuse continues. Finally, Mark and the young guy returns. Mark calms him down by telling him that he can be the communicator. He goes to sit in the communicator chair, and immediately the loud girl stands up and starts to complain. "If he is the communicator, I am not doing this. He was not elected. He cant communicate. He just demonstrated that." (I felt like piping in with "He can so communicate. I think we all understood him loud and clear just now. He just cant do so in a calm controlled manner.")
So, back to square one. Mark asks me if I would please switch teams and be the communicator on their team while the young guy went to the team I was on. I agreed, and thought the ball would start rolling about this point... buzzz. She started to go off about how I was not elected by that group, and she was standing by her choice that the quiet guy should be communicator (keep in mind that this is the blind girl from the previous workshop who was hell bent on killing me / my character). Fuck!! What an ordeal. Mark said we didn't have time now, and that I was it, and that we would swap around positions soon enough. That pacified her.
The rest of that exercise went off well, and was rather enjoyable. The next exercise was walking across a volcano river using sheets of paper and trust and communication so our entire team got there. So we had to line up on one side behind the lava line. We were all there except for the young guy. Mark asked him to come over to join us. He started to cry and yell that everyone hated him in this group and was picking on him and he wanted to change groups ... Oh more fun! Mark quickly pacified him and he came over to join us - begrudgingly cause we are all mean and stupid.
Afternoon tea could not have come quick enough. The last workshop was about making newsletters. We walked in and sat down and started to chat while the presenters started to organise themselves. We were talking about my quit attempt, and another woman in our groups quit attempt. (She was on day 5 and I was on day 6). I was showing them all the "suck" lolly pops in my bag when the female presenter (cant remember her name) suddenly looked at me, and started clapping and said "Quiet please, and pay attention!!" I glared at her and said "I .. Beg .. Your .. Pardon!?!" She just stared at me blankly so I continued "I don't know who you think you are talking to, but I am not a 10 year old." The male presenter quickly took control of the situation and started the session, the whole time the female presenter stared at me blankly with no idea what to do or say. She later came over and apologized. It turns out that she actually is a kindergarten teacher filling in this position for someone on maternity leave. She said that I suddenly made her realise that she treats all groups of people like she is talking to a group of pre schoolers.
So that was the last workshop for the day. And what a day it was. My SAO came to see me a number of times throughout the day. All the other groups had 14 or so in their group. It just turned out that our group had 5 cancellations - it was a coincidence. So our team was small. They had also organised it so that all of this group contained the loudest and most difficult personalities and the quietest. There are people in this group that make me look introverted!!
Anyway, I had a good night sleep last night, and a good afternoon with Brittany and Joe, so I am ready to face day 2.
I arrived about 8.45 Saturday morning, and signed in. We were ushered to the conference room for the first lot of lectures. The conference was opened by the manager of the combined institutes. The attendees was welcomed by the SAO (Student Association Officer) from HO. The next thing was a chat by an out going president about the worth of SA (Student Associations). She was late (predictably so). With 2 minutes notice, I was asked to do the spot, which I did. Lara did finally turn up, and hour or so late.
The usual "We are going to break you down in four teams decided by the colour of your badge..." thing happened. I was in group 1. Our first session was Risk Management. Boring as dog shit and uneventful. Morning tea was next on the agenda, and they had catered for me by providing caffeine free tea.
Next session was Group Dynamics. As someone who spends a fair amount of time studying peoples body poster and speech patterns, I knew this would be a blast... and it was :) The set up is this... There are 9 people in Team 1. The earth has just been destroyed, and we are in a bomb shelter. Unfortunately, the life support machinery will only support 6 lives, so we must decide which 3 we will send to their deaths. The players, given to us in random, were:
* Male - 48 - CEO (me)
* Female - 28 - Small Business Manager
* Male - 23 - Construction worker
* Female - 22 - Professional Athlete
* Female - 34 - Blind person
* Male - 25 - Police Officer
* Female - 15 - child
* Female - 53 - Politician
* Male - 30 - Catholic Priest
So we have to kill 3, and time is ticking... we have 18 minutes to decide which three before the life support machinery exhausts from over work and ceases functioning. The catch is that we must all agree unanimously as a group who should be removed from the shelter. The other point is that the doors of the bomb shelter will open in 3 years when its safe for us to go out.
I knew this would be a dramatic workshop, and it was! Straight away, I took control of the group. I started going around the circle asking people what they were. I pointed out that if we are able to be released from the shelter in 3 years, we will need young strong people to help physically rebuild a civilization (and all that goes with it) as well as of breeding age to help our population growth. The group decided 2 males and 4 females. (I probably would have chosen 3.3 rather then a 2.4 ratio)
Immediately, the catholic priest was eliminated. By his very vows, he cant breed. Gowwwwwwn!
The group debated about the politician and the police officer. For some reason, the blind woman decided to defend and stick up for the police officer. The two of them formed an unspoken pact to keep each other alive. They then started to target me, pushing for the CEO to be gone. At this point (because I ethically believed that myself and the polly should be gone) I just sat back, and let the attacks continue. I did not defend myself. I changed my body posture to one of acceptance and calm. The Female small business manager defended me because of my managerial skills, and the fact that I was male meant I could breed for years to come. This came as a total surprise to me. (People were starting to attack or defend based on the person not the character. It was predictable, but it started a lot faster then I imagined.)
From there we got into ethical debates about how young would the 15 year old have to be before she could be impregnated. Also, how would people decide who bred with who so they didn't become inbred. It pretty much only got worse from this point. I just relaxed and said nothing except that the clock was ticking and we would have had only a matter of minutes left to decide before we all died.
8 people remained, and we needed 6. Suddenly, Kahn who was running this session said that the police officer had a gun with ONE bullet in it. He could kill one person to get the negotiations started again. I am thinking he will definitely kill me so the deadlock will be broken and then they can remove the polly. Nope... this sharp shooter kills the polly, condemning us all because of the fact that the deadlock remained.
Of the 4 groups that did this exercise, we were the only ones to have their whole group die. YAY. In the debrief, Kahn said we had all died because of the four in the dead lock (The police officer, the blind woman, the ceo and the small business manager). He also said i had good organizational skills and that I went quiet at the correct time.
During this workshop, I noticed a few things that were interesting.
* The blind woman (who in reality is a female in her early 30's - From Taree) was a very dominant - in your face - sort of personality. She was abrupt and loud.
* The 15 year old girl (who in reality is a male in his early 20's - From Kingscliff) is mentally disabled.
* The Police officer (who in reality is a male in his late 40's - early 50's - From Murwillumbah) is very selfish and refuses to see reason. He is also pushing a lot of personal agendas.
* The small business manager (who in reality is a female in her early 30's - From Tamworth) is also a dominant personality, but not as bad as the blind woman.
* The athlete (who in reality is a male in his early 20's - From Coffs Harbour) is shy, and reserved, but is actually a very logically minded person. He would be an interesting person to get to know in real life.
* The construction worker (who in reality is a female in her early 20's and is out - From Kempsy) is also a shy and reserved person.
(Our other team members were from Inverell, Armadale, Port Macquarie)
Yay, time for lunch. We were all laughing about that workshop, and what we should have done differently ect. It was fairly neat. Lunch was nachos and it was good! Oh, and OJ - more goodness!
The third workshop we were going to was about Team Work and Communication. It was actually a lot of fun, except for a few hiccups...
When we arrived, we were told to break into two teams which we did. We had to stand so two faced two and their fingers were like a gun sticking out in front of them. A cane (ya, I thought it was funny too) was laid gently onto our finger tips. The rule here is that you must all keep your two fingers on the cane at all times, and that you must raise and lower it at his command by using vocal communication to direct each other. It was very very interesting. Of all the teams he had seen throughout the day, he said that our team of four was the best at this activity. Yay for us!
For our next activity, we were to break down in to teams of 3. Easy enough. From this team of 3, each group had to pick its best communicator, and that person was to sit facing Mark (who ran this session) while the other two sat facing the communicator with their back to Mark. Easy enough also.... I was picked as my teams communicator, and we positioned ourselves as directed. Then the shit hit the fan.
The team to our right started to have a dummy spit. Their team consisted of the Athlete, Blind woman, and Teenager from the previous workshop (in reality, the quiet guy, the loud girl, and the disabled guy). The quiet guy was chosen by the loud girl to be their communicator. The disabled guy spat the dummy big time. "I cant see why he is the communicator. I am a great communicator. I should be the communicator. You guys are fucked. You don't know what you are doing." and it only got worse from there.
He threw his arms in the air, and stormed off with the shits yelling behind him "I am a fantastic fucking communicator. You haven't seen my communications skills. I am the youth officer at my campus. I know how to fucking communicate. You guys are arseholes." Its right about here that I am thinking this is a great display of communication skills right here...
So, he storms off with Mark in hot pursuit. The girl who made the decision was sticking by her guns. The guy who was chosen (the quiet guy) was definitely uncomfortable and said that the team did not elect him to the position, that she had done so. I sit and watch with amazement as this scene of finger pointing and blatant abuse continues. Finally, Mark and the young guy returns. Mark calms him down by telling him that he can be the communicator. He goes to sit in the communicator chair, and immediately the loud girl stands up and starts to complain. "If he is the communicator, I am not doing this. He was not elected. He cant communicate. He just demonstrated that." (I felt like piping in with "He can so communicate. I think we all understood him loud and clear just now. He just cant do so in a calm controlled manner.")
So, back to square one. Mark asks me if I would please switch teams and be the communicator on their team while the young guy went to the team I was on. I agreed, and thought the ball would start rolling about this point... buzzz. She started to go off about how I was not elected by that group, and she was standing by her choice that the quiet guy should be communicator (keep in mind that this is the blind girl from the previous workshop who was hell bent on killing me / my character). Fuck!! What an ordeal. Mark said we didn't have time now, and that I was it, and that we would swap around positions soon enough. That pacified her.
The rest of that exercise went off well, and was rather enjoyable. The next exercise was walking across a volcano river using sheets of paper and trust and communication so our entire team got there. So we had to line up on one side behind the lava line. We were all there except for the young guy. Mark asked him to come over to join us. He started to cry and yell that everyone hated him in this group and was picking on him and he wanted to change groups ... Oh more fun! Mark quickly pacified him and he came over to join us - begrudgingly cause we are all mean and stupid.
Afternoon tea could not have come quick enough. The last workshop was about making newsletters. We walked in and sat down and started to chat while the presenters started to organise themselves. We were talking about my quit attempt, and another woman in our groups quit attempt. (She was on day 5 and I was on day 6). I was showing them all the "suck" lolly pops in my bag when the female presenter (cant remember her name) suddenly looked at me, and started clapping and said "Quiet please, and pay attention!!" I glared at her and said "I .. Beg .. Your .. Pardon!?!" She just stared at me blankly so I continued "I don't know who you think you are talking to, but I am not a 10 year old." The male presenter quickly took control of the situation and started the session, the whole time the female presenter stared at me blankly with no idea what to do or say. She later came over and apologized. It turns out that she actually is a kindergarten teacher filling in this position for someone on maternity leave. She said that I suddenly made her realise that she treats all groups of people like she is talking to a group of pre schoolers.
So that was the last workshop for the day. And what a day it was. My SAO came to see me a number of times throughout the day. All the other groups had 14 or so in their group. It just turned out that our group had 5 cancellations - it was a coincidence. So our team was small. They had also organised it so that all of this group contained the loudest and most difficult personalities and the quietest. There are people in this group that make me look introverted!!
Anyway, I had a good night sleep last night, and a good afternoon with Brittany and Joe, so I am ready to face day 2.