(no subject)
Ski patrol refresher weekend! I always enjoy refresher, but I usually dread it. It feels like so much work to prepare, so much pressure to succeed, a bit time and financial commitment -- in short I seem to look for reasons I won't enjoy it. I think I'm just insecure about my first aid skills and look for justifications for those insecurities. Even though the point of refresher is for our instructors to judge our skills before we put them to use it's not a high pressure thing at all. Today I was able to work with someone I'm comfortable with and we were able to choose my favorite evaluator -- not quite the anxiety-inducing event I seemed to be anticipating.
I always love the interpersonal dynamics there. We're an interestingly varied group, but I tend to think of us as a team of equals despite some pretty stark age and socio-economic divides. From what I see, everyone treats everyone with respect if not necessarily genuine affection. We do have an elected leader who appoints others to various tasks but everyone in any position of power seems devoted to strengthening the patrol and are more than willing to work with all of us.
What's coming is my problem with someone who is not actually in any position of power but does not hesitate to give me or anyone else orders. I first noticed it last year, but he may actually have become more overbearing in the off-season. Today he actually tried to remove the rope from my hands when I didn't obey him during chair evac. I mentioned it to the patrol director but I'm not sure if I should say something to him or not. I don't like being told what to do when what I'm doing is working just fine (who does?) and I've made it very, very clear to everyone I am not to be casually touched. He really puts a lot of work into the patrol but I'm not sure he understands that doesn't convey any authority. Gah, I'll see how the season goes.
Fortunately though, he's not the only one giving me input. I was having a hard time on a specific skill and one of the other patrollers offered some advice and was generally helpful all around. The difference was I perceived he was making suggestions because he wanted to help me succeed instead of wanting to show that he knew more than me or wanting me to obey him.
And I should be going to bed now so I can do it again tomorrow.
I always love the interpersonal dynamics there. We're an interestingly varied group, but I tend to think of us as a team of equals despite some pretty stark age and socio-economic divides. From what I see, everyone treats everyone with respect if not necessarily genuine affection. We do have an elected leader who appoints others to various tasks but everyone in any position of power seems devoted to strengthening the patrol and are more than willing to work with all of us.
What's coming is my problem with someone who is not actually in any position of power but does not hesitate to give me or anyone else orders. I first noticed it last year, but he may actually have become more overbearing in the off-season. Today he actually tried to remove the rope from my hands when I didn't obey him during chair evac. I mentioned it to the patrol director but I'm not sure if I should say something to him or not. I don't like being told what to do when what I'm doing is working just fine (who does?) and I've made it very, very clear to everyone I am not to be casually touched. He really puts a lot of work into the patrol but I'm not sure he understands that doesn't convey any authority. Gah, I'll see how the season goes.
Fortunately though, he's not the only one giving me input. I was having a hard time on a specific skill and one of the other patrollers offered some advice and was generally helpful all around. The difference was I perceived he was making suggestions because he wanted to help me succeed instead of wanting to show that he knew more than me or wanting me to obey him.
And I should be going to bed now so I can do it again tomorrow.