I am officially an Event Planner. Today was the Ripple Relay as well as the first event for the San Diego office! It was incredible to see all the hard work come to fruition. My knees are not happy with me and I am currently sitting in my living room icing them down. I wish I could say it all went smoothly, but that was not the case. I’m sure that we will have lots of disjointedness throughout this entire first year, but there was more than was necessary this time around.
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| You can see all the pictures on our facebook page |
I have a hard time dealing with complications when I saw them coming miles away and gave adequate warning of them. You never want to see a disaster happen just the way you predicted it would. I wonder if this is the stress that Nostradamus lived in. I find that I have this reoccurring problem in my life where I speak but am not heard. I don’t know if it’s because I lack conviction when I talk or if people just don’t believe I know what I’m talking about.
There were also a lot of last minute changes that weren’t thought through. I am also someone who is committed to my word and I am not comfortable changing things on people so close to an event. There needs to be time to prepare. I may be good with being flexible myself, but I know better than to expect that from everyone. When working with the public, you have to remember that you can only get as far as you’re willing to take the least of these. Generally most people are able to handle what you throw at them, but if we just assume, then we will leave people behind and that can severely affect us. It’s the same with anything. You must be prepared for the worst-case scenario and just hope you don’t have to use it. That’s why buildings have crazy fire codes and accessibility codes. You might not need them, but they are “just in case”.
I need to get better at being heard and getting people to follow through because I have a strong tendency to believe that if something needs to get done, then I’m going to have to do it myself. I’ve had so many people flake on things in my life, that I’ve sort of become a lone ranger. I love working on a team when the team is acting like a team (theater, sports, committees, etc…) but when people prove to be unconcerned or unreliable instead of consulting with them, I just pile the workload on my shoulders. In this event alone I was coordinator, pacer, photographer, videographer, and participant.
There are several of us who need to get better at delegating and then respecting those who we’ve delegated the work to. It’s going to derail everyone if we constantly take projects out of each other’s hands in mid-process. We have to trust that organizers know what they are doing. And if they don’t, then we have to respect that failure is a system of growth.
I know that if several things weren’t taken out of my hands then they would have run smoother, but I’m hoping the same truth about failure applies here: taking over someone else’s work has failed to improve the situation. Let us learn from this. We will only continue to fail if we don’t learn from our mistakes. I’m sure I will be reminded of this same lesson as I start to grow my events team.
Hmmmm… speaking of lessons I’ve learned; I believe that I have a note I wrote a long time ago to remind myself to schedule out events so we didn’t overlap or plan events during other happening’s in the area that cause conflicts. For example planning a college rummage sale in the middle of spring break when all the students are gone…. or a tree sale the same time as the Ripple Relay… just saying.
Overall, the sale and the relay went well enough. However, it has been brought to my attention that we are starting to lose focus. I realized this during the Orange Co. event when I needed the video to reconnect to the whole reason behind what we are doing. I think funds are becoming too forefront in our minds. Granted we are trying to get the San Diego office up and running, I really think we should be starting and ending each work day in prayer. (I’m just as bad as anyone with forgetting to do so.)
Sitting in Flood every Sunday is such a wonderful rejuvenation. It’s like going to the chiropractor to get realigned. By the end of the week I find that I am in dire need of spiritual alignment. The enemy has been particularly active among us and I can see how each person is struggling. Unawareness, insensitivity, overbearing, uncommitted, over worked, over stressed, over sensitive, disconcerted, unconcerned, prideful, over critical, drained, and questioning our intentions. This week’s message came at the right time. I have been talking about spiritual warfare and to have Matt cover the topic confirmed how COTN in San Diego, nationally, and abroad is being targeted and needs to stand strong.
The difficulties are just beginning.
We will stand together.
“The Devil will try to thwart us from praying for he has no power over those who desire to give themselves to God.” – Teresa of Ávila
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