Another 2016 election
Nov. 30th, 2016 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistA sort of lovely thing happened to me last week.
A branch of the WI was founded where I live this year, and I was excited about it after hearing about the WI from cool people like Cerys Matthews who had a feature about it on her radio show. I went along to an early meeting where our adviser was telling us about the history of the WI and its founding principles sounded marvelous to me: about tackling the problems of isolation and limited scope in life, specific to women -- especially a hundred years ago when it was formed -- to promote women getting together, educating each other in whatever they were skilled at (which is how it gets its reputation for things like jam-making, the hokey stereotype seems to be borne out of the idea that everyone has something valuable to teach as well as to learn, even if it's just their special recipe for a particular dish) and working on various political but non-partisan causes of their choosing. Even in the fifties and sixties they were about things like STDs so again, not so stuffy as the WI's reputation might suggest.
And over the year I've met some good people and the regular groups for things like crafts and walking/hiking as well as one-off days out have been really good for me. It's how I met the person who gave me the idea to include interviews with other people in my Kickstarter book.
But despite how great it's been, it's also been kind of difficult too. Attendance started to dwindle. I didn't see my fellow poor, queer, foreign, chronically ill/disabled etc. women around so much any more.
Communication was breaking down. When I said I'd consider standing for the committee next year, a few of the friendly acquaintances I'd made that had been committee members this year started sharing things. Concerns that hadn't been addressed. Procedure that hadn't been followed -- those hundred years of the WI come with a lot of formal structures! A few of us decided we wanted to try to get on this year's committee and...well, I've got a page of notes somewhere that has scribbled across the top "Democracy - Transparency - Inclusivity" because that summed up what we were aiming for.
We got our nominations in and agonized over little biographies of ourselves to go along with them. We all turned up to the Annual Meeting -- me with a migraine, a friend with terrible acid reflux from chronic illness, it was that important! -- mostly sat together at the back of the room, and sat through the formalities of officer reports and the strange voting system the WI uses.
Then we had to wait while the votes were counted. I'd made pumpkin pie, as I'd promised way back in the summer I'd do at the meeting closest to Thanksgiving, and a lot of people were telling me it was nice, many of whom had never eaten it before! One person said it was her favorite bake all year and even if no one else thinks so I'm happy to take the accolade of being somebody's favorite out of a whole WI in a whole year!
Then the new committee was read out, one name at a time. There had been fifteen on the ballot and twelve would be elected. My friends and others said that whoever got elected we'd be happy with. Mostly it was new people, not returning committee members. The list, like the ballot, was read out in alphabetical order and people were asked to come up to the front as their names were called. So I saw Pat and Zoe and others go stand at the front, and my heart rose each time. Then I heard Tas's name, and Tas was the one I wanted to be our new president -- the presidential election was done separately afterwards out of the people who've been elected to the committee, so of course it was a vital first step towards being president that she get this far! We clapped after every name was read but I clapped extra frantically for that one.
But then I realized: Tas's last name is after mine in the alphabet.
I wasn't elected.
The list went on and my friends' names kept getting called until I was the only person left sitting in our section of eight or so seats at the back. As soon as the new committee had been announced lovely Katy, who'd been so good all year at making sure things were accessible to me, getting me cups of tea if it looked like I'd just spill mine over everyone if I'd tried, and just generally being kind and awesome, came over to me and said "oh, Holly, I'm so sorry..." and sat down next to me to give me a hug. And it was only then that I felt a little sad, but I think I managed to keep my cool and say I was all right and that's the way democracy goes. I was all right, really, because I knew the new committee would do good things and that I could probably even still do what I would've done as a committee member without being one: we'd made it clear in our discussions of how we'd like the WI to be that one of the first things to go would be the kind of us-and-them mentality we'd encountered from some of this year's committee.
The committee stayed at the front of the room for the presidential election, where you just write the name of the person you want on a slip of paper, and Tas did win. I was overjoyed.
Then everyone came and sat back down again and I had lots more hugs and people telling me they were sorry I hadn't made it. We'd all worked so hard in sorting things out and getting ourselves this far that it did seem harsh for all-but-one of us to make it -- I told everyone not to be silly but I know my heart would've broken for one of them if our situations had been reversed. Tas the new president sat down next to me, wrapped her arm around me, and said I was still one of them and would still be helping out.
In a funny way, losing was better for me emotionally than winning would've been. Having lost meant I could see that my new friends -- almost all these friendships borne out of the adversity of this first year in our WI -- really did value me and the contribution they thought I could make.
The new committee had proper paperwork to sign and things, and ideally a bit of a handover from the old committee, but they'd said they were going to the pub after and did I want to go with them. I felt a bit sad at being the Not-Committee-Member among the new committee while I was waiting, but in the pub I was repeatedly assured that I had been co-opted and by the end of the evening I was in the new facebook group for the new committee members.
The other two who were unsuccessful in the vote were also approached and invited to join in anyway, since anyone who wants to contribute enough to have put themselves up for election is, our new president reckons, the kind of keen person we want helping out and we all have different skills and interests and whatnot. One wasn't interested but the other is apparently delighted at this but health problems haven't permitted us to spend time with her yet. I don't know her well but I know she brings diverse perspective and connections that can only be a good thing for our WI.
And in a way this has been perfect for me too: the person who didn't want to be on the committee expressed some of the same reservations that I'd had -- people didn't want me, they wanted someone else, so it'd be unfair for them to get stuck with me anyway -- and I saw how the new committee didn't feel the same way at all which put my mind at rest a bit on that score. And the person who is interested means it isn't only me who's been co-opted onto the committee so I feel less like an exception has been made for me because the committee's made up largely of friends of mine -- that's exactly the kind of cliquiness I want to steer well clear of. But I've been reassured on that, too.
It's sort of the best of both worlds, losing! It's nice to feel wanted, to have people sad that you didn't make it onto the committee, to get lots of hugs, to still be wanted and welcomed. It's only been a week and we've got so much to catch up on, so many ideas, so much to talk about. We're all excited and only slightly daunted by the prospect of what our WI can do in the next year.
This might be the only election of 2016 that went the way I wanted it to, but I'll take it.
A branch of the WI was founded where I live this year, and I was excited about it after hearing about the WI from cool people like Cerys Matthews who had a feature about it on her radio show. I went along to an early meeting where our adviser was telling us about the history of the WI and its founding principles sounded marvelous to me: about tackling the problems of isolation and limited scope in life, specific to women -- especially a hundred years ago when it was formed -- to promote women getting together, educating each other in whatever they were skilled at (which is how it gets its reputation for things like jam-making, the hokey stereotype seems to be borne out of the idea that everyone has something valuable to teach as well as to learn, even if it's just their special recipe for a particular dish) and working on various political but non-partisan causes of their choosing. Even in the fifties and sixties they were about things like STDs so again, not so stuffy as the WI's reputation might suggest.
And over the year I've met some good people and the regular groups for things like crafts and walking/hiking as well as one-off days out have been really good for me. It's how I met the person who gave me the idea to include interviews with other people in my Kickstarter book.
But despite how great it's been, it's also been kind of difficult too. Attendance started to dwindle. I didn't see my fellow poor, queer, foreign, chronically ill/disabled etc. women around so much any more.
Communication was breaking down. When I said I'd consider standing for the committee next year, a few of the friendly acquaintances I'd made that had been committee members this year started sharing things. Concerns that hadn't been addressed. Procedure that hadn't been followed -- those hundred years of the WI come with a lot of formal structures! A few of us decided we wanted to try to get on this year's committee and...well, I've got a page of notes somewhere that has scribbled across the top "Democracy - Transparency - Inclusivity" because that summed up what we were aiming for.
We got our nominations in and agonized over little biographies of ourselves to go along with them. We all turned up to the Annual Meeting -- me with a migraine, a friend with terrible acid reflux from chronic illness, it was that important! -- mostly sat together at the back of the room, and sat through the formalities of officer reports and the strange voting system the WI uses.
Then we had to wait while the votes were counted. I'd made pumpkin pie, as I'd promised way back in the summer I'd do at the meeting closest to Thanksgiving, and a lot of people were telling me it was nice, many of whom had never eaten it before! One person said it was her favorite bake all year and even if no one else thinks so I'm happy to take the accolade of being somebody's favorite out of a whole WI in a whole year!
Then the new committee was read out, one name at a time. There had been fifteen on the ballot and twelve would be elected. My friends and others said that whoever got elected we'd be happy with. Mostly it was new people, not returning committee members. The list, like the ballot, was read out in alphabetical order and people were asked to come up to the front as their names were called. So I saw Pat and Zoe and others go stand at the front, and my heart rose each time. Then I heard Tas's name, and Tas was the one I wanted to be our new president -- the presidential election was done separately afterwards out of the people who've been elected to the committee, so of course it was a vital first step towards being president that she get this far! We clapped after every name was read but I clapped extra frantically for that one.
But then I realized: Tas's last name is after mine in the alphabet.
I wasn't elected.
The list went on and my friends' names kept getting called until I was the only person left sitting in our section of eight or so seats at the back. As soon as the new committee had been announced lovely Katy, who'd been so good all year at making sure things were accessible to me, getting me cups of tea if it looked like I'd just spill mine over everyone if I'd tried, and just generally being kind and awesome, came over to me and said "oh, Holly, I'm so sorry..." and sat down next to me to give me a hug. And it was only then that I felt a little sad, but I think I managed to keep my cool and say I was all right and that's the way democracy goes. I was all right, really, because I knew the new committee would do good things and that I could probably even still do what I would've done as a committee member without being one: we'd made it clear in our discussions of how we'd like the WI to be that one of the first things to go would be the kind of us-and-them mentality we'd encountered from some of this year's committee.
The committee stayed at the front of the room for the presidential election, where you just write the name of the person you want on a slip of paper, and Tas did win. I was overjoyed.
Then everyone came and sat back down again and I had lots more hugs and people telling me they were sorry I hadn't made it. We'd all worked so hard in sorting things out and getting ourselves this far that it did seem harsh for all-but-one of us to make it -- I told everyone not to be silly but I know my heart would've broken for one of them if our situations had been reversed. Tas the new president sat down next to me, wrapped her arm around me, and said I was still one of them and would still be helping out.
In a funny way, losing was better for me emotionally than winning would've been. Having lost meant I could see that my new friends -- almost all these friendships borne out of the adversity of this first year in our WI -- really did value me and the contribution they thought I could make.
The new committee had proper paperwork to sign and things, and ideally a bit of a handover from the old committee, but they'd said they were going to the pub after and did I want to go with them. I felt a bit sad at being the Not-Committee-Member among the new committee while I was waiting, but in the pub I was repeatedly assured that I had been co-opted and by the end of the evening I was in the new facebook group for the new committee members.
The other two who were unsuccessful in the vote were also approached and invited to join in anyway, since anyone who wants to contribute enough to have put themselves up for election is, our new president reckons, the kind of keen person we want helping out and we all have different skills and interests and whatnot. One wasn't interested but the other is apparently delighted at this but health problems haven't permitted us to spend time with her yet. I don't know her well but I know she brings diverse perspective and connections that can only be a good thing for our WI.
And in a way this has been perfect for me too: the person who didn't want to be on the committee expressed some of the same reservations that I'd had -- people didn't want me, they wanted someone else, so it'd be unfair for them to get stuck with me anyway -- and I saw how the new committee didn't feel the same way at all which put my mind at rest a bit on that score. And the person who is interested means it isn't only me who's been co-opted onto the committee so I feel less like an exception has been made for me because the committee's made up largely of friends of mine -- that's exactly the kind of cliquiness I want to steer well clear of. But I've been reassured on that, too.
It's sort of the best of both worlds, losing! It's nice to feel wanted, to have people sad that you didn't make it onto the committee, to get lots of hugs, to still be wanted and welcomed. It's only been a week and we've got so much to catch up on, so many ideas, so much to talk about. We're all excited and only slightly daunted by the prospect of what our WI can do in the next year.
This might be the only election of 2016 that went the way I wanted it to, but I'll take it.
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(no subject)
Date: 2016-12-01 10:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-12-01 12:40 pm (UTC)And yay introducing people to pumpkin pie! I am mostly not a pie person of any kind, but I think people getting to try new foods and liking them is awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-12-01 09:20 pm (UTC)And that the was pie.
(no subject)
Date: 2016-12-01 12:41 pm (UTC)"Democracy - Transparency - Inclusivity" - I am really pleased at how seriously the new committee take these values.