Tuesday 11 May 2010

Too Many Hats??

My original title for this blog site was too many hats as I felt that I was running from once place to another!! However, whenever I tried to google search it, everyone's blog but mine came to the search engine! So I changed the name to blue wellies!
However, I still have too many hats and I have now decided to start to sell them off - to the highest bidder but I fear that no one will pay for them!!
Guiding is a big part of my life - too big according to my husband! I currently have 3 roles - Brownie guider in charge, brownie outdoor activities advisor - pack holiday advisor really but with a fancy name now! - and a job share as a district commissioner.
I will never give up my brownie pack - there are too many of them and not enough leaders to go round!
The pack holiday advisor role was given to me by the previous advisor who had offered to take on the district commissioner role, then an argument broke out between her and another leader of a unit in the next village and she resigned all of her posts bar the unit she was leading!
This left no one as district commissioner for a few more months then another person stepped in only to be hounded out of the village a few months later with a hate campaign about her and that she should not be trusted. It turned out that it was a big spat about rent not being paid on houses that she had lived in but as she was also an assistant leader with the rainbow unit it all turned a bit nasty and she left the village very suddenly and moved back up north!
Again we were left without a DC for a few more months - at this point I decided to offer as I was already doing it informally for our 4 units in the village, but someone from the other village had just pipped me to the post! However, she was an unwell lady and asked the County Commissioner to appoint me as an assistant DC. They don't have those anymore she was told it will need to be a job share. Both of us were happy with this - that was then this is now!!!
So the fun began!! Two months after I was appointed the other DC was taken in to hospital for a planned operation - a fairly major one which took a fairly long recovery. Since then she has been besieged by illness and multiple deaths in her household - both family members and animals!!! Each death whether human or animal has been dealt with in the same way!!
I am sure that in the background, she is doing lots of things I am unaware of - the purpose of a job share is to communicate with each other regularly and to keep each other up to date - I regularly send her emails with what has been happening with things I have dealt with, but it doesn't seem to be a two-way street with her!
We have had to computerise the way records are kept in Girlguiding UK recently - she still can't work out how to use the database and trust me it is simple. It just takes a morning to sit on it and play around! She doesn't work and is at home all day - she must be able to find some time to do it!!
We DC across two villages - both have thriving Guiding and Scouting movements, both have huts associated with the movements. Ours has only recently been used - it was shut down about 18 years ago but due to financial issues of the Scout groups in the village it was seen to be a better option to do up and use. The Guiding side in our village have chosen not to return - you can work that one out for yourself if you know Scouts!!!
The other village - which is where she lives - has a fantastic hut which is used every evening by the multiple groups in the village and currently just needs some TLC - a new boiler, a bit of paint, you can also work that one out for yourself!!
This better hut called a hut meeting back at the beginning of April, all leaders who used the hut were asked to go to air and share. I went out of interest but thought as I job share and the other DC is bound to be ill at some point in the future when meetings would be due, it would be good to know some of the other leaders from Scouting. She didn't even bother to turn up!!!! In fact there was only me and the Division Commissioner - her unit uses the hut - there to represent Guiding! I was embarrassed to say the least. Things were sorted and a letter written to give to the parents - guess who had to sort that one out for her?
The week after the parent hut meeting I was talking to her about something else when she asked about the next hut meeting and to make sure I would be there! Now the Division Commissioner had already told me not to get involved in this as she said I already had too much to do!! So I stated quite clearly that as the hut was in her village and that I also had a hut in our village which would soon be calling on me to help run, I would not be involved in this one! She seemed quite taken aback! Surely she can see why??
Anyway, I am rambling on!!!
This weekend I have been on a county training weekend at Waddow - what a lovely place!! -and have shared a room with the Division Commissioner and one of my unit assistant leaders. The assistant leader informs me that the previous brownie holiday advisor is interested in taking it back on - this is the one role which takes the least time I might add - but you know? my appointment finishes in February - what the heck, I will email her and see if she wants to pick it back up in February - I am currently planning a large scale sleepover at the national space centre and would like to finish with a bang! You only go to 3 - 4 meetings a year and assess holiday homes once in a blue moon!
I also took the bull by the horns and spoke to the Division Commissioner over breakfast on the Sunday to say that I wasn't happy with the job share as I felt I was doing the majority of the work and I never knew what she was doing! I said that I felt I should step down for now as when our appointments end in 18 months time she will have 2 trained Commissioners in the District who will not be able to be used and this way when the other's appointment ends, I could pick up the rains again!
The Division Commissioners comment - everything will fail if you stop!!
So what do I do now???
I have told her how I feel, maybe I should make more of an effort to contact the other DC on a regular basis - but shouldn't she be doing this as well??
I feel really frustrated!!
Maybe things will work out over the next few months - a miracle may happen and the other DC may finally work to her full potential or it all may just carry on in the way it has done.
I will just have to wait and see!

2 comments:

  1. I'd say - stick at it. Send weekely emails asking for an update on what the other lady has been doing over the last week. Don't feel frustrated, feel VALUED! It's people like you who keep guiding together. It sounds af if the whole thing would fall apart without you (and the div com). You know you're doing a good job, because you care! You can't force other people to care, but you can ask them for a weekly update on what they've been doing!

    Good Luck!

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  2. Thanks for this Renee. I know I will just carry on, but it's nice to have someone else's opinion!

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