The First Word #16: It Takes a Village to Run a Society

It struck me the other day that if we all decided we weren’t going to do anything for our society, our society wouldn’t exist. We wouldn’t have a space to meet because the person in charge of setting that up decided he was too busy and quit doing it. We wouldn’t have a speaker because the person in charge of doing that decided she was tired of making those calls and sending those e-mails and didn’t want to do it anymore. We wouldn’t have members because no one would know how to join because there was no publicity person advertising our society, no Webmaster posting our programs, no programs to post because our program chair quit working. We’d have no Quarterly or Newsletter to read, no classes to attend, no meetings to attend, no snacks to eat at those meetings, and so on and so on.

If we all just decided not to do anything for the society, we would have no society. It has been said that usually about 20% of the people in any given group do 80% of the work. It’s that way in any group, but I’ve seen it especially true in our society as of late. I have attended meeting after meeting and noticed that a few of the people are doing a lot of the work. This leads to burnout and eventually loss of good members.

Burnout happens. It happens in any area of life. Sometimes we just need a break or a change of pace. I think it would be wise for any society to put all of the jobs in a hat once in a while and redistribute them. We have to try new things, learn different aspects of the society, from the smallest task–something as simple as bringing a tasty treat to a meeting–to one of the larger tasks such as Membership Chair or Quarterly Editor.

I have been the Quarterly editor for 4 years now. This is my 16th issue. I love the Quarterly and writing in particular, but just like everyone else I need a break. There are other jobs coming up this year that are vacant, mainly due to burnout and wanting a change of pace. We need some new people to step up and take the reins.

I even run into burnout in my research. I find myself working and working and working on a particular family, or trying to uncover a specific piece of information, and I eventually work so much that I have to put it aside. I generally just pick up another family that I’ve set aside and get back to work. Usually that family is in a different geographical location or time and so the research is different enough so that it renews my interest and I’m able to continue my work.

This is my last Quarterly. I do plan on being a regular contributor but I don’t have the time or energy to stay dedicated to this particular task anymore. I want to take on a different job, have a different role in the society, try my hand at something new and work on some other projects. I know there are other people in the society in similar situations. I encourage you to volunteer for some position, no matter how small or large. Know that you will be supported by the Board, by the previous job-holder, and by your fellow members. Many jobs can be shared or split with someone else to take some of the burden off. As they say, many hands make light work.

You may not think your small bit of volunteering matters, but when a large number of people share that idea then the effects add up, whether it’s a diminished level of service or a lower quality product. Even this Quarterly has suffered from a lack of contributions and the last few issues have shrunk in size.

Just like any social group, political party, small business, volunteer organization, church group, in any of the unlimited aspects of life, it takes help and helpers to make it work. How many indexes, transcriptions, abstracts, compilations and websites has your research benefited from? How many meetings have you attended at BGS, or elsewhere, that someone else organized? If we all just pitched in and did a little bit, the big jobs wouldn’t be so big and we could all enjoy these various groups with a little less stress. Do your part and help out this year. I know we’d all appreciate it!