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One year ago, I officially began my term as RE of this esteemed Region, a position I never intended to fill but accepted due to an unforeseen circumstance.  I knew full well that it would only be for this one year; I have what is (arguably) the problem of youth: a young professional career and a young family, both of which require my full attention all of the time.  However, with it being a time of uncertainty and relative unrest in the Region, I felt that I could find the energy and attention span for the last year of my term on the Board of Directors to help keep the Region from imploding. At least, to me, that was the direction in which it felt like we were heading at the time.

What do I mean by imploding?  The State of the Union, as it were, was very stormy, especially on the Club Racing side of the house.  There was a segment of the Region’s membership that was up in arms over the lack of a National Race in 2010; there was another segment who were up in arms about the Region’s Board of Director’s elections.  The icing on the cake was that we were finishing a fiscal year in a significant financial hole.  Needless to say, my email inbox was very, very busy.  I spent the first month of my term doing nothing but answering email.

The uproar died down to a dull roar, allowing the true day-to-day running-the-Region responsibilities to bubble to the surface… sign contracts for venue rentals, complete region charters, attend divisional meetings and jumbo region conference calls, and managing people and their politics in general.  I had no idea how much there would be to do!  In addition to all of that, I took a crash course in National and Divisional politics.  Then the racing season came… and it went.  And here I am, a year later already, and I honestly can’t believe it because I don’t know where the time went or how I did it all.

But that’s just it.  I didn’t do it all.  I had help…a lot of help from a lot of people in the organization.  I can’t mention everyone here (and you know who you are), but I would like to publically recognize a few  people:

• Our Club Office Administrator, Heidi S. Weir, for making sure that all of our bills were paid, accounts balanced, sanctions and post-race audit reports were filed, etc. 
• Our Region Assistant Regional Executive, Lin Toland, for his unwavering support as a sounding board when times were rough for me, and constant willingness to help me with whatever, not matter what the task, I asked of him.
• Our Region Treasurer, Bill Radford, for his 8 years of service to the Region maintaining our books and keeping us on track financially, and for taking the time to train his successor, Steve Miller.
• Our Region Board of Directors as a collective whole: Chuck Edmondson, Steve Hyatt, Eric Kriemelmeyer, Marshall Lytle, Steve Miller, Bill Radford, Mike Snyder, and Lin Toland.  They had to put up with my unconventional meeting formats, my incessant emails, and my personality quirks.  I know that I can be a handful even without the added wildcard of being the RE.
• Our retiring Club Racing Director, Gayle Lorenz, for being my Club Racing politics teacher.  She had to endure a lot of questions, and I monopolized a lot of her time.
• Our retiring Solo Chairman, Craig Garfield, because he always had a bent outlook on things that would break the tension of the moment.
• Our incoming Regional Executive, Jack Burrows, for reaffirming my thoughts that the core issues with which I was wrestling at the Divisional and National levels really haven’t changed in 20 years.  Banging one’s head against a brick wall really does hurts less knowing that!
• To each of the program chairs, Gayle Lorenz, Craig Garfield, Len Picton, Mark Hoerath and Jared Lantzy, and Matthew Yip, for running their programs effectively and making them the best they can possibly be. 
• My husband, Steve.  Steve knew that the decision to take the RE position would take me away from the family, and that I couldn’t rationalize the guilt I felt for even considering it.  Therefore, he said to me very pointedly, “I think you should do it” because without those words, I never would have accepted the nomination.  He supported me emotionally and in terms of “Mr. Mom”; he was left alone with our two toddlers while I was out running around doing RE stuff (“Mommy’s working!”) more often than what I think is reasonable in terms of parenting equality.  But I cannot thank him enough for letting me take the opportunity and run with it.

I admit that I took the job with trepidation, but it was well worth the experience and then some.  I’ll even go as far as saying that I enjoyed it.  It was hard work, but it was also very rewarding.  Maybe I’ll come back to the position again one day, when my children are grown and I have disposable time (and income, for that matter).  Maybe I’ll pull a Jack Burrows.

Speaking of Jack Burrows,, please join me in welcoming him back to the position of Regional Executive.  Jack now gets the (arguably) enviable task of leading this Region to new heights, and I have full confidence in his ability to do exactly that. 

Cheers!

-Evanthe

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Don’t drive faster than your angel can fly.