My Novels

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Handling an Angry Situation

Being President of the local chapter of AHDI (AAMT back then in 1993) was not something I had on my “to do” list.  I have never been afraid of hard work or volunteering my time, and I’m not one to take on a task only if there is something in it for me.  But I love being the one behind the scenes.  I’m great at details and being that right-hand guy.  I also love that niche—it is a perfect fit for me.  As happens so often, and it’s true for most professional associations, come nomination time, we were having a hard time finding people to fill in the openings for officers of the chapter.  We were close to folding, and I did not want to see that happen.  I knew I could do the job and also that I would not be handling it all alone, so I decided to take the leap.  I ran for President, and since I was the only one on the ballot for that particular office, I was pretty sure I would get it. 

I was pretty nervous at that first chapter meeting, even though I had been to more meetings than I could count and knew the drill.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I did make the mistake of offering my opinion on a discussion we were having before taking a vote on the matter, and a member came up to me after that meeting and let me know how atrocious it was that I spoke up and possibly swayed the vote.  Well, okay, she did not use that word, but that is exactly how she made me feel.  It is always good to learn from your mistakes and not focus just only on the mistake, so that is what I was going to do and move on from there.  It was not the best way to start out my term, but getting the tough stuff out of the way in the beginning was good, yes?

I was soon to find out that night was a piece of cake.  A short time later, I got a letter from an instructor at a local college extremely upset, and that is putting it mildly, that a member of the chapter had taken some students through her MT service, and after the tour, she asked these students to send her comments about their course of study because she felt the curriculum was inadequate.  She went on to ask these students not to let their instructor know about this.  She even went so far as to hand them a self-addressed stamped envelope.  How nice!  The instructor was asking me to “take action” regarding this breach of the AAMT Code of Ethics.  I sure picked a great time to be President, didn’t I.  I think I could have found better ways to test my leadership skills, but this is what I was dealt.  Oh, and before I forget, this was also the same member who let me have it at that meeting I mentioned above, one and the same!  

 

The first thing I did was stop.  Whenever you are thrown into a difficult situation, your first instinct is to react.  I did not want to do that because that is when it is so easy to make mistakes.  I took 24 hours to think about what I needed to do.  I also was a lot calmer when I slowed down the emotions and took deep breaths.  Next, I called my fellow officers to get their take and some ideas on how to proceed.  I decided to call the national office, since this was a pretty serious situation, and I would be representing the association in this matter.  They advised me, since this member was in no way representing AAMT or the local chapter, there was really nothing that could be done.  What she did was not ethical, but it was also a personal choice, not something remotely related to her chapter activities.  So that is the approach I took with this college instructor. 

I sent her a letter stating as such and explained our process of any such activities needing to be approved by our Executive Board and that she would have been notified personally ahead of time before anything even took place.  I also stated that we at AAMT were so grateful that the school had an MT program and would be happy to help in any way we could should they ever  decide to make any changes or expand their program.  I told her our members would be reminded to never represent the chapter before getting approval.  I included a copy of this letter to the chapter member, along with a personal note to her to make sure she understood in no uncertain terms she was not to represent the chapter without permission and the matter would be closed. 

Whew—it worked!  I never heard back from the instructor, and the rest of the year went pretty smoothly. I even went on to a second term, although I had to resign my position about half way through the year because that is when I moved to Idaho.  I have to say, if I had to do it all over again knowing what was coming, I think I would have done it anyway.  Sure, it is easy to avoid nasty situations when you can, but it is also a great opportunity to see what you are made of.  It is always interesting to me that truly you can handle things you would normally think would just not be possible.  I handled it, and I handled it well! 

The icing on the cake was a letter I received from another chapter member, a lady I have mentioned in previous posts who was my mentor and also one of the founding members of GAC, who told me she felt I did an outstanding job with this very difficult matter.  That made it so worth it to me, and it’s one of the reasons I went on to tackle a second term. I still like being that  second one on the totem pole, but if I ever have to be the one who needs to take that top position, I know I’ll be able to do it and see what new things I can learn about myself.  Learning is always the best advantage to anything that life throws at you, good or bad.  So if you have the chance to work in a leadership capacity, don’t turn it down.  You will be truly amazed at what you can see, and learn about yourself, from the top. 

Thanks as always for reading.  See you next time! 

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