Hi Everybody,
When I talked, last September, about potentially closing the Board, these were the factors I mentioned:
1) The time required to maintain the Board and keep it safe (to the degree that I am satisfied with) has gone way up. This diminishes my time to do other professional/non-professional things—particularly to write. (By the way, when I checked this morning I had clocked 50 days, 21 hrs, 56 min on line as “voicel2” which places me in the top 5—I won’t name the other 4!)
2) The health of my wife and myself.
3) Usefulness/benefit to board members—board members are the best judge of this, and I always listen to the differing views.
4) My tolerance for the occasional e-mail disrespect/abuse that are part and parcel of running a board open to the general public. (Such tolerance certainly diminishes with age!)
5) The many expressions of appreciation that I have received and continue to receive.
Some random thoughts, seven months later, about these factors:
As I mentioned in my last post, I was very much moved by the messages I received from members past and present, about how the board had helped them—and even saved their lives. When I mentioned this to my brother who lives in Israel, he said: How can you close it down? And I said, it takes a lot out of me: time, energy—and then there’s the occasional threats and abuse. And he said, essentially, you are lucky to be doing something meaningful—not many people in the world get to do that…
My wife, who was diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago, is doing fine. Her scans have all been “clean”. We are very lucky. It is a disease that has a 5 year survival rate of approximately 15%. But if you are diagnosed early—certainly before symptoms appear—the survival rate is much greater. Her story can be found at
www.upstagelungcancer.org . She has turned her misfortune into something positive—she is the most determined person I know.
Often the Board is rife with conflict—my hope is that people can grow from the conflict. Sometimes this has happened and sometimes it hasn’t. But I still think the conflict—within limits—is important. It is part of the “human condition”: in families, between neighbors, between countries. It will never go away—and we must learn to live our lives in the face of conflict—with as much grace as we are able—again within limits. When the limits have been reached on the board, I have tried to contain it. But I wouldn’t want to moderate a board that had no conflict. But, of course the conflict not only affects Board members, it affects me as well—part of the “price” of running a board. Remember, also, this is a Board that consists of people who have been hurt and are vulnerable. That makes it a particularly hard board to “run”.
Here are the changes I have made:
1) I have put the Registration Agreement at the very top, so that people can review it and refer back to it. Also, I have included the additional rules that have been set over the years.
2) I have decided to allow donations. This is not money making venture for me. But, after ten years, it feels right to accept contributions as a token of thanks—and perhaps those tokens will help me feel better at times of Board strife, when everybody is “yelling” at me to do something different...
3) I’ve started a Therapist List and Therapist Wanted list. Maybe I’ll be able to connect a few people with excellent therapists. It has been a frustration for me for years when people e-mail me and I have no place to send them.
Anyway, these are my ideas for now.
Let me know what your thoughts are about all of this.
Best,
Richard
