I Hear The Train A Comin'

It's rolling round the bend, We're all on board committed till I don't know when. . . (With apologies to the late, great Johnny Cash - I do not care for country music, but I do like the work of the Man In Black, imagine that. :-) Okay, I was not really in prison, but I did do some hard time this weekend. Not because of the activities, which were actually very interesting and had some wonderful moments, but because we sat in chairs so long, I think I sprained the right side of my bottom. This past weekend was the Associate Matron/Associate Patron workshop. This is an annual event where the up and coming Grand Line Officers present a training and information events for their local officers from all over the state. It is usually held in the Associate Grand Matron's area or in a central location, depending on her preference. The theme for this one was All Aboard because of the train emblem being used by our Associate Grand Patron, which of course inspired my title today. I was invited to attend, along with the lady in line in front of me and all our subordinate officers. A few of mine signed up, but all but two of them were there for other reasons with other duties to do, so we didn't have a great deal of time to talk but I did have a nice chat during our break out session. I was familiar with most of the information presented, but the best part for me was the opportunity to see how it was presented, what people responded to positively, what things I would like to do the same someday and what I would want to do differently. One of the new features being presented was the idea of a discussion group activity after dinner in the dining room. A topic was proposed and a presenter/facilitator gave some bits of information on the topic to get the thought process going and then called on people to give their ideas and thoughts on the subject. There were some people in the room who expressed to me a measure of skepticism about this working. After all, they said, everyone is tired after a long day of sitting and you've just fed them a meal and now, at 8:00 pm, when they've been in one thing or another since 8:30 am, you want them to be interested? But it went very well and the moderator actually had to bring a halt to the discussion at 8:45 pm or I don't know how long we would have gone on. A friend of mine who expected it to work very well said that most everyone has an opinion on most everything and if you give them a chance to express it in a safe environment, they will all roll out, maybe even more than you want them to. I do think that the key to this working though, is having the right presenter/moderator. He was able to turn every comment into something positive and extract a lot of meaning out of each thing said. Knowing him fairly well (okay, I confess that he is a dear friend of mine and we were sitting together most of the weekend in the corner to be out of the way of the attendees), I could see where there was a time or two that he was thinking pretty furiously as he listened to the comments to come up not only with the positive spin on the thing, but how it tied into the comments that came before. You know, when you are talking about say football and someone pops into the discussion and says "I like blue" it takes you a minute to figure out what just happened and get back on track, but our moderator managed it, with only one or two torturous stretches to keep the conversation moving forward and in a positive way. He was so awesome at it that when our leaders were praising his skills and the work he had done, effusively but all completely deserved, I leaned over and asked if the job came with a cape and tights or if he had to bring his own. Some really exciting new ideas were proposed for next year and it was great to hear about them. It is always hard to be a leader in a time of transition because you try new things and you don't know how they will go, but the important thing is that you try them. If they go well, others can carry them forward. If they go badly, then those who come after have learned something useful for the Order for the future. The trying is all good, regardless of the results. But it does take enormous courage and I applaud those who take the chance. My marching music is The Impossible Dream and my favorite lines are at the end when the lyrics talk about how important it is to have tried and how we make the world better because we keep striving. And of course, I tell my girls that they are the dragon riders and to ride a dragon, you must be very, very brave!Of course, I am eager to see how it all comes out so that I can keep charting where my steps may go in the future. Next weekend, I am in Santa Monica, Riverside, Orange and back to Santa Monica.