TheBanyanTree: Summer Board of Directors Meeting

[Margaret R. Kramer]

Our women’s group, Business and Professional Women, had our state summer
board of directors meeting yesterday in Mankato, MN.  Some highlights:

After we left the sprawl of the Twin Cities metro area, it was a beautiful
and surprisingly quick drive to Mankato.  We rolled along through hills and
valleys dotted with red barns, tall corn stalks, and the acrid smell of
manure.

I don’t know my local organization’s president very well, but I made sure to
say hello to her when she came in.  This would be her first SBOD and I
wanted to welcome her to the “club” so to speak.

Carol said hi, and then spent the next five minutes ranting about the drive
down, how many email she gets, how she didn’t want to attend this boring
meeting, etc.  The state meetings are such a positive experience for me,
that I have a difficult time imagining anyone feeling any different about
it, so I was speechless as Carol went on and on about how horrible this was.
Thank goodness, the meeting started, because I needed to find a way to get
my mouth to shut.

Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton the surprise keynote speaker.  He’s our
quieter senator compared to our Republican senator Norm Coleman, who sits
front and center with the Bush administration (and owes his position in the
Senate to the untimely death – murder - of Paul Wellstone).  I have to
admit, however, that Coleman (or his staff really) answer every letter or
email I send them, whereas Dayton’s staff sends out very little.

Even if Dayton doesn’t send responses to his constituents, he seems to have
passion about his beliefs.  He was slow to warm up, but once he got going,
and his main focus was education, he made eye contact, got excited, and got
our attention, too.  He made several references to the missing weapons of
mass destruction.  Yeah, by the way, where are they?

Some of the women seemed to think that since I had fancy looking camera with
a long lens and lots of buttons, that I might actually know how to operate
it, and had me take pictures of them with the Senator.  I did, and I hope
the pictures come out.

I’ve met two major politicians this year, R T Rybak, the mayor of
Minneapolis, on our cruise, and now Senator Dayton.  On Thursday, I’ll meet
Minnesota State Senator Mee Moua, the first Hmong elected to state office in
the USA.  She sounds like quite a woman.  She will be our local organization
’s speaker.

There was a long discussion about our organization’s state foundation.  Some
of the state officers are trustees of the foundation, and it seems there is
split between the trustees who want the money to go to outside BPW
recipients only and others who felt monies should also be available to needy
BPW members.  There seems to be some agendas playing out and I listened to
the discussion, and decided to stay neutral.  I’ll continue to contribute to
the Foundation.

This is such an incredibly charged group of women.  I’ve been part of the
state board for a few years, but only recently have started to go to these
meetings.  I love the energy, the strength, the organizational skills, and
the intelligence of these women.  I need this so much, as I work in a
graveyard of a company where our souls descend into a workplace hell that
only Dilbert could appreciate.

My next positive energy blast will come in February during winter boards.
And we’re thinking of going to Fort Lauderdale next July for the national
convention and from what I hear, the positive vibrations associated with the
national organization will be incredible.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at earthlink.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.skywaybpw.org
Skyway Business and Professional Women
Working women connecting.

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

Don't find fault.  Find a remedy.
~Henry Ford