Hello, friends!
Sorry for not posting last week. I was a bit under the weather, which actually is part of this week's story! Let's dive in, shall we?
I think I've said this before, that one of Megan and my new responsibilities as Regional Coordinators is that we're part of the Regional Leadership Team, or RLT. The RLT includes our Regional Director, the 4 Area Directors, our Operations and Spiritual Formation Gurus (my term), and us. Our job is to determine the direction of the Region in terms of strategy and planning, as well as put together any Region-wide conferences, like Prospective Staff Weekend or our Regional Staff Conference. Most of our communication happens virtually since we live in different states but every few months we try to get together in person to meet, rotating states. This time, the RLT meetings were in Omaha, meaning we were going to play host.
The plan was simple. RLT meetings went from Tuesday through Thursday, so the out of town staff would come in on Tuesday afternoon, we'd meet at our place, Megan (and to a lesser extent, I) would cook dinner, then the female out of town staff would stay at our place and the male out of town staff would stay with another staff. Wednesday would be meetings all day at our house (the kids would be in daycare) as would Thursday, before everyone leaves after lunch. It's a pretty straightforward plan. Too bad it didn't end up that way.
On Monday, ice and snow storms started to hit Iowa and Nebraska. This meant that it wasn't safe for our Iowa RLT members (including our Regional Director) to drive in until Wednesday. Thankfully, because of the wonders of technology, we were able to do our afternoon meetings via video call; most of the team was in our living room while the Iowa staff called in from their houses.
Nebraska really got hit with the storm on Tuesday afternoon, meaning our daycare got closed early and I had to run to pick up the kids. Thankfully, some other local staff were free so they could watch the kids while we met. We compensated them with the dinner that (mostly Megan) and I cooked, since we were missing the Iowa staff anyway. Tuesday was accomplished well enough.
Wednesday was another story. I was up most of Tuesday night with a stomach bug of some sort so instead of going to the meetings, I was holed up in bed trying to rest up. Oops. Then, on Thursday, with me still possibly contagious, I video called into the meetings while they were happening (at another staff's house). So much for hosting...
All in all, I'd say it was actually a pretty successful RLT meeting. I met with our Regional Director for our regular supervisory meeting yesterday and I said that, given how much went wrong logistically the fact that we got ANYTHING done speaks to the power and grit of the team. Sure, we didn't get EVERYTHING done, but something is definitely better than nothing, given the circumstances.
Ultimately, meetings like this are one of the reasons I love the work that I do so much. Getting to work with these folk through snow storms and stomach bugs is a joy and an honor. It's so much fun seeing all of us in action, rolling with the punches, and ultimately, working together to bring the kingdom to the campus.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
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