Committee work

Necessary evil? Shoot me now? If I had a nickel....

"A committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours." (Milton Berle).

But I was never so glad to do committee work as I was this week. (In this case, it's enjoyable all other times of the year as well, since the cause is so wonderful.) It's the start of a new year, year-end giving was excellent, and the cause - land preservation and conservation - grows ever greater. Not everyone feels this way - we've had several prospective Board and committee members bow out at the idea of more fluorescent lights and bums in chairs. But the work needs to be done, and this recently released prisoner of soft chairs and enforced rest and kid gloves is rejoicing. Work practices and governance procedures and fund-raising ideas are so much more interesting than the state of one's abdomen. The organization may not have needed me all that desperately these last couple of months, but I surely needed it. The good wishes and bonhomie were one thing, but the real need was to get out of oneself, to immerse oneself in a great cause again. Who would have thought that the interior of a conference room could be as inspiring as a walk down to Ash Point?