Reunion Committee

I try not to make it a habit to tell my husband what to do. Unless we are in the kitchen or the bedroom. Those are places I usually have good ideas in. If I do this in other parts of the house, say hovering over the computer while he’s reading his email – it often ends up backfiring. Which is why I waited until he came upstairs (to the kitchen) to tell him that it would be a really good idea if he were to go back downstairs and retrieve the email he just deleted. The one asking for volunteers to serve on our 15 year college reunion class committee.

Because all committees need a token man. Preferably a strong one that can move heavy things.

I would have volunteered myself, except that would have cut into my yearbook study time. And that preparation is important. Especially for people like me who can’t remember the name of the doctor who delivered my first born. It can’t be wrong to want to at least act like I have a stellar memory for just a weekend.

Besides, I’m pretty bogged down already with committees at work. Like the “80’s Trivia Brown Bag Lunch Committee” (of which I’m a member in good standing but poor performance) or the “Bring Back the Sparkling Water to our Pop Machine Committee” (of which my friend Elaine is the President and Ted is the supervisor.) Note: this is the first time I have used a hyperlink in a post, Ted. I would have hyperlinked to Larry (President of the 80's Trvia Brown Bag Lunch Committee) except that his blog is password protected from people like me who would send him crushing amounts of traffic … as evidenced by the sheer volume of (hidden) comments left on my blog.

Come to think of it, most corporate work is managed via committee. Because it could be dangerous to trust one person to decide what color a brochure should be. I’m really not cynical about all collaborative thinking, just the kind that makes me crazy. Or the kind that make me want to do a quick ROI analysis on whether having a ninety minute meeting with ten people where the only clear output was to have a future meeting makes any economic sense for people being paid over $.99 an hour. I’m pretty sure these meetings don’t happen in the McDonald’s break room without someone getting fired.

Do people at the Nike corporate offices really “just do it?” Or do they too create subcommittees to do exploratory work which results in a matrix of potential solutions that are weighed and debated by a governing body before committing to a course of action on a trial basis? Just wondering. I’m just trying to figure out if it’s normal to take four weeks to make a text change on a website.

Anyway, back to my husband. He didn’t jump at the suggestion. But he also didn’t dismiss it entirely. So I emailed the committee chair to say that he was IN and “looking forward to it.”

It was the same approach I used to get him to chair the school auction clean up committee. I hooked him before he actually said yes or no. He’s done it for three years straight now … it’s a torch that’s hard to pass on. At least with this though, he knew that he’d be off the hook for the 16th year college reunion class committee. Because the only people that could possibly be on that committee would be ones that study their college yearbooks. And I don’t think there are many of us.

Anyway, the first meeting was a conference call. Held at the local Red Robin. (?) I can only assume that someone had a hankering for a bottomless plate of fries. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to patch Brett into the call. Perhaps Red the Mascot confiscated the meeting agenda that included out-of-town committee member’s phone numbers.

Since then all the committee activity has been over email. As far as I can tell, Brett’s only contribution so far has been to vote on the name for the Saturday night party. You’d vote too if the initial name was “1992 Reconnecting Dinner.” Because they are trying to actually encourage people to come. And because they want people to believe that their classmates will be there, not graduates from 1952. One very wise committee member suggested an alternate name: “Fiesta of Friends: Nacho Ordinary Party”. It was unanimously approved.

There was some more voting regarding the name and ticket pricing of the Friday Night Coffee House Concert. Apparently, Brett abstained from that vote --- maybe because he’s planning to be somewhere else that night? One of the other committee members swooped in quickly to find an underwriter for the event to keep the ticket prices down. It was of course a woman who is skilled at being a good, contributing committee member. Thank you, Shaney. I will definitely be there, with or without my husband, who may be playing a game of pick up basketball in Coray Gym instead.

The invitations got sent out this week. We got ours yesterday. Brett’s name is on it. As the first committee member listed. Hee-hee. And to think that all he had to do so far is agree that it’s better to eat nachos than reconnect.

My housemate Sarah was responsible for the invitation. I have a lot of respect for what she was able to do with an 8.5x11 invitation written on school letterhead. It requires a great deal of persuasive writing to convince someone that spending thousands of dollars to travel across the country to visit your Alma Madre is worth some chips and guacamole. She made me want to bleed orange and blue again and talk about how hard life was when all we had to do was take care of ourselves and make our way to class by 10am.

Brett and Stan must be saving their creative energy for the planning of the Saturday night program. That’s the part of the weekend that will involve moving things as well as the chance to grab a microphone …. and use it in front of people. People that I know.

Brainstorm! I think I shall email the Committee chair and suggest that all committee members be required to wear sombreros to the event. Now that would be awesome.

I keep asking him when the work is going to “kick in.” He keeps telling me that I should know before he does since I do an excellent job hovering over his email. Then he says that he’d be happy to turn over his committee spot to me, but then I guilt him about abandoning the only other male committee member. Plus, I think he’s secretly looking forward to the email chatter and virtual voting about decorations and centerpieces. And as you now know, I have 80s trivia to consider.

73 days and counting until Pinata Time!...