LAST NIGHT I GAVE A SPEECH.
It was only supposed to be 5 minutes and I’m fairly certain I stayed well under that. I could feel my voice shaking the entire time and I barely looked at my notes because my eyes wouldn’t focus and but I stayed on topic and I only lost my words once and I think I covered it up okay with some sort of awkward shoulder shrug and mumbling. I didn’t make boob sweat jokes and I didn’t call anyone the wrong name. I made sure not to even include names or references to anyone because then the opportunity would not be there to screw it up and I accidentally called a friend by my daughter’s name this weekend so – you know – I didn’t want to see that happen again.
Luckily several of us who had to give speeches were terrified and I think that’s an important part of being an adult, is admitting things like that. It makes us all for more connected to know we’re not the only ones who feel like children in certain situations. I gained courage to do the scary thing because I knew other people were just as scared. If we all admit we’re terrified, maybe we can all be a little braver.
BUT THAT IS NOT MY POINT.
My point is I am now officially the Vice President of Communications for our local track club. We have close to 2,000 members and we raised a lot of money through big and sometimes profitable races and we make lots of donations and I have been wanting to get my hands on some of the web/comm aspects of this group for awhile. If you clicked that link you’ll see the website is terrible. Supposedly there is one ready for a re-launch and has been there for awhile but it seems there are still things that aren’t right with it. I don’t know – either way I’m glad to be a part of the group now and someone who can be instrumental in helping us become better at delivering our message to a wider group of people.
MY POINT:
Are you a member of your local track club? Or a similar running organization? How do you get information from your group? There are a lot of things that HTC does that HTC members forget about simply because they rely on email heavily and I think the average person sees an email about an event once and then forgets about it whereas they’re on Facebook several times a day, or on Instagram every time they have to wait in a line, so I feel like we can duplicate our communications across several channels to meet a wider audience. BUT – I’m not sure. How do you learn about local races? How do you learn about volunteer opportunities? What would help you become more involved in your local track club? I would love to find out how other people in other parts of the country are doing it and I’d love to hear about it from average runners.
AND BACK OFF TOPIC:
I GAVE A SPEECH. I GOT ELECTED. I almost threw up attending my first book club in 2009’ish, there were like 7 people and I knew half of them and I WAS TERRIFIED. 2 years ago I took a position with our local tri club (better website…I DID THAT ONE!) but I didn’t have to speak or get elected. I was the only one who wanted it. Those two years (I’m still in that position thankfully, that group has become like my family oddly enough) gave me the confidence to try to help out a bigger organization like the HTC. So, last night I had to give a speech to a full capacity dinner (don’t ask me how many were there, the room holds 120 and it seemed full but I AM TERRIBLE WITH SPATIAL ISSUES) and I was scared, and kinda wanted to puke, but nothing like that night at that small book club. I knew a lot of people in that room. My running friend Chelsea was vying for another position (SHE WON TOO, WE ARE TAKING OVER) and several people congratulated us afterwards and it just felt great. I have friends. I have a community. I have a purpose. I’ve come a long way in a short amount of time and I’m so glad I started trying to conquer my social anxieties because I’m so amazed at how blessed my life has become.
THE BEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD:
I stole this picture from Chelsea to show you HOW EXCITED I WAS. I love this picture so much because it shows how hard it is to contain Dorky Kim. I know this job is going to be tough but it will be great and it’s a good fit for me and I’m just really hoping we get my house back on the market soon and it sells sooner so I can finally breathe easy and give time to the local clubs I love so much. Team Rocket gave $38,100 in 2015 to local charities. THAT IS A LOT OF MONEY FOR CHARITY. I love being part of these groups and I can’t wait to help them do more good. I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT ALL OF IT JUST LIKE THIS PICTURE DEMONSTRATES.
I think I need less coffee.
P.S. Dude. I don’t know what happened but it took me 90 minutes to write this entry. I AM SO LATE FOR LIFE. I’m not proofing it and I’m sorry but it’s not like my proofing skills are ever that superb anyway. I left the word “poop” in place of the word “put” in an entry once and didn’t catch it until I linked to that entry again a year later. So, blame any errors on my excitement level. I HAVE TO HURRY AND MAKE LUNCHES AND DO LAUNDRY AND GET DRESSED NOW.
Congratulations to you Kim; I know you will bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to HTC. Best wishes to you!!?
Oh congratulations! So happy for you and for Huntsville runners!
I was in the New Orleans Track Club (NOTC) and was Membership – which meant mostly going and picking up trophies and T Shirts and getting applications and $ to the processing admin. And working race days at the sign up tent.
Alas, I’ve been gone from NO for a million years and work has overtaken my life. Since I go where the projects are I can’t commit to assisting a club other than the occasional volunteering for a water stop. I miss it.
How will you fit the monthly meetings into your schedule?!? That was the worst for me at first, keeping to the meeting schedule.
Congrats on your takeover! I look forward to you and Chelsea creating a reign of fun.
I think a better HTC presence on Facebook and Twitter would be great. I learn about a lot of different races on Facebook but I miss a bunch too. Actually, I wish WeRunHuntsville had a separate races-only type thread/page because many people post races on there but I don’t catch them all. And most times I won’t scroll through a day’s worth of posts to read each and every one.
You’d be scrolling forever! That’s why we had to do a separate NRLB page b/c the WRH page is SO active you can lose things easily. I guess that’s a great problem to have 🙂
Thank you and congratulations, Kim. Thanks for being willing to give your time toward the job. Congratulations on having the courage to stand up in front of people, battle your insecurity, and speak up. And congratulations on winning; I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
You and Chelsea both did great last night! I’ve been elected to 3 board positions – 2 on my kids parent run day care board (I was registrar) and 1 for a professional society (we plan meetings and give awards). All of those positions were ones I campaigned for using a written statement, no speeches for me! The last time I spoke for an elected position was as class treasurer in jr. high. I didn’t win. (I thought “You can count on Colleen” was a good slogan :)) Congratulations on winning the position! I know you’ll be great at it!
Congrats, Kim!!!! I would never be able to stand up in front of a room full of people and give a speech. I love that photo of you; it’s obvious how excited you are.