Sunday, December 1
Dec. 2nd, 2024 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderI know I think this pretty much every month, but WOW did November go by quickly!
Today I am grateful for:
How supportive my husband is.
I got very little sleep last night, thinking about the pottery meeting today, and just the reality of needed to get up several hours before my normal time to make the meeting, which was in the earlier afternoon. Since it takes us half an hour to get there, and you want to be a bit early, and we have chores to do, and so on, it meant getting up early for me.
My Sweetie made things easier for me by feeding the indoor animals, getting Dandy in with Wonder for a while so she could have her social time before we left, and getting the hay ready to feed.
I very much appreciate that he came with me to the meeting and participated in the process. I know that his manner and "people skills" helped to organize the thoughts of his group today. Yes, he IS a long standing member of the pottery group as am I, but he COULD have tried to bow out of it.
This was the much anticipated meeting where I wanted to bring together people of different levels of experience, from the new beginners to the more experienced members of our group for many reasons.
I wanted us to see ourselves as ONE GROUP working together towards a common goal of enjoying pottery and the studio, and getting the most out of the experience. NOT two separate groups, one experienced and one new that have nothing to do with each other and don't co-operate.
In the past, the different classes (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) were almost like warring factions who looked down on each other and did nothing to make things better for each other. I am SO TIRED of cliques in this life.
The other main goal, was to start to break up the stronghold that S seems to be building for herself where she runs EVERYTHING. She somehow ended up making decisions about EVERYTHING from making the glazes (and deciding which glazes we would have, AND who would get to learn how to make glazes with her), and making all the decisions about the kilns, firing schedule, getting the new kiln, everything. She is also somehow in charge of registrations for the classes, AND even planning the fund raisers, AND all of the ordering of materials, AND organizing the pottery room.
Besides the WTF why would ANYONE want all of that responsibility, she wanted to control EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of the pottery studio, and no one seemed to be challenging her self-given authority. She cloaked it all in a kind of humble martyrdom, but then would explode with anger at anyone who challenged her in any way.
So today's meeting I HOPE, starts the process of breaking these areas into different groups run by a group of people. Like, there would be a committee of three or four people running the glazes, with people rotating through so there is an opportunity for new people to gain skill. Same with the kiln. Same with a group organizing the sale, and so on.
There were only 20 people there out of the 81 people who are registered, but I think it is okay, because everyone who came today really felt like people ready for change, and to do the work.
We broke into three groups (three members abstained from the process since they were on the executive) and had 20 minutes to talk, and to settle on TWO main issues they wanted to address. Not an easy thing to do when it seems like everyone had a few issues to address.
Our group found a brilliant way to bring up many topics, by grouping them into "curriculum development" aimed at taking the beginners all the way to being competent independent potters, and "communication" that was a bit of a catch all that included more information made available in a binder about procedures and the glazes (how they work with certain clay bodies, whether or not they run), making the positions known to everyone in the studio when they come up (a lot of people want experience learning how to glaze and run the kilns, yet somehow these opportunities only seem to be hush hush and given to people directly from S) and creating a group forum where all members of the studio can ask questions online, thus giving them access to the experienced potters directly and to post good glaze results and combinations and so on.
All of the people who came today were very focused AND very polite and it was great. The newer people who came were motivated to be on committees when we are ready to go ahead, and every one of them spoke of wanting to mix more with the longer term potters and EVERYONE wanted opportunities for the classes to get to know each other.
In the past, these meetings have often been total shit shows with people pitted against each other and not much positive team building happening. Today felt really different, and I don't know if I have EVER been to a general meeting for pottery where people came with so much intent and willingness to co-operate.
I think the newcomers really wanted to have a voice, and to start really participating in running things.
I truly hope that the executive will do the most to build on everything we brought forward today, because if we can keep this going, I think the studio has a real chance to be something better than it's ever been.
My friend D was at the meeting today, and afterwards she and my husband and I went for coffee, and the "once dog walking friend" came (I think D invited her).
I had invited another woman I really like, and I have never extended "outside" socializing with her before. She couldn't come today, but she was interested in doing something social another time. Yay!
It was nice to have coffee with D and the other person. You know, it's been AGES since I had anyone to just go have coffee with, like a normal person. You almost forget how it's done.
D is a widow (over two years now, closer to three) and she mentioned today that she is going to ask a male friend out for New Year's, since he seems to have shown interest.
The once dog walking friend lost a beloved dog a while ago, and she and her husband got another pup to befriend their other dog.
After coffee we got some groceries. It's funny, we seem to get "bare essentials" when it's shopping with my husband, and then I get a huge haul when it's me. If it were only my husband shopping, we would always be running on the lean edge of running out of everything.
To go along with that mentality, he also doesn't fill up the cars until we're running on fumes, and then it somehow ends up being me driving the vehicle and going "dear lord, how come we're almost out of gas". He fills up his car when he's in the city for work, but I bet every time he's pushing empty.
Today I asked him if we needed fuel, and he's like "nah, you've got about 200 Km). This is the car I've been driving (mine is in the shop, this is usually 'his' car, and he's been taking the truck to work). I said, well, we've got 50 km to get home, then I'm going to see River and make a round trip of 50 km, and then I'll be low on fuel.
So we got fuel.
We came home, I changed clothes and did some chores and went to see River.
My husband stayed home to bake banana bread for his work lunches.
River did well today. He was really with me and focused, and he did a great job with pretty much everything today. Good yields, nice Liberty circles, good canter circle draws, very nice.
Good ridden work too.
Since he was doing everything nicely, there was little need to be repetitive, and I was able to wrap things up a little faster than usual, which is great because I was exhausted.
I came home and we ate and watched some "Scooby Doo".
Today I am grateful for:
How supportive my husband is.
I got very little sleep last night, thinking about the pottery meeting today, and just the reality of needed to get up several hours before my normal time to make the meeting, which was in the earlier afternoon. Since it takes us half an hour to get there, and you want to be a bit early, and we have chores to do, and so on, it meant getting up early for me.
My Sweetie made things easier for me by feeding the indoor animals, getting Dandy in with Wonder for a while so she could have her social time before we left, and getting the hay ready to feed.
I very much appreciate that he came with me to the meeting and participated in the process. I know that his manner and "people skills" helped to organize the thoughts of his group today. Yes, he IS a long standing member of the pottery group as am I, but he COULD have tried to bow out of it.
This was the much anticipated meeting where I wanted to bring together people of different levels of experience, from the new beginners to the more experienced members of our group for many reasons.
I wanted us to see ourselves as ONE GROUP working together towards a common goal of enjoying pottery and the studio, and getting the most out of the experience. NOT two separate groups, one experienced and one new that have nothing to do with each other and don't co-operate.
In the past, the different classes (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) were almost like warring factions who looked down on each other and did nothing to make things better for each other. I am SO TIRED of cliques in this life.
The other main goal, was to start to break up the stronghold that S seems to be building for herself where she runs EVERYTHING. She somehow ended up making decisions about EVERYTHING from making the glazes (and deciding which glazes we would have, AND who would get to learn how to make glazes with her), and making all the decisions about the kilns, firing schedule, getting the new kiln, everything. She is also somehow in charge of registrations for the classes, AND even planning the fund raisers, AND all of the ordering of materials, AND organizing the pottery room.
Besides the WTF why would ANYONE want all of that responsibility, she wanted to control EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of the pottery studio, and no one seemed to be challenging her self-given authority. She cloaked it all in a kind of humble martyrdom, but then would explode with anger at anyone who challenged her in any way.
So today's meeting I HOPE, starts the process of breaking these areas into different groups run by a group of people. Like, there would be a committee of three or four people running the glazes, with people rotating through so there is an opportunity for new people to gain skill. Same with the kiln. Same with a group organizing the sale, and so on.
There were only 20 people there out of the 81 people who are registered, but I think it is okay, because everyone who came today really felt like people ready for change, and to do the work.
We broke into three groups (three members abstained from the process since they were on the executive) and had 20 minutes to talk, and to settle on TWO main issues they wanted to address. Not an easy thing to do when it seems like everyone had a few issues to address.
Our group found a brilliant way to bring up many topics, by grouping them into "curriculum development" aimed at taking the beginners all the way to being competent independent potters, and "communication" that was a bit of a catch all that included more information made available in a binder about procedures and the glazes (how they work with certain clay bodies, whether or not they run), making the positions known to everyone in the studio when they come up (a lot of people want experience learning how to glaze and run the kilns, yet somehow these opportunities only seem to be hush hush and given to people directly from S) and creating a group forum where all members of the studio can ask questions online, thus giving them access to the experienced potters directly and to post good glaze results and combinations and so on.
All of the people who came today were very focused AND very polite and it was great. The newer people who came were motivated to be on committees when we are ready to go ahead, and every one of them spoke of wanting to mix more with the longer term potters and EVERYONE wanted opportunities for the classes to get to know each other.
In the past, these meetings have often been total shit shows with people pitted against each other and not much positive team building happening. Today felt really different, and I don't know if I have EVER been to a general meeting for pottery where people came with so much intent and willingness to co-operate.
I think the newcomers really wanted to have a voice, and to start really participating in running things.
I truly hope that the executive will do the most to build on everything we brought forward today, because if we can keep this going, I think the studio has a real chance to be something better than it's ever been.
My friend D was at the meeting today, and afterwards she and my husband and I went for coffee, and the "once dog walking friend" came (I think D invited her).
I had invited another woman I really like, and I have never extended "outside" socializing with her before. She couldn't come today, but she was interested in doing something social another time. Yay!
It was nice to have coffee with D and the other person. You know, it's been AGES since I had anyone to just go have coffee with, like a normal person. You almost forget how it's done.
D is a widow (over two years now, closer to three) and she mentioned today that she is going to ask a male friend out for New Year's, since he seems to have shown interest.
The once dog walking friend lost a beloved dog a while ago, and she and her husband got another pup to befriend their other dog.
After coffee we got some groceries. It's funny, we seem to get "bare essentials" when it's shopping with my husband, and then I get a huge haul when it's me. If it were only my husband shopping, we would always be running on the lean edge of running out of everything.
To go along with that mentality, he also doesn't fill up the cars until we're running on fumes, and then it somehow ends up being me driving the vehicle and going "dear lord, how come we're almost out of gas". He fills up his car when he's in the city for work, but I bet every time he's pushing empty.
Today I asked him if we needed fuel, and he's like "nah, you've got about 200 Km). This is the car I've been driving (mine is in the shop, this is usually 'his' car, and he's been taking the truck to work). I said, well, we've got 50 km to get home, then I'm going to see River and make a round trip of 50 km, and then I'll be low on fuel.
So we got fuel.
We came home, I changed clothes and did some chores and went to see River.
My husband stayed home to bake banana bread for his work lunches.
River did well today. He was really with me and focused, and he did a great job with pretty much everything today. Good yields, nice Liberty circles, good canter circle draws, very nice.
Good ridden work too.
Since he was doing everything nicely, there was little need to be repetitive, and I was able to wrap things up a little faster than usual, which is great because I was exhausted.
I came home and we ate and watched some "Scooby Doo".
