Phase Two - Training Wheels Off!

We have had our eighth Board meeting and our fourth group meeting and significant milestones are being met. We are moving in a bigger direction. Our membership now stands at over two hundred and fifty. We are in more than half of the township neighborhoods. We draw from all over the county. People who come to our meetings do so to learn and to be involved. It is clear that our members want to take action not just sit in a meeting and listen. We have established a Health Care subcommittee and we have had no problem getting volunteers to work on this issue and they are doing fine work. We have another committee, working on the upcoming Cincinnati TEA Party event that is to be held at the Voice of America Regional Park on Sept. 5th. This event is expected to draw thousands from around the state right into our backyard. All of this activity makes the board very busy. Our last meeting attracted a reported and a photographer from the local press and we are expecting to be featured in an article in this Sunday's Journal-Press in an article on local Grass Root Groups. The article will feature both Conservative and Liberal groups. All of this drives me to say that we are moving into a stage of the group’s development where it is time for the volunteers to step forward and take on more of the load. We can't be just about the meetings; we have to be about more than that. We have committee's to fill and positions that need to have volunteers doing the work on a regular basis. The people are there and they are willing to do the work. It is the Boards job to identify what needs to be done and then guide the group in the direction it needs to go. The question is how? We don't want to lay out a long laundry list of positions to fill and then have people fill in on a roster sheet where and when they will work. That is sort of like the snack bar duty at the local youth sport activity, nobody likes to do that. No, our challenge is a bit different. We have a number of interesting tasks or positions and we need to find and match people that have the interest and the skill to the positions so that we have the right people with the right interest and skill in the right position. This is a harder task. But this is what we must do. In the end, we will have a stronger organization if we do this right.