Hello everyone…
I enjoy this time of year, Chinese New Year is one of my favorite holidays. China has had a strong influence on Northern Thailand and Thailand in general for centuries, and probably will for a long time to come. In addition, Chiang Mai has a huge Chinese population, which only helps make this festival so
beautiful and meaningful. True to form, Thai’s also embrace this holiday, as they know a good party when they see one and Chinese New Year is a party unlike any other. I particularly enjoy the decorations and the costumes. I also enjoy the general attitude of people during this celebration, in a way it reminds me of the way others embrace the spirit of Christmas, which many believe is the best part of Christmas. I hope everyone else feels it and enjoys it too, and that
you have a chance to enjoy the full spectacle of it during the days to come.
If you want to join thousands of your closest friends to usher in the Year of the Snake (seems fitting for Thailand), the hub of activity is in Chinatown, and around Thae Pae gate is great, too. You can easily walk between the two. The celebration actually runs for 16 days, but the official celebration is the first 7 days, beginning on January
29. Don’t plan on getting close if you drive, street closures and the mass of people will prevent you from getting near it, but don’t let that stop you. Songtaews and tuk tuk’s can get you closer, or just walk. It's a ton of fun, I hope to see some of you there.
This next subject is not one I take any joy in, but a necessary one. I need to share with you that I have notified the Board I will be stepping down from my
position as President when my term ends next week.
Two years ago, when I first took on this role I knew it would not be forever, and the experience has taught me it shouldn’t be a long-term thing for anyone. Even in the best of times it needs someone fresh every so often, with new energy and new ideas, and for some time now I have questioned whether or not I had enough of either of those things to continue. The events of
the last 6 months, which we are still trying to recover from, have taken everything I had and I ultimately reached the conclusion it is in the best interests of the club that I hand it over to someone else.
I will continue on the Board for the time being, helping out wherever I can, and later this year I will step away from that, too. Afterward, I’ll still help from time to time on one committee or another, and if you heard my
presentation at our Annual General Meeting this last Saturday you heard me challenge each of you to do the same thing.
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that getting involved requires a lot of your time and will burn you out, all it takes is the workload to be spread out among enough people to make it easy, and then it’s fun. What emptied my tank was a result of the immense amount of work thrust on us by Dave’s
death, the fact we weren’t prepared for something like that, and little to no willingness from members help pick up the slack. None of what we do requires a ton of time, but when we don’t have enough people helping out it becomes a full-time job for some, and that’s the problem.
Being on the Board is not a huge time commitment, it’s just one meeting a month and helping with the committee of your choice. Being on a
committee is also not a big deal if the committees have a few people on them. Many committees can operate from home with only the occasional meeting. Some committees help at events, some don’t. When we concentrate all the work on a handful of people we take the fun out of it, but if enough of us give a little of our time it means no one has to give a lot of their time. That’s when this club functions the best, and that’s how we make it grow and be meaningful to all of
us.
Here’s the long and short of it. We get the most from this club by giving something back to it. The more of us that get involved the better it will be for everyone. Not just for those who live here, but also for those who are thinking of visiting or relocating here. If I have one criticism of the club it’s that it needs more people willing to lend a hand, and less people who are just here to take what they can
get. I urge all of you to give that a little thought, and see if you can’t find a way to make a difference. You’ll be glad you did.
That’s it, I hope all is well, and please be safe.
-Kent
