A FRESH START
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Hello everyone,
First, let me apologize. One of the things the previous person who designed this newsletter did was give it a new look and format, which I liked very much. Unsurprisingly, he/she was
much more talented than I am when it comes to such things, so until we can find someone to help us out I’m forced to revert to an old format. If anyone wants to rescue me, please send a message to newsletter@chiangmaiexpatsclub.com. I might even offer a reward!
Let’s talk for a minute about the elephant in the room. The events of the last few weeks or so have been stressful, and nearly fatal to the club as we know it. Burnout is at the heart of
it. Dave McComas had it to some degree, and it’s what drove me to step aside. Robert Brake also ended up handling more than he bargained for. It boils down to two things, taking a critical look at everything we’re doing, and finding a way to spread out the load. We need to make some tough decisions about what we go forward with and what we put aside for the time being, and we need to make it easy for people to lend a hand on the things that remain. I can assure you
that none of us wants to end up right back where we were last month.
I think it’s important to realize that getting help from members has been a challenge ever since we started up again after Covid. For all I know it may have been that way before Covid as well. We heard loud and clear from members who attended the meeting we had prior to the emergency meeting, that people were willing to help but none of us retired to come here and work full-time, especially
for free, and most of our members who aren’t retired already have jobs and therefore have enough on their plate. They encouraged us to break the work down to manageable tasks that could be handled easily and did not require a major time commitment. Make it easy, make it fun, and make it something everyone enjoys being a part of. That’s what we’re in the process of doing right now.
So, we are still getting our feet wet, so to speak, sorting things out and
trying to keep things on track in the meantime. We’ll be talking more about this at our Expats Connection on the 27th. There will be an opportunity to ask questions, and while it might be a bit early to have all the answers for you, we’ll do our best. I hope you can join us.
-Kent
