Not Hearing The Other

A.I. Generated Art

I started a new gig a few months ago. After retiring due to term limits (and desire) from being on the school board, I was hoping to take it easy with my "extra" time. That lasted all of about a week before I found myself on two more boards. Fortunately one of those boards only meets quarterly and to date, has required nothing more of me than to show up to those meetings and listen to reports, nod and maybe once in the last six months, offer an opinion. The other board however, was maybe biting off more than I should chew.

I reluctantly said yes since it is a board position on a non-profit organization that I enjoy and gives back to our local community. The person who persistently waited over the years until my final excuse for not joining (which was my schoolboard meeting was on the same night and time) was no longer excusable. Then she showed up at my door and asked if I would be their treasurer. Despite being treasurer for two organizations already, this organization has a lot larger budgets than what I have dealt with in the past so I did stick to my guns and say I wasn't ready for that position and was instead, seated on the treasury committee. 

However, over the next three months or so, it became quite clear to me, and most likely it was quite clear from the executive committee much longer than that, that the current treasurer was overwhelmed with the position. Unlike many on the board who are retired, that treasurer held a full time job during the day and couldn't devote enough time to the position. And it showed, unfortunately. So the frazzled executive committee asked me again to reconsider being treasurer and I reluctantly accepted. 

I've been treasurer now for three and a half months and am slowly starting to catch up with all the stuff that got dropped by my overworked predecessor, and slowly I'm starting to get a sense of the flow of their money. I still have to ask who is this organization asking me to pay them and what service they provide for us but not as much as I used to at the start. 

Which brings me to the title of this post and why I started writing it. During our most recent meeting, we were discussing giving pay raises to outside workers we hire to do the function we give back to the community. It keeps us competitive and so the outside workers don't go elsewhere to neighboring similar organizations. We have endowments given to us by those in the community to keep us funded and provide that service for many years into the future. Board member one kept asking how much the raise would increase our costs per the year, I'm sure wanting to be a good steward of our endowment fund. Board member two, who introduced the resolution, kept repeating her calculations which included not only the raise, but also what we currently pay them which sounds like an eye popping amount. But the difference is what was being asked.

With some 15 or so people on this board, this went back and forth for quite awhile, with many people animatedly butting in to add their two cents worth of irrelevant information or suggestions of alternatives to the raises which really defeated the purpose, i.e. ways to reduce what we are paying these outside workers instead of giving them more money to keep them with us. I am not one to interrupt people speaking so I couldn't get a word in edgewise for a solid 20 minutes or so these two board members kept repeating their question back and forth and getting frustrated, with the constant "suggestions" from everyone else. Fortunately, the president of the board finally stepped in and tabled the discussion for a future meeting to put all the numbers on paper so though unsaid, everyone could "be on the same page."

As I drove home, I got to thinking, this sort of thing is pervasive all around me. People really don't listen to what others are saying anymore. We are all focused on how we are going to respond while the other person is still speaking. 

P.S. I don't know why the A.I. bot chose an Asian theme to people talking to each other but not listening. They also seem pretty intense compared to our board meetings.