When I took over as speech coordinator for GAD, I was handed two boxes full of binders, folders, and stuff, patted on the shoulder, and told See you in February!
Yeah. So not cool.
Then, when I got home and actually started going through all of said stuff, I ended up Tweeting the following:
There were papers from four years ago that no longer pertained to the job, crap everywhere, nothing organized, and no notes leading me in any direction. I didn't know what reference sheets to give the judges, if there was a slide show to present, and which of the six VHS tapes/DVDs included speech examples for the judges to practice score during their training.*
Train wreck was an understatement.
The state director would send me e-mails asking Do you have this form? or Do you know where that letter is? and I would basically faff about, arms waving worthlessly in the air, whining How the frak am I supposed to know if I have this stuff? If he asked me if I have crap, well then yeah, I have crap! But a form?!? GAH! To say I was lost was an understatement.
When I walked into Berkmar High School for last weekend's competition, I had no clue what I was going to say to my judges, no idea if the handouts would give them the information they needed to perform their jobs, and no inkling if Friday night's speech competition would end in a flaming pile of dog poo.
Flaming? Yes. Dog poo? No.
Speech judges, fellow coordinators, the state director, and the Eastern European janitor** came up to me throughout the weekend and thanked me for the amazing job I did, thanked me for caring about the job and the kids, and were amazed that the speech competition ran so smoothly.
Basically, my half-assed, blind attempts to run my part of the competition were better than the full-fledged, everything-at-her-disposal attempts of the coordinator before me.
Wow.
GAD? Prepare to be blown away next year. With one year's experience behind me and the knowledge of what needs to stay and what needs to go, I've got your number.
Heh.
P.S. Watch this awesome video about the 2010 competition. Just 2-1/2 minutes. Please? Thanx!
*Thank God for the state director emeritus. If it hadn't been for her, I may have sworn off the whole thing. She patted me on the shoulder and gave me much assistance. See, she trains the speech judges for the national USAD competition. She is bad ass.
**OK. The Eastern European janitor (named Dmitri - pinky-swear) smiled at me. A lot. Either he thought I was cute or he had gas. I'm going with gas.
9 comments:
It doesn't surprise me at all that you blew them away. Nice job. :)
That is WAY cool, Heather! Congrats :)
I love how diverse your interests are: ghosts, diving, academic decathlons.
I never had any doubt. Congratulations on a job well done. And good on everyone for recognizing your hard work.
Seriously - you rock. I knew you would. :)
Oh - and I watched!
Can you come over and organize my courses for the semester?
Avitable - Thanks, hon!
Mommycosm - Don't forget HOAs. GAH!
Finn - Thanks! I'm glad you didn't doubt me. I doubt myself way too much.
Sybil Law - Thanks for watching! Isn't the team captain from the state champs adorable?
A Free Man - Yup. I'll be over next week. You paying for the airline ticket? Can I also squeeze your sons' cheeks some while I'm there?
You go, you!
And why the Virgin Islands? And do you ever get to go there to compete?
Patois - This is the first time the US Virgin Islands has had a team and since it's just one team, they have no competition experience. Since the GA USAD program is so well-established (over 20 years), they chose us to come and gain competition experience before going to the USAD competition in April. Will we get to go to the Virgin Islands? Doubt it, but it would be awesome!
Good for you! So cool! I took over a secretariat for a foundation last year that someone had spent about 5 years fucking up and I had to fix in 6 weeks. It was a daunting task but it feels soooo good when you rock it!
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