[according to google definition search]

Meeting: Assembly of people for a particular purpose

I have had so many meetings on my calendar lately, I thought I’d share about some of them that have happened in the last month! A little different than my typical anecdotes, but a snapshot of life all the same!

Prep Period Meetings:

• The people? Three senior girls waltz into my classroom, I grab my bag, grab the off campus pass I’ve signed and the four of us wander off. The purpose? At the end of our 7 minute walk down to our local coffee shop we find a fun carved out hour to “study.” I’ve come to appreciate that we’re not going to get much work done- they’ve finished their work over the weekend, and without many classes happening before 2^nd period, unless they have a big project they’re still chugging away on, this time has become social hour with a little bit of mentoring thrown in!
• The people? Me and three other staff members! And this week? One of their babies too! The purpose? RVA runs a leadership training program I participated in a couple years ago, and now I’m on the planning committee to help coordinate the next module for the current cohort.
• The people? Me and Scott! The purpose? Scott is our new activities coordinator- and he’s been killing it! We had a conversation in passing about fireworks and now we’re at follow up. He purchases them with activities budget, coordinates the permits, I arrange lighting them off! This meeting was to make sure I got all the intel I needed for an explosive evening of fun. The bonus? Somehow rumors got started I built all the fireworks. I will for sure take the credit I don’t deserve in that one.
  

• The people? Myself, a partner from my sponsor team, and a member of our leadership team. The purpose? Working with leadership to help coordinate the “senior privs” for the class I sponsor. Man, I am so thankful for everyone in each of these meetings (there has been more than one of these…). It takes a village to run a school, sometimes it feels literally, and it is so good to see so many members in so many roles working together for the good of the students.
• The people? Me and Meredith. The purpose? Any number of things! Meredith is both my Science Department Head, and the “Sponsor Coordinator” so conveniently my boss in both of my major roles on campus. As such, I find myself in her office multiple times a week, either asking a teaching question or sponsoring question. Occasionally they are up to an hour long, formal, planned meetings, other times it’s a five minute, “Hey, what do you think about this situation” brainstorm sesh. I am so thankful for Meredith!

Lunch Meetings:

• The people? Me and my good friend Cari. The purpose? She’s returned back to campus and I want to take advantage of that! When she was on staff with me a few years ago, we got to know each other well working alongside one another on my sponsoring team. Now, she is in different roles, but I still want to make sure our paths cross, so we have this weekly date arranged in the cafo for a few minutes of catch up! Her friendship is such a blessing and gift! In the interim since her last period of time on staff, she and her husband have stayed in my home on multiple occasions in the ‘parents’ rold, and we’ve even had coffee together at a Starbucks in Troy, Michigan.
• The people? My accidental running club! The purpose? My friend and I have been training for a 10k and after a few requests of people to join us, we created a group chat which grew and grew to be about 10 ladies all running the same speed and athletic level! We’ve been going on about 30 minute runs twice a week with up to 6 of us each time.

• The people? Me and Edward! The purpose? Edward is my Swahili teacher. It’s slow going, but I’ve decided to continue language learning. It’s always been on my bucket list to learn a new language, if not when I’m actually living in another country, when?
• The people? Me and up to 25 others. They could be Senior Store managers, Class Officers or other sponsors. The purpose? Depends on the meeting… we might be reflecting on the execution of the last Senior Store, preparing for the next one, counting caps & gowns, choosing snacks, discussing the end of year senior trip or any number of other topics related to the sponsoring program.

After School Meetings:

• The People? The hosting committee. The purpose? RVA is hosting my organizations’ conference on campus at the end of the term, and we as a team gather to make sure details like security, coffee, bedding, and food are taken care of. We’re not in charge of planning the conference, just coordinating the campus life aspects of bringing a couple hundred people in for a few days.
• The people? The science department! The purpose? Well, this feels the most obvious as every school ever has cyclical department meetings to ensure all in the department are doing their teaching jobs well! Sometimes these are brainstorm in nature, other times learning from each other, other times announcements of weird things coming up. They happen on a monthly basis with “Faculty” meetings and “All-Staff” meetings thrown in on the off weeks. On Monday, I get to share in one of them an update about what one of my other meetings has been working on with everyone!
• The people? A conglomeration of about 9 staff. The purpose? Community building! We’ve decided to eat dinner together once a week and Tuesdays is the night! We’ve been rotating homes so that no one person has to output the effort every week, and it has been an absolute joy and delight! In our group we have people raised in each of the following countries: America (2), Kenya (2), South Africa, Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, Chad. We span an age range of 50 years, a motley crew for sure, and loving every second of it!
• The people? Me and up to 40 students. The purpose? Once a week I have evening library duty where from 7:00-8:30 I provide adult supervision for a quiet study-hall time, answering homework questions where I can, confiscating cell phones occasionally, and reminding students the study rooms are for, of course, studying!
• The people? A whole bunch of staff! The purpose? We’ve gathered about 15 minutes before the evening activity to receive first hand instruction on the rules and regulations for “staff hunt.” After, I wiggled myself between 2 rows of bushes, laying down with my camping pillow and a blanket. Yes, I did fall asleep. No, nobody found me. Yes, I did earn a freshly baked treat: orange cardamom morning buns that were shared with the other 3 staff members also not found.

• The people? Me, I & H, my two managers for the milkshake shop “Teddy’s.” This is a branch of our senior store inside the sponsoring program and I walk alongside these girls weekly, scooping ice-cream, trouble-shooting blender problems and teaching any number of students what it means to wipe down a counter or mop a floor properly. The meetings with just the three of us continue to pull in 6 additional employees serving up to 200 milkshakes in a 3 hour period weekly.

Honestly, I’m exhausted looking over my calendar, and even more exhausted writing out some of these different meetings! Some of these I lead, causing a little more prep-work. Some I get to just show up, participate and leave, others occasionally have “homework” as a result of our time together. Some of them happen weekly, others monthly, others are a one-time gig. There are even a number of meetings that haven’t quite made the cut in typing out for one reason or another, but I think you get the idea. RVA is a place of meeting! Some of these feel like a chore when they happen (read Swahili… my language lessons always feel like a chore!!!), but others are actually a lot of fun! The fireworks that happened as a result of that meeting? Greatest 8 minutes of my week! I had SO much fun lighting them off, even more fun since I got to pull in 2 of my AP Chem students from last years class (with written parent permission of course). It is amazing how such good things can fill the cracks of my calendar to create the colorful rainbow I look at each day to ensure I don’t miss meeting any of my commitments squeezed between the daily lesson prep, grading, and teaching of Chemistry.

Prayer Points:

Please pray for intentional rest, and the clarity of mind each day to rightly prioritize my tasks! I love what I do but have been collapsing into bed at night!

Today I’m thinking about not yet planned lessons, dishes needing washing, swapped library duty, articles I need to read for a teaching class I’m taking (to keep my certification valid), and a bed needing making before my one of the RVA board members arrives tonight to stay with me a few days leading up to board meetings.