Morning Staff Meeting

This morning, I got my ass up early to attend the big staff meeting at my employers' main office. I met up with two of my co-workers at about ten to eight this morning, and we carpooled to HQ. This being the big meeting for the entire organization, I saw a bunch of people that I only see periodically, and met a couple of co-workers I'd never met before. It also marked the return of our sizable seasonal staff, many of whom I hadn't seen since December. After a breakfast catered by a local deli, we filed into the large meeting room, and took our seats- we were seated with co-workers from other sites, so we could mingle with individuals we didn't know all that well. Seeing that I work with a great bunch, I got along famously with the folks I'd never met before. My Angry Birds story went over well.

The speech by the president of the organization was a mixture of woe and optimism. Like most non-profits, we are experiencing some funding challenges... the fact that our major fundraising weekend was a buried under a foot of snow last year didn't help. This year is going to be a year of regrouping, figuring out what approaches can help the organization get back on track. It was pretty much a boilerplate speech, but the president did express his confidence in the talent and dedication of the staff. One major topic was the discussion of apps that would expand the scope of our organization. A couple of other co-workers made presentations about some of our programs, and we had a brief Q&A session.

All in all, the staff meeting was pretty much what I expected- part cautionary tale, part pep rally. The best part of the whole event was seeing almost everybody... I have confidence in my co-workers, which gives me some optimism about the coming year. At any rate, the broccoli quiche was pretty damn good, and the coffee was plentiful.