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by James Oldenburg
I was elected to fill the vacant chair seat in January; the officer that had been elected had to resign because they were not able to fulfill their duty.
I thought it would be easy, I am finding parts of it are tougher than I thought it would be. There is a lot of responsibility to leading a board of eighteen people and helping the board to stay focused. I work with the other officers, we all need to share the work, I want to fulfill my duty by helping the other officers to do their jobs.
When the advisors need information they call me and ask me to make decisions on what to do. The chair is responsible for officer and board meeting agendas.
The chair needs to be able to ask for help from other members that have had experience as an officer.
Sometimes I have to help people that are upset and support them to focus on the board duties.
 SUFU Board Chairperson James Oldenburg signing paperwork for a project with one of our allies. |
One of the duties of the chair person is a lot of traveling, and it is cool, we have to prepare and share reports on what we are doing in Maine, and when I come back I have to give self advocates the information I learned, it is a lot of fun, but a lot of work.
I need to explain what SUFU and self advocacy is to many people.
The meetings can be fun but there is a lot of work to do and I try to get people to respect each other, listen to each other and talk one at a time, and encourage people to speak for themselves.
Sometimes I have to work when others are having fun, but it feels really good when things work out well and we get our work done.
Thank you to the board for their hard work and support.