...not me, that's for sure. Last night was our bi-annual Hall of Fame dinner. This is something our Board prepares for for two years. Something I give up one Sunday a month to attend long, boring meetings. That I suffered through morning sickness during, brought a tiny new baby to, put my reputation on the line for. And guess what? It all became unraveled at the last minute. As I had feared.
Sure enough, one of the winners announced was a girl I had removed from last time's nominees list because she is no longer eligible (not a CA resident). But even worse than that - our stupid MC was SO OFFENSIVE that I wanted to punch him in the throat. As all of my winners were announced, he kept making snide comments about how none of them were there to accept their awards and swearing about it (yes, swearing on a microphone in front of a room full of people). Honestly I'm glad they weren't there, because they wouldn't have heard their names anyway - this guy was such a mush-mouthed idiot that he mispronounced and slurred everyone's names, called the guys by girl's names, read things off in the wrong order, didn't even announce the categories or explain what they were, etc. We could have dragged a crackhead off the street and they would have done a better job. And I had to stand up there next to him awkwardly and hold out medals for people I already knew weren't there. It was horrendous.
We were able to fix the inelligible person's name by going to the next person on the list, and I put the correct names on Facebook. But how she was picked after I specifically sent the tabulator the correct list and told him to disregard any names not on the list, and we even talked about it, is a mystery to me. It kind of reminds me of the time I was joking with my hotel contact about how lame the last hotel had been in that they didn't set up a stage for the band and expected them to just play on the carpet (this is NEVER done), and we laughed about it...and then the next day I arrived to find no stage, and she said, "oh, you need a stage? I thought the band was just going to play on the carpet." Does nobody ever fucking pay attention in this world??? Apparently not!
Anyway. So the MC was such a nightmare that he pretty much ruined the while night. Nobody got to have a moment, nobody got their name pronounced correctly, hardly anyone was actually there to receive their awards. The whole night fizzled out around 10 PM and I escaped to go retrieve Bumpus from the Baby Kennel (what I now call the drop-in baby place). But I was furious. Even now my voice is hoarse from yelling all night.
I think I need to leave this organization. It breaks my heart because it does still mean something in my community - people were congratulating each other all over Facebook last night after I announced the winners (although they all opted to go to some monthly dance instead, which annoyed me). But to see all my hard work ruined at the last minute like that - makes me feel like what the hell is the point? If we can't even get basic things right like announcing winners properly and making sure the winners are even eligible, then we have no business doing this at all.
This thing has been like being in an abusive relationship for years. My friends keep telling me to dump it and I keep hanging in there hoping it'll change. Luckily I have a month before our next meeting to decide how to handle it. But being as our MC has just decided to join the board, I think I need to leave. Otherwise I may have to shoot him in the anus.
Here's a cute baby picture:
Sure enough, one of the winners announced was a girl I had removed from last time's nominees list because she is no longer eligible (not a CA resident). But even worse than that - our stupid MC was SO OFFENSIVE that I wanted to punch him in the throat. As all of my winners were announced, he kept making snide comments about how none of them were there to accept their awards and swearing about it (yes, swearing on a microphone in front of a room full of people). Honestly I'm glad they weren't there, because they wouldn't have heard their names anyway - this guy was such a mush-mouthed idiot that he mispronounced and slurred everyone's names, called the guys by girl's names, read things off in the wrong order, didn't even announce the categories or explain what they were, etc. We could have dragged a crackhead off the street and they would have done a better job. And I had to stand up there next to him awkwardly and hold out medals for people I already knew weren't there. It was horrendous.
We were able to fix the inelligible person's name by going to the next person on the list, and I put the correct names on Facebook. But how she was picked after I specifically sent the tabulator the correct list and told him to disregard any names not on the list, and we even talked about it, is a mystery to me. It kind of reminds me of the time I was joking with my hotel contact about how lame the last hotel had been in that they didn't set up a stage for the band and expected them to just play on the carpet (this is NEVER done), and we laughed about it...and then the next day I arrived to find no stage, and she said, "oh, you need a stage? I thought the band was just going to play on the carpet." Does nobody ever fucking pay attention in this world??? Apparently not!
Anyway. So the MC was such a nightmare that he pretty much ruined the while night. Nobody got to have a moment, nobody got their name pronounced correctly, hardly anyone was actually there to receive their awards. The whole night fizzled out around 10 PM and I escaped to go retrieve Bumpus from the Baby Kennel (what I now call the drop-in baby place). But I was furious. Even now my voice is hoarse from yelling all night.
I think I need to leave this organization. It breaks my heart because it does still mean something in my community - people were congratulating each other all over Facebook last night after I announced the winners (although they all opted to go to some monthly dance instead, which annoyed me). But to see all my hard work ruined at the last minute like that - makes me feel like what the hell is the point? If we can't even get basic things right like announcing winners properly and making sure the winners are even eligible, then we have no business doing this at all.
This thing has been like being in an abusive relationship for years. My friends keep telling me to dump it and I keep hanging in there hoping it'll change. Luckily I have a month before our next meeting to decide how to handle it. But being as our MC has just decided to join the board, I think I need to leave. Otherwise I may have to shoot him in the anus.
Here's a cute baby picture:
I attended a business seminar Friday and one of the speakers' topics was basically How To Save Failing Events. She talked about how fewer and fewer people are interested in attending catered dinner awards shows in ballrooms, and they've had to make some big changes to longstanding events in order to keep them profitable (or at least break even-able.)
ReplyDeleteIn a most dramatic example, they moved an Accomplished Under 40 banquet to the African exhibit at the local zoo, where they skipped a formal dinner and instead had food and drink stations in various places to keep people mingling. When it was time to gather everyone around for the awards presentation, they had African drummers come out and perform for a few minutes, so people naturally moved toward the "stage" area. It was a huge success...
Anyway, I'm not sure if you're in a position to overhaul this event that was so lame, but it might be worth a shot if you really want to hang on.
I agree, events like this are extremely outdated and do not appeal to young people at all. I would love to do an overhaul of the event...I doubt they'd go for it, but maybe it's worth proposing. The idea of it is good it's just the execution is terrible.
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