You Know When It Is Time to Move On.

I do not know if you have ever experienced working with a group and noticed something has changed or shifted in its personality.  You cannot put your finger on it, and you ignore it or forget about it because there is so much to do and accomplish.

I have been coordinating a volunteer garden group of gardeners for almost two years.  I had been cautioned when I took over leadership that the last leader did not communicate well enough with everyone.  Thus, I focused on maintaining an accurate email and tree phone list, wrote a weekly update along with plans for the coming week, made sure that people were thanked and praised for whatever project they finished or started.  I asked for ideas, suggestions, etc. on the work ahead.  I wrote a monthly report for the museum, which the prior person had not done.  But since all the other volunteer groups write monthly reports I thought we should do so as well.

I even took over the work of purchasing plants and equipment through the museum's various accounts (which is a nightmare!), because my "co-leader" had been doing it and felt she could no longer.  I had asked this woman to be a co-leader since both she and her husband were much more involved in the museum than I and I wanted an insider to make sure we were connected to the museum and its various activities and that we had a reliable contact and I had a back-up when I was on trips and such.

This woman that I asked was a very hard worker but she was also a hard critic of others.  I ignored her criticism of others and tried to focus on what was working rather than what was not.

The group's size has grown and shrunk and grown over the months as most of these folks are elderly and find the physical work challenging and new members to the area decide to join and give it a go for a while.  We can have as many as 10 volunteers but mostly we are down to a small core of permanent loyalists. 

I have noticed in the last few weeks that some of the group are more reticent in talk and tend to work in a smaller group in areas of the grounds.  I try to ask questions of each person for input on how we were doing and for ideas on challenges.  One of the more communicative members suggested that we needed to get a fall schedule of projects formalized and she compiled a nice draft suggestion list.  I pulled this together and organized it for weekly tasks and added a few things that went with the plants and their growth habits as the cool weather began.

Then I took off on my two week trip leaving all else up to the co-leader.  When I returned I sent out an email for input on what was happening and did not get any response.  When I showed up on the day of our volunteer work , the few that were there had already started earlier.  I assisted where I could although no one explained what they had been done and what they were planting.  At the end of the work session I asked how things had gone for the past two weeks and where we were on the fall schedule and what had been completed.

My co-leader, without stopping in her walk back to the shed, said over her shoulder,  "A lot.  Just open your eyes.  Look around!"

I was a little dumbstruck as she sounded impatient or at the very least short, but I smiled and said, "Great!" but also realized that I was not going to be able to write an update for the week or the monthly report with this much 'detailed' information as she walked away. 

I also decided at that moment in time and with surprising relief, this group was ready for new leadership.  I was ready to move on to something else, many other projects, garden and non-garden, that are waiting for me and that are more in the gardening education mode rather than maintenance.  On Monday I am stopping by the volunteer coordinator's office and letting her and the Admin. Assistant of the museum know I am quitting.  I will not be able to meet with the group on our regular session as I have a bank meeting that morning, but on Monday afternoon I will email all the volunteers and let them know.  I will finish a plant inventory that needs to be done in the coming weeks.  Our group usually disbands at the end of October until spring, so this gives them plenty of time to re-group and me time to mellow out and quite second-guessing myself!