Have you ever been on a sports team that requires new members to carry the equipment to practice and pick everything up and return it at the end of practice? The newbies are responsible for picking up all of the trash, are last to leave and have to take whatever seat was left by their seniors when they finally arrive! This might even have been considered as a rite-of-passage for joining the team.

To me this is a very illogical way to develop a sense of team. If you treat someone like a second-class citizen, how can you expect him or her to perform as anything other than the way in which you treat them? Why would someone want to stay where they are treated so shabbily by the people who are supposed to be helping them? What happens if one of the newcomers starts really achieving? Do they somehow become better than the rest of the other newcomers, and as a result, are then excused from the job of serving your every need? In truth, everyone plays on the same court. The game really doesn’t care if you are new, a senior or a little purple man with two heads! It only cares that you can play the game.

Let’s consider how this applies to the new people who arrive at our chapters. Are they treated differently because of time in the group or experience? Do we sometimes ignore their questions and ideas and put ourselves above them because they have not “paid their dues” and don’t understand that “it is always done this way”? To be a great chapter, we must invest effort in every member, expecting all members to carry out their various roles to the best of their abilities. It should not ever matter how long you have been a member of this group—it should only matter that you are doing your very best.

Rooting for each of us to always do our very best to help and support each other in this challenging but achievable journey.

I care, Barb