F.L.Y.N.N.

Little did I expect that when I had envisaged creating a meeting theme "Forget Living Yesterday Notice Now !!!", just how prescient this title is with the sudden change in circumstances.  As much as this theme was a celebration of our Club President Flynn, the sudden departure of the club founder adds a completely new layer of meaning to this theme.  Whether my own tenure with this club will extend another two meetings will not be determined until I speak to the incoming club executives on Sunday - of which I am still a member.

It is quite possible that what I began 16 weeks ago as the "Success Masters" addition to our clubs activities will either be handed off to the new executive or simply dissipate if I now decide that the loss of the Club Founder is not something that I am willing to overlook.  At the same time this theme should still represent an appreciation of a young student who completed her term.  In the Toastmasters system the role of an executive is itself an educational credit, and as I am the VP of Education, that is very much my primary outlook - for I am equally evaluating their success as a leadership education more so than the act of leadership.

While the Club Founder was there, I was assured of being in a space where an emergent partnership could be fostered and self-organize.  That much has been happening over the last 16 weeks where my presence held together what is still a collection of the few rather than the many.  In that few are people who demonstrated they were willing to collaborate and create, though the act of creating is something I envisaged would unfold once we voted in a change to our governance structure.  Having secured that, even before the new program term begins on 1st July, we have already lost the Club Founder and still yet possibly my own involvement. 

Fortunately we now have a list of Co-VP names to draw from so that part of the governance system will take immediate effect - but this was never the situation I had contemplated nor that it would begin to take effect even before the old program year had officially ended.  So the Sunday meeting is an opportunity to hear what the new Club President has to say and also how things may now come together, noting that we have now not only lost the Club Founder but the role of Faculty Advisor which is a critical aspect of the Student Club side governance, rather than the Toastmasters Club side governance.

If by Sunday I remain unconvinced that there is a realistic path forward for me, then before the first meeting on Monday the club would have lost two of its starting seven Toastmasters executives.  The first being a total surprise and totally unexpected parting from the college and then the second being me as a reaction and more likely an inevitability to this sudden change. 

It is too early to say whether I am remaining or departing, though the odds look more likely that I will seek out another club and most probably the Club Founder will accompany me to that new club.

All of this was furthest from my mind when I though up the theme F.L.Y.N.N. and more to the point that while this is the theme of the Saturday meeting, I would open the new program year with the speech with this same title.  It was meant to be a surprise appreciation for Flynn, except now the surprise is the wrong kind and in my opinion the worst kind - which is the loss of the Club Founder.  It still means that this club has a new beginning, but it is way more of a new beginning than anyone could have possibly bargained for.

The theme evoked the spirit that having had a successful year, that we find our own "FLYNN" thus turning the name Flynn into a working adjective.  There may still be a way of salvaging the wreckage that I currently view but it will take something aspirational rather than inspirational. 

The possibility that a faculty advisor can be found is just one consideration, but that new faculty advisor is highly unlikely to match either the prior 9 year Toastmasters experience of the Club Founder or the deeper intelligence of that man.  The club is more likely to be encumbered by an academic and thus the club will immediately lose the one thing that made it special, it's innovative and spiritual characteristics.

Flynn is a young girl who in the course of her Presidency is also a human being that I found to possess incredibly sharp mind but that sharpness of mind comes with life experiences that she herself knows are tougher to emotionally overcome, but only last week as she spoke, and she touched a vulnerable subject, instead of telling everyone that she felt too overwhelmed by emotion to talk through the subject.

Some tears ran down her face and she managed to complete her thoughts and at this point I personally saw her as a leader - because she dealt with her past not as an individual but as a shared response and she rose above herself to communicate with everyone in the room - as well as leaving those in the room as visibly affected but also very proud of her courage - which is the courage of a leader.

All of this was meant to be celebrated as I would have revealed the hidden meaning of the Saturday theme.  Right now this may well be the last time I create a theme for the club.  If that is the case, then this buzz will be changed to a term that Flynn herself introduced to me earlier this month - "Prolix" and this theme will allow me to focus on my "prolix emails" and use them as a resource for reflection - focusing more on the ideas contained within those prior emails and at the same time protecting the identities of club members and to revisit the actual meaning of those emails rather than the particular message they were meant to convey at the time.  In this regard I will be F.L.Y.N.N. and if I do, be proud of that, as I am of this young student for completing the full year that she spent as our Club President.

It is also possible that the meeting on Saturday 8th July may represent my own farewell to the club, as I contemplate how we also arrange a proper farewell to the Club Founder, but nothing is written in stone just yet, only that the probability of this at this point remains the more possible end outcome.  Of course we never know until the proverbial cliche the "fat lady sings".