I joined in 2011 shortly after my divorce and wanting to have fun again. My dad had been a member in the 70s/80s when I was a kid, main reason I knew it existed at that point.
I went to maybe 2-3 meetings before they talked me into being on the board, started out Membership Chair. Trying to recruit new people like me. Along the way, it became Assistant RE, I did RE for a year, back to ARE, RX Chair for a year when no one else wanted to. By 2018 I was burned out, and needed a break.
2019 I jumped head-first into the 501st Legion Star Wars stuff, think I did 1 AX and 1 RX. Beginning of 2020 I said this is the year! And we know how that went. Last couple years I've gotten back into casual AX, maybe 4 events a year. RX became a 7-8hr round trip so for now, that's out.
I decided maybe it's time to get back in a little more. Went to a meeting for the first time in a long time, didn't have to get there 30min early to order appetizers, didn't need a bag of paperwork. Still got there first, old habits I guess.
And it felt completely different. All different people, different atmosphere. They seem to have a healthy bank balance BUT they aren't afraid to actually spend some $ to upgrade equipment! I remember begging to buy new cones. They even bought a decent truck from the NJ region last year, we spent years talking about doing that.
And me being me, I've all but joined the board again with RX and road rally. (I did a couple simple tours around Dayton that the current RE says people still talk about.)
So maybe a reset was just what I needed.
