When It's Time to Step Down

Image from Nataliedee.com

It might be that Sims 3 is coming out next month, or that I've started to think my new position isn't necessary as an officer position, or that I'm feeling especially pressured in my real life. But when the only thing keeping you in the officer core is the camaraderie and the thrill of seeing how guild drama is handled in the officer sections, then, folks, it's time to move on.

My husband managed recruitment for a few months, and he knew it was time to quit when he started to feel drained instead of satisfied. I got recruitment after him and worked at it passionately because I felt a duty to keep the guild happy and healthy. I loved being involved in discussions and brainstorming sessions, and particularly enjoyed being part of the private decision-making when problems broke out. I'm always thrilled to be able to bring my conflict management lessons to the fore and try to dissect delicate social situations. I guess that's just the writer in me. I love trying to understand complicated relationships.

I was moved to Social Events coordination after we stopped recruitment last month in favor of a system where members give their own friends our private application and send it to the officers to discuss as a panel. Though I had planned social events in the past, before my job move, I found that I was more relaxed when I planned things for the fun of it and because I cared about it myself, and not because I had a job to do.

I don't know the exact cause of my . . . I hesitate to call it burnout . . . but I feel myself yearning toward the uncomplicated responsibilities of being just a member for a while, someone who can disappear during the Sims 3 craze in February or when the writing bug hits me and not worry about responsibilities left untended.

In IVV, there's an unspoken policy that anyone who used to be an officer is entirely welcome to petition the core if they get the itch to return. So I know that if they want more hands, and I feel like jumping back into the morass of officership, they'd consider me.

But for now, I think I'd like to be just plain Beth.

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Beth Blevins is (no longer) an officer in In Vino Veritas.

She's a writer, artist and avid blogger.

Beth's been married since her junior year of college.