I feel so much relief that the zoo event is finished. In all fairness, the zoo event was always my favorite job duty. It has a definite finish date and it always feels good to complete something. This year’s event was interesting because I felt very disconnected from it all. I was doing it strictly as a volunteer and the only thing I ever agreed to do was to coordinate the meetings. I said at the beginning “I’m not doing the actual work.” So, when Noah’s soccer game was over my parents brought all the children to the zoo and we walked around and had a good time. We went back to the tent to make sure clean-up was going ok and heard about one of the many melodramas that had occurred while we were away playing. In any group there will be personal stuff going on during projects. I’m sorry this sounds sexist, but when the group is almost entirely women, there is going to be even more “stuff” happening. Add in several people with mental health issues and you have a lot of chaos.

Other than the personal feeliings getting hurt and the hystrionic cries for attention from one person, the event actual went pretty good. The entertainers were wonderful. The costumed characters were plentiful AND helpful. The popcorn smelled delicious. The zoo visitors DID walk through the tent and collect freebies from the exhibitors. Yes, there were a few problems. Yes, there were some lessons learned (as there should be). Where should the event be next year? Definitely the zoo. The benefits are far greater than the drawbacks. Who will be in charge? I don’t know. Not me. I just can’t go back to my old job. Too many things happening in top management that I don’t want to be connected to in any way. I think that if they utilize the yahoo group for information distribution and discussion and actually learn the lessons from this year’s event, they can be more successful.