In The Dragons Lair

In The Dragon’s Lair

One of the responsibilities of my position is to give presentations to different agency and programs round the State to instruct key individuals about our program in the hope that these managers will send more phone calls our way. This light duty except one has to travel and I was traveling today. Not far, thank goodness , but I was required to saddle up in the van and drive wet to the Deaf Center where the State Administrator’s Meeting(SAM). These meeting are held once a quarter and I try to get out to at least one of these meeting a year. I have always found the amount of turnover in this State agency is staggering. So even if we do the SAM once a year we are basically contact brand new folks. I gave a 15 minute presentation and then passed out brochures and left.

I am pretty foggy today, I did not sleep well last night—so I think the presentation could have been better but I paid attention to the audience and saw lots of head nodding and smiles but that could have just been the sugar rush the audience had from their “Continental Breakfast.” Doughnuts and coffee—in this case orange juice. I was given twenty minutes for the presentation but just petered out after 10-15 minutes. I usually take every minute allowed and more if I given more but not today.

As I age I can sense a fair amount of mellowing, I suppose this mellowing is natural. The agency I was presenting to this morning was my arch enemy when I worked in a private non-profit when I first migrated to this State. This agency was draconian and counter productive to the consumers they “served”. In fact this agency had a history of trying to conquer and divide the agency I was working for. This happened soon after I left the program. I don’t think I had any bearing of when the non-profit fell but my leaving could, have… Now there are similar programs through out the State and they all do great work but they all toil under dark flag. Actually things maybe changing; the agency recently retired its long time squinty director—a manager who seemed cold, heartless and one who pinched a dollar long an hard. New air now blows in this bureaucracy and I am holding my breath in hopes of better services and programs for people with disabilities. So, if this hope a sign of my mellowing? One person does not make a regime and there are plenty of hench guys and gals still running round from the old regime. But I hold a lot of hope for the new guy. I believe he is the one who can make the difference. Change in an organization of this size well take years. I don’t know if the private non-profits I spoke of well ever get back to their IL routes they are way compromised and philosophically challenged.

Thanks for reading I hope this makes more sense tomorrow.