Guess who's back?

It's been since early December that I've blogged on RelayForLife.org and it's probably been just as long since I've been on the site!!!  I know, such a bad Relay person.

There are a lot of reasons (or excuses, I guess) as to why I've been MIA.

First... it was Christmas time, so with shopping and all that stuff to do, that didn't help much.  And at work, I was not only doing my job, but was also doing two other people's jobs -- all at the same time!!!

And then we get to my local Relay.  We hit some snags, didn't have that great of a Kick-Off.  I was really sad after the lackluster Kick-Off turnout.  Aside from our committee, we had four people show up.  And their two teams were already registered!!!!!!

My staff person is changing (again).  The one we've had was promoted (yay for her!!!!) but that means she isn't doing Relays (boo!).  Right now, we're in limbo since they haven't hired anyone for the position.  So it's sort of hit or miss right now.  That's OK, except for the fact that I really really really really like working with Laura.

And then... my co-chair and I realized that we have committee members who aren't really all that excited about doing things for Relay.  My co-chair and I have been doing a lot (and really, she's done more than me I think) for our event.  Our committee, though I love them, sits there and suggests lots of great ideas for my co-chair and I to do.  They don't like to do them.

So... my co-chair and I decided to implement "Committee Challenges."  At our meeting on Jan. 3, we gave each person in attendance a list of four or five committees they needed to complete by our next meeting.  They were a little shocked when they heard about it.  But really, there was nothing else for us to do.  The "challenges" (code word for "tasks") included things like signing up on our event's website, calling a business, bringing a friend to our next meeting.

They weren't very difficult.  So we'll see what happens.

We seem to have lost a committee member.  One of the HS students left me a message on Facebook the other day that said a friend of hers took all her team members.  She said she'll be back next year.  There's obviously other stuff going on that made her not get involved.  Oh well.  We all remember how high school was.

Our grand total for teams right now is......*drum roll please*..... 12.   A year ago (and even before I was involved with the local event) we had seven teams.  So I'll take it.  Our goal is 30.

Our next committee meeting is this coming Thursday.  We'll see how well our committee members did on their challenges.  A few of them involved letting my co-chair and I know if things were set to meet with people.  So far, nothing.

My co-chair and I are meeting Monday night to go over stuff.  Our meetings usually last two or three hours.  But we get a lot of work done!

See, my co-chair is awesome.  She lives about 40 minutes from where the Relay is and works in between both home and where the Relay is.  She got involved with my local Relay because ACS decided to discontinue the one she was chair of.  So she teamed up with Moon's event.

So she is by far one heck of a person!!  And what's neat is that both her and I are about the same age.  I'm pretty sure she is about 26 and I'll be 25 on Feb. 21.  And....... as if that wasn't enough... we mesh well, too.  What she's good at, I'm not.  And what I'm good at, she's not.  So it's like a Relay dream come true.

Now only if we had a rocking Relay!! 

There is some good news.... we secured the site for our event!!!  I got my work people to do a team!!

So there is some hope!!!

The problem is... our committee is not totally connected to the community and our community is not totally a community-oriented place.  It's a suburb of tons of residential developments that went up over the past seven years.  So it's been difficult.   The school system is almost impossible to break through, too.

But the other district in our Relay coverage area is awesome!  They have less than 800 kids and have eight teams!  Meanwhile, the bigger school district has almost 4,000 kids and there's about four teams from them.

We're trying, though.

If all of you RelayForLife.org folks would kindly move to my community, we would have one heck of an event!!!  That's for sure!

My New Year's Goal (no resolutions for me) is to keep yinz (That's Pittsburgh for "you all") updated on my local event and to use RelayForLife.org regularly.

...and please feel free to e-mail me at MoonRelay@gmail.com.  Sometimes my FireFox and Safari Web browsers don't get along with the website.  Sometimes they do.  It's always a toss up.

Keep Relaying, folks!!!!!!!