Meeting of the Minds

Last week we had a Resident Council Meeting. These are a big deal with much talk and preamble leading up to meeting day. Typically, this is a meeting where all the residents attend and then bitch, er I mean, talk about everything that is wrong and needs fixed around this dump. Needless to say, I was dreading this meeting as much as I do the treadmill.

As it turns out, the dread was most unnecessary and the meeting was amazing! This resident council meeting was 1000% different than any other Resident Council Meeting in the history of Rock Ridge. At this meeting, after they did all their cute Robert's Rules of Order stuff and opened the floor for commentary, residents actually stood up and said what the liked about Rock Ridge! They talked about everything that was going right! The consensus was that things couldn't be better! One resident even teared up while talking about how he feels he doesn't deserve to be treated so well and how much he loves everyone here. It was such a positive meeting, that the lone complainer had even changed his attitude before he was finished trying to complain, and I don't think he even realized it! This was such a cool thing to witness, considering the extremely negative history of past council meetings. Actually, it was pretty damn awesome.

The Good: Assistant says I'm the one who has set the tone and helped make this a more positive place to work and live. While I do not believe that this is the case, (it takes a strong team of a lot of positive people to turn negativity around) it was still a wonderful compliment that made me feel good.


The Bad: During the meeting, one resident stood and read the names of all the residents who have died, as a sort of memorial. It was a nice tribute, but I think it made everyone feel a little melancholy. There were so many names...more than we let ourselves remember on a daily basis.


The Inevitable: When Naomi's* name was read, Gladys sat up straight in her chair, gasped audibly, and loudly exclaimed "Naomi Lastname certainly IS NOT dead!" Then she slumped back in her chair and muttered under her breath "She just wants everyone to think she is."

God, I love her.