The Empty Chair

The Historic meeting was fairly short this evening. People were quiet in the fallout of the last meeting. Elderly Lady wasn’t at tonight’s meeting and her chair was left empty. Thin Man showed up but was quieter. This is usually the fun night of the month. We all play games and socialize. The conversation is dramatically stilted in the beginning. This lasts until Redheaded Woman comes in and asks why everyone is so quiet. We should be having fun. She asks if we are all friends here and the answer is a resounding yes. She huffs and sits down to continue her painting project.

Everyone makes their way to the back table where our games are set up and ready to be played. Viking seems to take charge and organizes the games and groups. It took a bit before people began to converse and lighten up to have fun.

Thin Man was as boisterous as ever and took a back seat to Viking and Redheaded Woman taking leadership. The two sat together and talked in quiet tones while encouraging everyone else to play the games and have a good time. It wasn’t until about half way through that Viking stood up and made the announcement that Elderly Lady would not be joining us on a regular basis anymore. She had decided to pull back a bit and work on some other projects that she had going. This sounded like a convenient excuse not to face up to the fact that Redheaded Woman and Viking had taken her perceived place of power.

Thin Man said that this was a shame and that she should come back out because we would all miss her. His reaction felt a bit forced and untrue to his actual feelings on the matter. Viking took him aside and they had a little meeting. They came back out and called a few people to the back room with them. I was one of the lucky ones called.

In the backroom, Viking, Redheaded Woman, Thin Man, Roman, and I all sat around a little table. They began discussing the leadership of our group. Listening to what makes good leaders was an interesting topic. Apparently someone that can listen to disputes objectively, make recommendations on the issues at hand, respect all of the members 9regardless of personal feeling), and collaborate with the group as a whole to achieve their goals is what was being looked for. In the end, it was decided that Viking would step into leadership of the historic society and that Thin Man would support this decision. I was a bit confused because I didn’t know our group even had a leadership role. Apparently is isn’t a formal position but an understood one. It was interesting for me to note that this decision was made by a minority of the group instead of by the group at large. Maybe the thought of Elderly Ladies empty chair is what set this off. With a split group for so long, having one leader again would be nice to most of the people.