Wednesday night, husband and I attended a meeting at church for the people in the congregation who volunteer and serve most often. There were about fifty of us there, and the aim of the meeting was to brainstorm to identify and recruit more people in the congregation who could also do what we do. Our pastor is worried about burn out for us. There are about seven hundred active members in our church.
There are a lot of committees and groups that are essential for keeping our services and programs running. At the meeting were the ushers, people from the altar guild, the assisting ministers, the musicians, service committee, and Wednesday School teachers (we have Wednesday school instead of Sunday School). Husband and I are primarily assisting ministers and musicians. I was fascinated to observe how the jobs we volunteer for at church seem to fit our various personalities.
The folks in the usher group were the most gregarious in the meeting. Ushers like to meet and greet, and we had to keep shushing them so we could hear what the other participants were saying. Husband and I were in the group that was coming up with names for the assisting ministers. I I noted our group was made up of all professionals and the most educated of all the participants. We were also the most serious. The assisting ministers serve communion and read the lessons, which can be sort of sobering.
The altar guild makes sure the front of the church looks perfect before services, and that the altar cloths are wrinkle free and even, the wine and wafers are all ready for communion, the candles are lit, and the decorations and banners are seasonal and tidy. While the rest of us were seated haphazardly in the meeting room I was tickled to see that the members of the altar guild were all seated perfectly evenly spaced around their table.
The money counters were the quietest participants. They come on Wednesdays and count the Sunday collection and bring it to the bank for deposit. It seemed to me that as a group they don’t want to draw a lot of attention to themselves with the money in their safe keeping.
The service committee decorates the rest of the church that the altar guild doesn’t decorate, and provides and serves the food at funeral lunches and church potlucks. They were more likely than the rest of us to see congregation members in venues outside of the Sunday services, and seemed to have the low down on the names that were suggested for various committees. “Don’t ask Marlon to be an assisting minister. He won’t want his wife to sit by herself during the service,” and “They can’t help as youth mentors unless they have childcare. They have little ones at home, you know”.
I suppose it isn’t surprising that people are drawn to activities that suit their temperaments, but it was just delightful to notice now blatant were the differences between the groups.
Are there tasks you are drawn to or repelled by in the groups or organizations you belong to? What old game shows did you watch when you were a kid?
Trail Baboon 
My GP’s office called with MRI results. It showed normal aging changes.
Belong to no organizations now.
Never watched game shows as a child.
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Yay! That’s great news, Clyde.
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So glad to hear that news Clyde.
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Glad to hear that, Clyde.
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Oh yes – first committee I joined at UU was… the Music Committee – we choose the hymns and schedule who’s doing the music and accompanying for the services. I like music, and I like to be a decider. : )
Last year being chair of the Board was hard at times, as there were conflicts and personality clashes. I avoid things like that usually, and am hoping that this year will be easier.
I did enjoy What’s My Line, and that’s about all I can remember – hopefully other baboons will jog my memory.
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I’ve been on one committee. For a very short time.
Om farms I noticed that the people who needed to know about livestock – knew about livestock. Whether they knew what was the right or wrong thing to keep the world turning, is another matter. (I don’t know much about livestock, or crops either)
Game shows, not sure. I hadn’t better say too much, because I don’t remember.
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OT: you’re probably thinking, he’s in a weird mood today.
We had the annual paella day today (pronounced pieaya, as you know). Brought home to me that I don’t think I’ve pointed it out on the Trail – I don’t really fit in with pretty much any group of people. I’m different from just about anybody. Maybe that’s what makes me write reams of stuff, I don’t really know.
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To Tell The Truth and Concentration.
Especially You Bet Your Life. Groucho Marx is one of my favorite comedians.
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I remember Password and I’ve Got a Secret.
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Beat the Clock, with Bud Collier as host.
One of the panelists on What’s My Line was Dorothy Kilgallen, who died somewhat mysteriously while investigating the assassination of JFK.
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I do remember Beat the Clock, and I loved Bud Collier.
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He had a great smile!
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Match Game was a favorite of mine because I thought the microphone he used was really neat. Plus, the host, Gene Rayburn, reminded me of a guy I knew that ran the planetarium in town. I didn’t get all the sexual innuendos at the time…
I remember the Gong Show. Not much about it…just that it was.
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Er…. what WAS that?
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The Dating Game. I always thought the ones they chose were losers.
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Price is Right and Jeopardy but I don’t watch them these days. Nonny watches Wheel of Fortune every night so I have seen that this week.
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What did Gary Moore and Derwood Kirby do?
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The Garry Moore Show – where Carol Burnett also got her start. I don’t remember a quiz show part of it, but they did interaction with the audience according to this on Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garry_Moore_Show
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Not exactly a game show, but he was funny. Some of them seemed funnier 50 years ago, though.
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I finally actually read your first question, Renee rather than just thinking I had. I belonged to the Samaritans for five and a half years from 1987. It’s like being in the best club in the world, dedicated to volunteers looking after each other in order to try and look after the public. It tends to bring lone wolves like me out of their shells, I suppose. Don’t know that I’d thought of it like that before.
I wanted to do every job, and did some of them, including fire officer, an amusing story I think I mentioned before. I don’t remember being repelled by any job, I almost even went in for public speaking.
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You Bet Your Life
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You Bet Your Life
Much of the sexual innuendo went over my head but my parents laughed and I laughed with them.
And here I am now wishing I could laugh with them with adult understanding.
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I remember liking Queen for a Day – again, maybe not really a quiz show – but it brought people together who hadn’t seen each other for a long time, was often a tear-jerker.
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We didn’t have a TV in our home while I was growing up. My parent didn’t buy one until after I left home in in 1961. In fact, I was twelve years old before I even knew anyone who had a TV.
Even after I arrived in the US in 1965, wasband and I didn’t have a TV of own. The old woman who owned the house where we rented a basement apartment our first year in Cheyenne, Anne Garvin, watched a lot of soap operas. She’d invite me to join her, but I just didn’t enjoy them. I occasionally joined her to watch the Art Linkletter House Party. That’s also where I watched a few episodes of the Carol Burnett Show.
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Yes. Carol Merrill. She was from Frederic, Wisconsin.
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Excellent!
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