Looking Back

By Jeff Beilfuss
January 2011

This is the last and 24^th edition of Rambling Roads that I have been privileged to write during my two-years of service as Road Captain.  I don’t remember how I got the job but do remember wondering how I was going to do it.  When you look at your predecessors you can’t help but be in awe at the shoes you have to fill.  Or maybe you’re thinking you really want this job because your superior ability beckons you to the call.  OK, so I exaggerate a little bit, my feet are bigger so my shoes are bigger, but any new job infuses the green recruit with a modicum of doubt as to how he will perform and be viewed by others.   As with any other job you quickly learn to just make it your own.  You can’t be someone else.

This is not the hardest job in the world.  There are no wars to fight or collapsing economies to save.  There is an Assistant Road Captain who handles some of the tasks and fills in when the Captain is away; and there are others who volunteer when both are away.  You don’t need to check your e-mail while out of town or have a Blackberry with help such as this.  Just ring up your substitute, and you are carefree until you return.

One of my concerns when starting this job was the writing of this monthly column.  Should I go back in the archives and recycle previous columns?  Where were the ideas to come from?  Should I have the assistant write some?  Most politicians have speechwriters.   Maybe I should get a ghostwriter.  These were unfounded anxieties.  Sometimes you just sit back, put your feet up on the desk, and dream up an idea.  Sometimes you observe something or read something and it ends up being worthy of expanding for others to read about.  You’d be surprised where stories can come from.  Maybe you heard someone else say something of interest.  Are you excited about something?  Write it down.  Did you read about something?  Write it down.  Think of it as a written coffee chat at the VBC clubhouse.  Or you could try “Dear VBC,…”  Every one of us has written a letter.  No, “u cant use im 2 rite ur column. lol.”   

The other opportunities presented to the Road Captain are as follows:

• Add rides to the calendar.
• Make decisions to post or not to post so as to avoid ride conflicts.
• Take an hour or two for your decisions.
• Send out reminders on the Buddies List for the Wheel Truth deadline.
• Field complaints (not many).
• Do an annual video, if you wish.
• Do anything else you can think of.
• Have fun doing it.

There, that’s not so hard, is it?