More building of community. More building my network. More building my tribe….
Friday night my Rotary Club met at the community center to set up for the pancake breakfast the following day. We set out tables, chairs, and placemats. Once we were finished, I headed over to Main Street which was blocked off to cars. It was allso “Fourth Friday” which is a monthly event with music and food trucks. I bought myself a glass of wine and then milled about. I spotted someone I knew, from Rotary, sitting over by a stand set up for selling books. It was the Friends of the Library.
The interesting part is that I walked over to their table, and because I knew someone from Rotary I just sat down like I belonged there. Except, on the inside, I was not sure. Am I just helping myself and sitting at a table I didn’t belong? But after a few minutes of chatting and other people drifting in and out I realized: I did belong there. It was an odd feeling.
One of the people who swung by came to me and said, “Hey, I saw your bicycle and wondered if I’d bump into you here”. That’s a new one and I’m pretty happy with it.
The second most interesting part of the evening came when my fellow Rotarian said, “If you want to belong to the most influential group in town, join the Friends of the Library. And I say that as a member of Rotary Club”. That was an interesting insight. Also probably a matter of opinion because I had asked someone else months prior the exact same question and his answer was that Rotary was the most influential club.
Either way, it made me realize that with all of the networking I’ve been doing lately, there is still a very large resource available to me that I have not tapped into yet.
At the end of the night they started packing up the book cart and I helped. Afterwards, someone said to me, “Hey if you join the Friends of the Library you get to do this every month”.
And I think I will.
