If Nominated, I Shall Not Serve

I'm a member of the local Children's Literature Roundtable.  The current president's term has ended, and will not serve again.  So at our AGM tonight, the question came up as to who will serve as president.  Nobody volunteered.  When we took a secret ballot to see who everyone thought could serve, it ended up as a three way tie between me and two other people.

We all shook our heads no.

In a previous meeting when the subject had come up and someone tried to convince me to put my name forward, I reminded her that I only attend about half of the meetings.  I would attend more, but the best meeting day for most members of the group is actually a lousy day for me to attend.  If the meeting is held at the Library and it's a quick meeting, things work out okay.  But if the meeting is elsewhere, or it runs long, or is a potluck meeting, it doesn't work out so well.

Another major part of things is that I see things very differently the the rest of the group in some respects.  We gave a presentation at the local library conference in September.  During the preparation for the presentation, one member said she felt we were all set.  At that point, I had no idea what the content or the structure of the presentation would be, no idea what my part in it was supposed to be, and (if I'm being honest) no idea why anyone would want to come to it...  I know my opinion differs a fair bit from the group on a few other things too.

In short, the group needs a president whose feelings about it dovetail to some extent with what the group already is.  A contrary opinion is handy now and then, but it's not okay for the head of the group.  That's how these sorts of things ultimately fall apart.