Okay, so folks ask me sometimes about getting things moving, you know, making a difference even when you’re not the boss. This whole “club level empower field” thing sounds fancy, but for me, it just boiled down to getting stuck in with something I cared about.
I joined this local history group a while back. Thought it’d be great, digging into old maps, local stories, that sort of thing. And it was okay, but man, it felt stuck. Like, really stuck in the past, and not just the history part. Meetings were the same old routine, same handful of people talking, nobody younger really getting involved. The ‘field’ – our little patch of local history – felt kinda… neglected, you know? We had all this potential, but it wasn’t going anywhere.
For months, I just went along. Showed up, listened, went home. Felt a bit pointless. Then one day, I was looking at these amazing old photos they had, just sitting in dusty boxes. Barely anyone ever saw them. I thought, this is nuts. We should be sharing this stuff.
Getting My Hands Dirty
So, I decided to try something. Not asking for permission, really, just doing it. I started small.
- First step: I brought my own scanner to a meeting. A cheap flatbed one. I just started scanning some of the photos during the tea break.
- Next: I asked the secretary, real casual like, if she minded me putting a few scans onto a simple website. Not the official club site, mind you, that thing hadn’t been updated since 2005. Just a basic blog page I set up myself.
- Then: People started noticing. A few members mumbled about ‘the way things are done’, but others were curious. Especially when their grandkids saw the photos online and got interested.
It wasn’t easy. There was pushback. “That’s not secure.” “Who’s paying for this website?” (It was free, but try telling them that). “We need a committee meeting about this!” Honestly, it was tiring. Felt like wading through treacle sometimes. This was supposed to be the ’empower’ bit, right? Felt more like battling windmills.
But I kept at it, chipping away. Showed folks how easy it was to view the pictures. Got another member, younger than me but still ancient by internet standards, interested in helping with the scanning. We weren’t trying to take over; we were just trying to make the ‘field’ we cared about a bit more alive, accessible. Working at that ‘club level’, you know, just us regular members.
Did it Work?
Well, yeah, kinda. The club didn’t magically transform overnight. We didn’t suddenly get loads of funding or a hundred new members. But things did change, slowly. The online photos became a talking point. We actually got a couple of younger people joining because they saw the stuff online. The dusty boxes started getting organized because people wanted their family photos scanned next.
For me, the big thing was realizing you don’t need some grand title or official role to nudge things along. That feeling of seeing something that could be better, and just starting, even in a small way, right there at the ground level – the club level – that’s where the real ’empower’ feeling came from. Not from some management course, but from actually doing something, getting your hands dirty in your own little ‘field’. It wasn’t glamorous, mostly just quiet persistence, but it made a difference I could see.
