Busylady01Contributor
Am I the one in the wrong?
For several years now, I've been volunteering as Secretary for a local organisation. The old committee members have from the very beginning attended every meeting to point out mistakes, shortcomings, and failings that they perceive I or another member has committed. However, this group is simply an information only type of organisation and it isn't really one where we are expected to know every person in the neighbourhood by name, know when they pass away, etc. But these old committee members keep making out as if I have failed in some way. One lady thought she had cancer and didn't want to go out doing the annual collection. This lady didn't say anything about her illness to the committee or to me. The only thing she said was that she was too busy. Well, we are all busy people and we still go out and slog through the neighbourhood asking for donations. This lady got so upset that at the next meeting she and her husband thought it appropriate to humiliate me, my husband and the committee because we publicly apologised for not knowing she was sick. They were also denigrating the fact that we wrote a year-to-date activities page to say what was done and who helped. They accused us of not being fair by not naming everyone who volunteers. But truth be told we named everyone who volunteered for those activities. If she wanted her name in lights, then maybe she should have volunteered. Later I was talking with a Police Officer and she came up crying and told me that I should know her better and made a total and complete fool of me, right there for no reason.
Much later I had to call her for something and we got into a conversation about that day. She swears I don't understand her but she knows me better than I know myself apparently. She told me that I was arrogant, thought only of myself, and wanted to be in the lime light all by myself. I informed her that she had me all wrong, that all I ever wanted was to volunteer and do whatever I could for the neighbourhood. To this day she still maintains that I am the one in the wrong and acts as if I am cold and heartless even after finding out that her "Cancer" was benign and therefore not really a problem after all. This old committee member group of bullies just won't move on. They seem to think that they were the best there was ever going to be and with every success we have, they are there to point out our mistakes, failings, etc. In all truth, these failings and mistakes they point out aren't actually mistakes and failings at all. These people perceived the local organisation to be more than what it actually was ever meant to be. We have just brought it back to what the mission statement says it's supposed to be and they don't like the changes.
So am I a cold-hearted bitch or is this lady off her rocker?