Every group needs one. The person who takes charge, sets the rules, keeps people in line. Some people resent The Organizer; most people silently thank TO for being charge so they don’t have to.
TO rarely gets credit for what he or she has done. TO usually only gets the blame when something isn’t exactly right. TO has to work while others are playing.
TO gets rewards in different ways. If TO is also The Boss at work, he or she presumably gets paid more for being in charge. In a family, TO gets to set the rules more often than not. In a voluntary group setting, the rewards for TO are all psychic.
Our TO for the Klatt Brothers and Friends trip to Ireland was Peter Pavarini. By day, he is senior partner and health care attorney at a Columbus law firm. By night, he plays music with the Klatt Brothers (now in their fourteenth year) and volunteers at a health clinic he and his wife helped to start in Delaware County, where they live.
Peter and Colleen first went on an Enchanted Way tour with Tom Piggot in the fall of 2007. They really enjoyed the vibe and the focus on music. On that tour, the music was provided by Wisconsin singer/songwriter JohnSmith. When Peter asked Tom if he could book a tour with his friends in the Klatt Brothers providing the music, Tom agreed.
Peter did a fantastic job of organizing the trip. He called a meeting over a year ago to get a commitment from two of the other founding members of the Klatt Brothers band and from me to go on this adventure. He communicated relentlessly with Tom Pigott and the twenty four people who eventually agreed to accompany Peter and his wife Colleen. He collected money from us and wired it to Tom right on schedule. He set up conference calls so that everyone could get to know each other and could get questions answered
For this, Peter got the reward of seeing his friends and family discover the joys of musical Ireland, as he and Colleen had done two years earlier.
Thank you, Peter. You can be TO any time in my book.
Don’t forget to thank TO in your life.
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