I thought this story would end differently
I had stepped out of one meeting into another. It is rare that I have back to back meetings now.
But I left a truly back-slapping ha-yucking good time with 2 of my fellow instructional designers who were presenting on future horizons in education. We were all having such a good time (she says just like Uncle Albert, who loves to laugh, from Mary Poppins). And I had stayed in that meeting 15 extra minutes over time and wiped tears of laughter from my eyes hurriedly to prepare for the next meeting where I thought I would turn on my camera.
I had dropped into the next group meeting late before so I know it wasn’t a problem. I was an attendee, not a presenter. I scoped out the attendee list as I listened to the presentation. The topic was Native American use of XR in education. 20 attendees. From the names, there appeared to be 3 total women. I was the only one on camera. I was the only one that spoke at the end the meeting as it wrapped (the speaker had to leave quickly and didn’t take direct questions but the attendees did a little talking amongst themselves). We did a few polite comments– which included me commenting on how intelligent the speaker’s wife was–that he had referred to in his presentation/she wasn’t there– and the session wrapped up.
Later, I thought about the day and I thought about dropping my ID friends a note to explain the comparison of just how remarkable our friendship is…given that the following meeting was staid, and somewhat difficult to find a place for women (the 3 out of 20 thing.)
But I just contemplated that thought and didn’t share it. And then, the story changed.
That second meeting runs on a 2 week rotation. Before the next 2 weeks came up, I received an email in my inbox. I’m paraphrasing:
“Are you having a problem paying the membership dues?”
Oh, crap. I knew what this was. Exactly.
Now I have to take this story backwards before I take it forwards again.
Because we have to go back 2 1/2 years ago to when a certain educational organization advertised on LinkedIn that they were looking for new members. The topic of educational use of XR was very interesting to me so I submitted my interest. The President of the group replied by email to me directly that I would be welcome to join. He directly sent me the meeting information at that time (I actually still have it at this very moment, ahem.) He also directed me to the page where the membership fees were posted.
Now, here is where the story starts to turn.
