I spent almost three years as the volunteer President of our Board of Directors at the childrens’ theatre in my town. I was the Vice-President and our President resigned. This year I gave up my post. I’m still on the Board of Directors, but no longer President. I had good reasons, and I needed to do it. That being said, I miss it.
It was fun being in charge (OK, not always.) I was (and think still am) respected by many people in our larger community’s theatre circle. I felt like people on our board really respected my opinion.
Sometimes now I feel like they respected the title’s opinion more than mine. Sometimes I feel like they don’t really need me any more. Sometimes I now feel out-of-place and kind of lonely. I try to back off and let the new president, whom I like and respect, stretch her wings. Yet I’m still there to help mentor and guide.
I miss being the go to girl.
Now the funny part is I am the one that came up with our term limits, and I did so for very good reasons. We didn’t want people getting burned out or too much control. 
Now I just have to learn to accept this role again. It’s hard, because it changed me. I changed it. A very small handful of us took a struggling program and really made it take off. It’s an amazing non-profit small business now with a whole range of programs for the community. I’m really proud of what we accomplished. It definitely was a “we” project, but I loved leading my team. Probably explains my withdrawal. I’m just learning to keep myself in balance.
