The Telephone...

I know I have commented about the use of electronics. I did not realize how dependent I had become on the use of them.

This year I will be the president of our Countryside Homemakers Club. There are about 15 of us in our particular club. I wanted to contact these ladies to remind them of the commitment we made at the May meeting to provide five craft items each to donate and sell at September in Sadieville on September 8th. The proceeds are going to the Back Pack Program at the elementary school to help provide food for needy children.

Normally, I would have everyone's eMail and pop the exact same message to everyone with encouragement to call with questions. Most of these ladies do not really do the eMail thing. It dawned on me I needed to slice time out of my day to make 14 telephone calls (I really didn't need to call myself.)

As I sat calling and speaking to or leaving a voice message, I realized how out of the 'phone calling' loop I have been. I do make phone calls but for blanket contact of a specific group of people I really haven't done that in a very long time.

It was pleasant chatting for a minute with the ladies that wanted to chat, quickly delivering my message to those in a bit more of a hurry, and receiving phone calls back from those with whom I left messages.

Since I'll be doing this at least once a month, I had prepared myself a grid. The grid has a place at the top for the date and the purpose of that phone call. The page then has each ladies name, phone number and a space for notes about what we talked about for me to refer back to as needed. May seem overkill to some people, but for me it helps me not worry about forgetting what I talked about with each lady and I'm sure I called everyone.

This grid happened to have an incorrect number on it for Kathy. She was our president last year. I had transposed her number and put a 74 instead of a 47 in part of the number. I left a message at the wrong home. I was not aware of this until Kathy called me back. It seems the number I called was a friend of her's from her church. Her friend knew it should have gone to Kathy, she called Kathy and related the message, then Kathy called me. I just found that amazing and funny. Kathy and I got a chuckle out of it. My list is corrected. That, my friends, is another joy of living in a less populated area.

I think I'm actually looking forward to calling. The biggest factor for me is the amount of time. I'm really used to that eMail saying exactly the same thing so I don't miss any points when making 14 calls. Plus it is all done with one send instead of 14 separate items. But I now remember the joy of actually talking person-to-person with lots of people in one day via telephone.