“New Year, New TRAILs”

A new year has begun, and with this change, new ideas rise to the forefront of our first TRAIL meeting. Among the talk of bittersweet goodbyes to the year 2007, one goal stood tall among all of those proposed. TRAIL wishes to become more proactive in 2008.

Being proactive may seem like a broad goal to many, but to our group it symbolizes several very distinct ideas. One such idea breeched at the January meeting was ‘proactivity’ in our younger members. In this year, we hope to encourage our newer membership to speak up and take part! Because, truly, what better way to learn about something than to dive right in? Furthermore, the board agreed that, as a whole, we needed to become more organized. Through this undertaking TRAIL hopes to become structured in form and communication: improving function everywhere from our notebooks to our call tree!

Also, later in this year, TRAIL will be saying goodbye to 60% of its officers. As this is the case, the senior membership felt the need to create a system to prepare and stabilize the pod after their departure. The issue is not capability, but rather, knowledge of the undertakings of each office. To resolve this dilemma, TRAIL decided on a program in which we will elect new officers in March, allowing them through May to ‘shadow’ their senior counterparts and learn the ‘ins and outs’ of the job.

Yes, to many, proactive may seem like a very general word, but to TRAIL is symbolizes change, readiness, and taking an active role. With these changes, we hope to bring about with this New Year a new—and hopefully improved—TRAIL.