2008 Woodie Awards
Former president offers insight
John Adams
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Letters to the editor
- Page 1 of 1
It's been years since I wrote a letter to The Omnibus, but I felt [Alyson Browning's March 9] article deserved a hearty "Bravo!" The highlights of Browning's article were a request for more people to run for SGA offices and a call for students to vote based on leadership.
She was precisely right; the student body is best served by having more choices for each election. Every year, SGA makes a plea for more members, more officers, and more candidates for cabinet. Every year, they are unable to fill each open position and those who respond are overworked. Fortunately, the few who have chosen to serve the past few years have had wonderful servant hearts.
SGA efforts are often thankless. Each semester, student government members put in hundreds of hours of grueling labor serving students in behind-the-scenes ways. These tireless workers are not always the most eloquent orators, the most forceful personalities or the greatest visionaries. Nor are they always known by the other characteristics we usually use to define a "leader." What they do have in common is a willingness to serve. Anyone without that motivation could not handle the job.
With four years of SGA experience, I am privileged to know many members of both this year's and several previous years' cabinets, and I know something of these leaders' hearts. I could tell you of their sleepless nights preparing for events, of tedious meetings discussing details of the University budget, of interviews to select the best committee chairs, of the many who also serve in leadership in their churches, in Welcome Week or in other organizations, and of grand plans yet to come ... I could tell you these things, but praise is not what they would want. They fill their positions quietly because they are willing. And they gladly welcome anyone with the same passion - not to be a leader demanding followers, but to be a servant - both to others and to Christ. If that describes you, then please take Browning's challenge and run for office this spring. And when you vote, examine each candidate; look into their eyes, listen to their words and examine their actions. Will they be leaders in name only or will they be willing to serve in Christ-like humility like so many before them?
She was precisely right; the student body is best served by having more choices for each election. Every year, SGA makes a plea for more members, more officers, and more candidates for cabinet. Every year, they are unable to fill each open position and those who respond are overworked. Fortunately, the few who have chosen to serve the past few years have had wonderful servant hearts.
SGA efforts are often thankless. Each semester, student government members put in hundreds of hours of grueling labor serving students in behind-the-scenes ways. These tireless workers are not always the most eloquent orators, the most forceful personalities or the greatest visionaries. Nor are they always known by the other characteristics we usually use to define a "leader." What they do have in common is a willingness to serve. Anyone without that motivation could not handle the job.
With four years of SGA experience, I am privileged to know many members of both this year's and several previous years' cabinets, and I know something of these leaders' hearts. I could tell you of their sleepless nights preparing for events, of tedious meetings discussing details of the University budget, of interviews to select the best committee chairs, of the many who also serve in leadership in their churches, in Welcome Week or in other organizations, and of grand plans yet to come ... I could tell you these things, but praise is not what they would want. They fill their positions quietly because they are willing. And they gladly welcome anyone with the same passion - not to be a leader demanding followers, but to be a servant - both to others and to Christ. If that describes you, then please take Browning's challenge and run for office this spring. And when you vote, examine each candidate; look into their eyes, listen to their words and examine their actions. Will they be leaders in name only or will they be willing to serve in Christ-like humility like so many before them?
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