Today I am going to complain and I feel gross about it because my life is amazing and no one wants to hear someone complain. But I want to share this story because I think it shows a side of humanity that people don’t talk about. TLDR: Here’s the short version… * I believe in active citizenship, so I joined the School Board. * I had a silly idea to donate $3,000 to any staff or teacher at the school district. * To make it a democratic process, I allowed anyone to nominate a staff member and vote for a winner online. Then I’d select the winner from the top ten. * A few people got pissed! Calls to other board members, calls to the admin staff, outrage online… the whole nine yards. * Now I need to decide if I should just cancel the whole thing, I want your input! * And now I’m also considering resigning from the schoolboard. It just doesn’t seem worth it. * And THIS is why people don’t serve. As many of you know, I strongly believe that the duty of a citizen means more than simply voting. It means actually serving and participating in our democracy. As a part of that philosophy, I decided to join the Haslett school board in October 2023. I was appointed so I didn’t have to go through the whole election process. It has been an incredibly rewarding and educational process, but it also has been an incredibly high time commitment. I’ve missed putting Lane to bed and reading him a book, which is one of my favorite activities, several nights. I’m missing an event with my wife tonight and a whole trip next week. But I am still honored to be able to serve. A few months back, I received an email from the school staff asking me for my clothing sizes because they needed to order me a gown for Haslett Graduation. I don’t know why I never thought of it, but I didn’t know that I would be on the stage with the graduates celebrating them. At my own graduation I remember looking up at the podium in admiration of those people all dressed up on the stage. It is very surprising to think that I am going to be one of those people on the stage. This got me thinking about graduation a lot. A couple of Sundays ago, I was on a 10-mile run around Haslett and had the idea to give away some money to graduates of Haslett Schools. I thought about maybe giving some kind of scholarship to reward students considering a path toward entrepreneurship. But after a lot of consideration and talking with my wife, we decided that there are lots of scholarships for students, which is awesome! But there aren’t a lot of scholarships or direct monetary awards for the dedicated staff members of the school district. So I got home from that run and, after talking with my wife, I wrote a post on May 5, 2024, that basically said I was going to give $3,000 away to any staff member of Haslett Public Schools. I thought a way to make it more democratic and get more people involved would be to let anyone in the community or the staff member themselves nominate any staff member and share a story about how that staff member impacted their life in a positive way and why they should receive the award. Then I had the idea of making it as fair as possible by allowing anyone in the Haslett community to vote for the award by commenting or liking the comment that nominated a particular person. I felt like this was the way to get the community involved and make it as democratic as possible. My wife would select the top 10 nominees that got the most votes, and then I would select a winner. Then I would give the individual staff member $3000 directly from myself. I felt this was the most fair because I wasn’t the only one just picking the person that would receive the gift. I clearly stated in the post that this had nothing to do with my position on the school board and this wasn’t a part of the school district. I have taken all of the board trainings, and I am a certified board member. From my reading of the rules and my understanding, this wasn’