What Could Have Been…

Monday, it looked bad. Tuesday it looked worse and by Thursday it looked terrible. MEPA shows are rarely canceled so the idea that we may have to do that was not something I wanted to think about. While it is inconvenient for units, it’s catastrophic for the show sponsor and our circuit. Flights still have to be paid for, judges paid, food and trophies purchased, and many more costs. The right thing ended up happening, though. The safety and well being of all of our units is far more important than money.

Bellbrook wasn’t looking much better on Saturday. Roughly half of the registered units were forced to cancel their performance. I’m sure that those units that were performing this weekend were tired of seeing my name in their e-mail box because often, it was more bad news or schedule changes.

What could have been, never happened, though. Directors could have been far less flexible as things changed. Even at 10:00PM on Saturday, I was texting people changing their performance times to avoid classes being split by large amounts of time. Fans could have stayed home instead of attending the Bellbrook show, and judges and other contest personnel could have used the weather as a reason to not battle the elements. In short, directors were patient, fans came out enough to fill the stands twice, and all judges and personnel were there. What could have been a logistical disaster ended up running smoothly.

On top of all of that, watching performances today made me see again this week what judges said to me last weekend. Our units are some of the best in the country. We are setting standards in the activity and all over the nation, we are being talked about. Hearing that from judges who travel the country reminded me of what we have in MEPA and what we have to continually work hard to preserve.

Thank you to everybody who worked with me to make what could have been much worse in to something great. I would like to say that I’m smart enough to make all of this work out but it’s all of us working together that makes MEPA as great as it is. The board of directors are incredible, our judges association and their leadership is invaluable, and our directors and show sponsors are flexible even when it is inconvenient for them.