Serving on a Council of Elders committee gets a little challenging when three continents are represented on the committee. Especially when the committee needs to discuss something via a teleconference.

As a member of the Strategic Planning and Finance committee, I serve along with fellow Council members from the United States, Canada and Bill Eddington in Australia. When our chairman Roy Holladay told us last week that we would be having another teleconference in the next couple of weeks, I knew that another late night session was ahead for me. For all of us to participate simultaneously in a teleconference, the times have to be coordinated for Australia, Europe and North America. For me that means that the conference call begins at 11:00 p.m., for Bill Eddington it begins at 7:00 a.m. the following day his time in Australia, and for the fellows in the USA and Canada it means 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon on the same day as for me. Such teleconferences can be a helpful exercise in limiting your words (which I am still working on!) so the meeting does not drag on any longer than needed and so I can get to bed sometime the following morning! 🙂