Never too old....

.... to make rookie mistakes.  Arg.

Let me tell you how much I hate sending apology e-mails...

...a LOT...


They're not easy to write.  You have to be careful about slipping into defensive mode, and making excuses.  Really careful.  You also have to acknowledge the anger/disappointment/frustration of the person you are apologizing to.  Repeatedly.

In the last six months, I've had to write three such e-mails - two to parents, and one to an organization who was unhappy with a botched performance on our part.  The botched performance was mostly due to students who promised to show up, but didn't (and didn't call).  I used the incident to demonstrate how "sorry" doesn't cut it in the grown-up world. When one student chimed in and said "Maybe we can do extra-good next time?"  I responded, "There won't be a next time.  We'll never get that call again.  We were treated like professionals, and since we didn't deliver, they stopped trusting us.  You don't get second chances."  I also told them that there are now people out there in the community who do not think highly of the NRHS music program, who might speak up about it if our name was mentioned, and who certainly would not recommend us to anyone else.



The two apologies to the parents were more disturbing to me, because the mistakes were far more damaging:  One for a kid who was left behind at a football game, and one for a kid who didn't get a chance to play at the last concert.  I could give you the reasons why both of those things happened... and they're good reasons.  Ultimately, they're excuses, and no matter how you slice it, it boils down to me not paying attention to what was going on.

So... apologies written and sent, and I am left with a "hindsight list" of things to contemplate for the rest of the year.

Fun.