Being set up twice in a day

How far would you go to help someone or a group of people?

As a couple of people know, I'm currently the president of my Toastmasters club which I have joined on and off for the past 7 years. My club is closely affiliated to the community centre which the club bases its activities at, so there is a sense of allegiance to the organisation.

I was asked to go for this meeting today with the management where I was told that they have a couple of speaking-related projects that they have in mind. Fair enough, I felt, as we can easily contribute to the center where our core competencies lie, in the realm of public speaking. And so I went, and instead of hearing more towards such things, I was whisked (thanks to my desirable youthful age) to join the youth executive committee which oversees several other activities such as tutoring kids and such.

Pardon me for being blunt, but my main focus is for the club and its members to improve in public speaking and not to overflow my plate with more activities that I see no part of myself interested in. I left rather promptly, though it appeared abrupt as I am utterly unskilled in the art of diplomatic manoeuvres. To make matters worse, there was an MP in our midst of a small group of 9, so I wonder if I have stepped on any political live wire in the process.

I managed to get away from that, though I wonder how the pieces will be picked up. Out of the cauldron and into the fire. I had an emergency call from a student whose class BBQ/chalet I was to attend after the meeting. In her call, she urged me to come down quickly as she had promised her parents that it is a class-led chalet/BBQ and she thought that having me around as a facilitator/authority figure will assure the parents. WHAT! What about the implicit responsibility over all of you that I have to bear if anything untoward happens? Not that I do not trust you nor anyone else in the class, but the burden is really too heavy for me to bear.

Sigh.