Pebble Hill’s council for 2026-2027 has devised a new way to divide responsibility and forestall burnout: make more presidents and vice presidents. Here’s how it works: there are six elected council members and every three months a new “co-presidency” team will pick up the burden. The problem, well-known among those who’ve served on council, is that the president winds up doing way too much of the work. That leads to too much stress. Eventually, council presidents have been known to just walk out the door never to return.
The council is facing an exceptionally stressful time. We named Jim McGowan as the new treasurer at this month’s meeting. A former Pebble council president and treasurer, he came out of retirement to be our miracle man. But there are lots of odds and ends that need attention in an ongoing organization, like who answers the phone? Who orders the water for the water dispensers and on and on, from snow-plowing contracts to plumbing. The co-presidency idea is just an experiment to see if we can spread the sharing and make it easier all around. (Incidentally, Barbara Weikamp has taken responsibility for coordinating with Little Branches, our daycare center, aided in a big way by David DiPasquale, who is our new buildings and grounds maintenance manager.)
The co-presidency teams are Larry Hall, president, and Pam Johnson, vice-president, from now till the end of December; JoAnne Wolke, president, and Barbara Atkinson, vice president, January through end of March. After that, we will evaluate and see what happens. Larry was appointed to council after Barbara Weikamp resigned to catch her breath.
And many thanks to Alan Dench for his many years of service to Pebble as our treasurer! Alan kept Pebble going with his many talents and skills!
In loving community,
Larry Hall
