I’m in an awful fix!
As an untenured librarian I was warned not to commit to too many committees. However while I was desperately trying to plan my CV strategically to fit into the cookie cutter categories required for the whole tenure process (professional knowledge, professional development/research and service) I realized that my CV was unbalanced. The problem: I was lacking much work in the area of “service” (i.e. committee work). I decided to join a committee that, truth be told, was not exactly thrilling to me personally. Fortunately once I joined that committee my interest was piqued. Nonetheless, I would not recommend joining a committee that you are not interested in out of sheer desperation. You most likely will regret your decision later (especially if it is a long-term committee). After I joined library committee number 1, another opportunity presented itself in the form of a campus-wide committee whose mandate was what I was really interested in and a committee in which I felt that I could contribute immensely to. The problem was that I was already part of library committee 1 and library committee 2. And to make things even more complicated, I was recently (reluctantly) recruited to work on a large project with a 1 month deadline! Unfortunately I had to pass up the chance to work on a committee that I sincerely wanted to be a part of. There’s a possibility that I can join this committee in the future, but it would have been great to join now. What can you do?! I have to learn to say “no”. Being on 3 committees is over-extending myself a bit, but in the end I think that my CV will be a bit more balanced.
