Adjourning

As I was thinking about the last stage of groups I realized that I have rarely gone through all the stages of team development.  There have not been many times that I have experienced adjourning.  The time that comes to mind for me was when I completed my term as President for the Early Childhood Association of Oklahoma and I was leaving the board.  The hardest part of saying good bye was not working with the people that I became close friends with during my time on the board.  Everyone always says they will stay in touch, but the reality is that people get busy and they loose touch.  I am currently the Past-President of the National Registry Alliance and my term will end at the end of September.  I am really struggling with this adjourning because I have been on the board since the organization was founded and have put a lot of energy into this organization so it will be difficult not to be an active part of this board.  I have deep connections with the mission, vision and goals of the organization so saying good bye is going to be difficult for me.  Additionally, I have made life long friends across the United States being a part of this group.  Last year at the annual conference I was able to make my closing remarks as President and they gave me a parting gift so I was able to have some closure. 

The next part of the question about how to say good bye to my colleagues I have formed while working on my master's degree.  It is going to be different because there are some people that I have had in all my classes up to this point in time.  I know that we are saying good bye in the class because we will be separating out into our different specialities so that is going to be different.  There are some classmates that I know will always comment on my posts and we have been there for each other through all of the classes.

I think adjourning is a critical part of the teamwork and I am sad that I have not had many situations to be on teams that successfully moved through all the stages of development.