Org dynamics

Finally got sort of connected to the local Democrats when a local person at the university invited me to a meeting and suggested I put my name on the ballot for an office in the local group. I was flattered to be asked (though she wanted me to run for Chair, even though I've never been to a meeting, which gave me flashbacks to the shit that happened with the Syracuse Temple Sisterhood). Long story short, although I was on the ballot, I was not elected - the person who invited me said the ballot had been rearranged and I had been moved to another position or something. Honestly, I don't know and I don't even care - I'm not really looking for a bunch of work to do. But it feels like this happens a lot here - I get asked to get involved and then I get sort of elbowed aside. 

At the first meeting I went to, I had a long chat with the student who is trying to get the UND College Dems group going and I thought we came up with a bunch of great ideas. Long story short, I volunteered to be their staff advisor for the year. Fast forward to the first meeting and, yet again, I felt elbowed out (I was talked over and cut off when I was speaking, and just generally treated like an interloper, though I was invited to get involved). Again, I'm not looking for shit to do. If they just want my name on the org paperwork, that's fine with me. I thought I was being helpful and I thought they wanted my help.

After that first meeting, I was told I didn't need to come to the meetings, which is fine with me. I don't hear anything for many weeks. In the meantime, I attend the monthly adult Dem meetings and the woman who was elected (not instead of me exactly, but still, she holds an office, I do not) is never there. I bump into one of the other UND folks at a Dem event a couple months later, who casually tells me the college group asked him to be their advisor. So they just ditched me without a word - the president of the group just replaces me with this person without the courtesy of a word to me, and this person (we had discussed me being the advisor over the summer) accepts being the advior, also without a word to me, like I don't exist, like I don't have feelings. WOW.