That was the biggest change moving to Seattle--my East-Coast aggressiveness (which was kind of hard core) was SOOO not how these people roll.
Hahahahah! I am still thought of as too aggressive and critical in meetings. In fact, they had a meeting where two of my employers (the district and the university partner I work for) talked about how I am scary critical (in the context of small professional learning community groups called critical friends). Umm? Wha? If you knew what was I actually thinking versus what I said, sure, but I edited 98% of that!
In other news, I think my department will only have 3 people who are returning and the rest are newbies. We've had PD attended by the three of us and basically we are formenting a revolution. Each day we meet and decide stuff then I type up minutes and send them to the rest of the department, including those who I know are leaving. Then I invite in a completely genuine way everyone to attend the next meeting. Lather rinse repeat. AND we are doing an entire overhaul with a performance assignment at midterm, common grading, a writing handbook and a complete overhaul of the portfolio process.
Why yes. This is what happens when you don't go to meetings. If you cared you'd show up.