Love, As Always, Pete

The Weekly Letters, by A. Pedersen Wood

July 1, 2004

Dear Everyone:

I spent the latter part of last week at the ARMA Pacific Regional Leadership Conference.  (I’m sure you all remember that ARMA stands for Association of Records Managers and Administrators.)  Each year a chapter in the Pacific Region hosts the Leadership Conference for members of the boards of the chapters in the Region.  Members of the International Board also come to give pointers on how to be a better chapter leader.

This year the host chapter was the Silicon Valley.  Since that made it within driving distance, three of us on the board of the Mt. Diablo chapter elected (no pun intended) to attend on the chapter’s dime.  (There was also a discount if three or more board members attended together.)

Each chapter was to give a presentation on what their chapter was like (location, number of members, demographics) and what they had done this year (accolades and accomplishments).  Our chapter secretary compiled some statistics, based on several years’ worth of information that I was able to provide.  After our last monthly meeting, three of us stayed late and put together the presentation.

One reason we decided to go to the Leadership Conference was to find out how we might revitalize the Mt Diablo chapter, which has had fewer and fewer attendees at our monthly meetings.  As we watched and listened to the other chapter leaders talk about their groups, we became aware of at least one reason.

They routinely pay accomplished and knowledgeable speakers to come to their monthly meetings.  (We’ve been doing strictly home-grown presentations, mostly by the board members.)  They have themes.  (We have no clue.)  They have committees.  (We can’t even fill all the board positions.)  Some of them even have chapter logos on their shirts.  (We have baseball caps.)

We quickly came to the conclusion that, as a chapter, we have been:

A)    Treading water

B)    Drifting

C)    Floundering

or

D)    All of the above

By the end of the 2-½ day Conference, we had decided that we really need to get on the stick if the Mt Diablo chapter is to survive.  To that end, this Saturday, at least the three of us (plus the other two board members, if they wish to) will get together and draft a survey to be sent out to all chapter members.  We need to find out what the members want from their board.  And we need to get more people involved in chapter business.  (I have a plan for part of that, involving a co-worker who recently joined the chapter.)

Depending on what we get back from the members, we’ll come up with some kind of theme and a full program for the 2004-2005 year.  We already have a tentative commitment from a past International Board President to be our first speaker.  The one piece of good news:  Compared to most other chapters, we have lots of money in the treasury.  Possibly because we’ve almost never paid anyone to speak at our meetings.

We also did learn that other chapters are also having many of the same problems we’re seeing.  The difference is that they’ve been trying to do something about it.  This year, so will we.

In other news…

The conference ended Saturday at noon.  On Sunday, “Jeannie” and I went to see The Terminal.  This is the latest Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg collaboration.  It is, however, much more light-hearted than Saving Private Ryan.  Hanks plays Viktor, a citizen of some obscure country left over after the fall of the USSR.  On a personal mission, he comes to New York City.

At the airport, a problem arises.  There has been an uprising in his tiny country and suddenly, the government that issued his passport no longer exists.  Hanks is especially effective in a scene where he sees, on cable news, film of his capital in flames, but there’s no sound, and he can’t read the English ticker across the bottom of the screen.  He knows something is terribly wrong, but he can’t find out what.

Stanley Tucci plays the airport’s head of security, Frank Dixon.  He lives for and by rules.  The rules say Viktor can’t enter the United States without a valid passport and visa.  But Viktor has nowhere else to go.  This is a gimmick, but it allows the movie to follow as Viktor and Frank enter into a battle of wills.

Viktor is intelligent and inventive.  Frank is pedantic and considers Viktor a fish out of water.  The security staff aren’t allowed to interfere, but they watch Viktor from above in their glass-enclosed office.  As he figures out how to learn English, where to sleep and how to take care of himself, they follow his progress.  When he learns a way to earn money, they are as proud as any mother watching her toddler take his first steps.

Frank, on the other hand, tries to foil Viktor for having the audacity to take on the situation and make it better.  Catherine Zeta-Jones is along for the ride, as a flight attendant and possible romantic interest for Viktor.  It’s all very charming and pleasant.  Try it.  You’ll like it.

Love, as always,

 

Pete

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