July 22, 2010
Dear Everyone:
I spent last weekend in
Park City, Utah, about a
half-hour drive from, but much higher than,
Salt Lake City.
I asked at the Front Desk of the hotel and was told the altitude
was anywhere from 6500 to 7000 feet above sea level, "depending on where
you are in town." This
explains why every now and again, I would take a deep breath as if to
"catch up" my blood oxygen level.
I was there for the annual
ARMA (Association of
Records Managers and Administrators)
Pacific Region Leadership
Conference. This is
different from the International Conference.
That is attended by all ARMA members and then some.
This one was for "leadership", meaning members of the Boards of
the local chapters. As
Secretary of the Mt Diablo Chapter, representing the San Francisco "East
Bay", I was entitled to attend.
The Chapter paid for the Registration, hotel room and part of the
shuttle cost from and back to the airport.
Aside from airfare, I got off pretty cheap.
For many years, each Chapter would bring "gifts"
for the boards of the other Chapters, something that evoked your local
Chapter. If you were part of
the Hawaii Chapter,
macadamia nuts were always popular.
The Sacramento Chapter would usually bring something to do with
almonds, since the central valley of
California is home to many such
orchards. Over time things got a little bit ridiculous, with measures to
"top" the previous year getting a tad out of hand.
So a couple of years ago, the people in charge "suggested" that
each Chapter bring one, "really nice" thing to be added to the raffle,
which is the main method of keeping people from wandering too far away
from the actual conference.
This year, our Chapter president suggested a gift
certificate to a local
winery, until we pointed out the inconvenience
this would cause to people outside of California.
Instead, we settled on a gift "credit" card.
One board member stated that she would look for a "San Francisco"
T-Shirt to go with the card.
I countered that we should have a "Mt Diablo" T-Shirt.
But where to find one?
That's when I started thinking.
I knew I had seen transfers of some kind at the local
Warehouse-Office-Supply-Store.
Sure enough, when I looked, they had a package of five "transfer
sheets" for around $15.00. A
nearby "discount department store" supplied T-Shirts.
Since the transfer sheet product recommended black, or other dark
colors, I got some black T-Shirts in the Men's department.
I used one of the ARMA International logos that
were supplied to us many years ago, added the "Chapter logo", a stylized
mountain thrown together by someone over a decade ago, and the letters
"Mt Diablo Chapter" in between.
Later, I dug up some pictures I had taken a year ago, in the
spring, of the actual Mt Diablo when it was all green under a lovely
blue sky, to use instead of the stylized one.
Altogether, it made a pretty display.
I printed it onto the first transfer sheet.
Due to my lack of careful perusal of the instructions, I
obliterated that try. Once I
realized that you have to peel away the backing before using a hot iron,
the second try went very well.
In fact, it looked so good, with blue and green against a white
background, that I decided to scrap the black shirts and go with a
lighter gray instead. This
constituted another trip to the "discount department store" to return
the unused shirts and buy all new gray shirts.
This time, I was able to get the sizes and neckline style that I
preferred. I also stopped at
the Warehouse-Office-Supply-Store for another package of transfer
sheets. I was delighted to
discover that the manufacturer had increased the number of sheets from
five to a package to six.
Meanwhile, back at the house, I ran all the shirts
through the washer and dryer.
By decreasing the size of the pictures and lettering, I was able
to print two transfers per sheet.
Each half-sheet made a nice display, white on gray.
And I had enough transfers to complete six shirts.
Since “only” five of us were attending the
conference, I was covered.
But there are two other members of the Board, so I had to make shirts
for them as well. Time to
open the new package of transfers.
Which is when I discovered that the manufacturer
had completely redone the product.
Instead of a white background, they now had a clear background.
They also no longer had the backing.
Instead, you ironed the image directly onto the shirt, then
peeled away the front. Which
meant the image had to be reversed so that it would be “right-side-up”
when transferred.
Nevertheless!
Two days before leaving for the conference, I had 10 shirts
ready. The board members at
the conference all decided they liked the white background shirts best
and didn’t even mind when we discovered that they weren’t all the same
size (evidently the “discount department store” had some labeling
issues.)
The shirts were a big hit at the conference (we all
elected to wear ours the first day.)
When I told our Regional Manager that we had three extras, she
immediately voiced the opinion that a Regional Manager should have one.
Translation: Two
shirts for the raffle.
On the second day of the conference, the Regional
Manager was wearing her shirt.
As for the raffle:
Wouldn’t you know one of our chapter members “won” one of our own
shirts? They put her number
back in the basket and called another.
That person was thrilled.
I washed mine this weekend after I got home.
The transfer is already starting to peel off, but no matter.
It served its purpose.
Tomorrow (Casual Friday) I’ll wear it to the office just once to
show my co-workers. After
that, it will become an after-bath-before-bed shirt.
Without mentioning the manufacturer’s name, they make extremely
comfortable T-Shirts.
Pete
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