May 8, 2015
Dear Everyone:
Happy
Mother’s Day to all you Mothers out there.
Many decades ago, I was working with a woman who had grown sons about my
age. She laughingly told me
about the time one of her son’s friends presented his Mother, on
Mother’s Day, with a Sympathy Card.
Years later I found out that it had less to do with irony and
more to do with timing.
It seems the friend forgot all about Mother’s Day until late the
Saturday before, when all the stores were already closed.
The only thing he could find open at that hour was a
bowling
alley. And the only greeting
card in the bowling alley’s “gift shop” that came close was a sympathy
card. Kind of makes you
wonder about the people who ran the bowling alley.
And the people who frequented it.
Once upon a time, I was into cake decorating.
It actually is a kind of art form, however transitory.
Like the saying goes, “You can have your cake or eat it, but you
can’t do both.” Once someone
cuts into the cake, the artistry is gone.
But the cake still tastes good.
I was in a department store whose housewares section boasted an
impressive selection of cake decorating equipment.
Like any other form of art, cake decorating has its own
specialized technology. Did
you think those delicate rose petals made of frosting just grew there?
I was vaguely aware of other people in the housewares section, but
didn’t pay much attention to them until I overheard someone say, “Do you
think Mom would like this?”
That’s when I looked up and realized that, apart from myself and the
sales person, all the people in the housewares department were men.
It was the day before Mother’s Day and these people were
frantically searching for gifts.
Any gift. Beats a
Sympathy Card, I guess.
In the meantime, the fiscal year for ARMA (Association of Records
Managers and Administrators) is winding down.
The election of the new Chapter Board will take place in the next
few weeks. The last Chapter
Meeting for the current Board will be this month.
In June the newly-elected Board will be sworn in.
I am the President of the current Board.
I was the elected Vice President until the President suddenly
moved to Idaho, when I became the President.
That was about a year ago, so I’ve been President for one year.
I expect to be President again for the next two-year term, since
no one else is leaping at the opportunity.
Many years ago it was the “tradition” for the out-going President to
bestow gifts of appreciation upon the members of the out-going Board.
Never mind if they were also the in-coming Board.
Gifts were presented.
Over time this “tradition” has fallen by the wayside, either because the
out-going President didn’t feel up to the task, or forgot about it, or
never knew about it in the first place.
In any case, as the out-going President, I decided to bestow gifts upon
my Board members. But what
to give them? I remember one
Chapter President who gave his Board small, but fully-functioning,
gumball machines, complete with the Chapter Logo on them.
So I looked up gumball machines, and quickly determined that they
were too expensive, especially if the minimum charge was over $50.
I tried a few other possibilities, thanks to the searching capabilities
of Google. But most things
were impractical, expensive, or required a minimum order of several
dozen at least. Then I
remembered a place at the
mall that specializes in items that you can
have personalized.
This is where you go when you want to give The New Grandchild the
traditional “silver spoon”, with the birth date and other pertinent
information engraved on it.
Or knickknacks for the Bridal Party.
I had already printed various selections of the official ARMA logo on a
sheet of paper. The
saleswoman told me it would take about a week to send it to the “home
office” to have it entered into their computer system.
After that, it was just a matter of choosing the right object to
engrave, with the appropriate sentiment and the names of the individual
Board members.
I settled on a small metal-and-wood plaque, about the size of a 5X7
picture frame, at an affordable price.
It’s the sort of thing you can hang on the office or cubicle
wall, or use as a paper weight, should the need arise.
It’s also something you can show your boss as an indication that
SOMEBODY appreciates all your efforts.
I had originally planned to go back to the store to place the actual
orders this afternoon. Then
I remembered about the Sunday being Mother’s Day.
The store could be deserted.
Or it could be knee-deep in persons who suddenly decided that
monogramed stemware is just what Mother always wanted and can you have
it finished by tomorrow?
Since my Appreciation Gifts don’t need to be ready for at least another
week, I think I’ll wait until Monday.
In the meantime, I can price helium “Thank You!!!” balloons.
Love, as always,
Pete
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