July 3, 2015
Dear Everyone:
Last week was the last ARMA* meeting for the year.
This is because “the year” runs from July through June, for
reasons I’ve really never known nor cared about.
That’s the way ARMA International runs it.
Rest assured, this is not the last time you will be hearing about ARMA.
I am still the President of the local,
“Mount Diablo” Chapter,
so-called because it is the “East Bay” Chapter.
(Face it, “East Bay” might not mean much to the people in
Delaware, while “Mount Diablo” is an established geographic entity.)
In fact, this will be the first year that I will be the
duly-elected President, having “inherited” the position when our
previous President scampered off to
Idaho with her husband and multiple
husky sled dogs.
As for being elected, suffice to say that no one else wanted the job.
And I have too well developed a sense of responsibility (Thanks,
Mom!) to just walk away from it.
Besides, I’m “retired”; so it’s not as though I have anything
else to do with my time.
(That’s a joke.)
So sometime in August, I will attempt to bring the “new” Board together
for a “planning meeting” in which we will try our collective darndest to
come up with a “plan” for the new “year”.
But first, there’s the Regional Leadership Conference.
It’s called “Regional” because it involves all the Chapters in the
Pacific Region. That’s
Arizona,
California,
Hawaii,
Nevada, and
Utah.
And it’s called “Leadership” because each Chapter’s leaders, i.e.
Board Members, attend, although I don’t think there’s any specific rule
that says anyone else can NOT attend.
This year, however, ARMA International has decided to make a little
change. Instead of being the
just Pacific Region, they have combined it with the Pacific Northwest
Region to make it the Western Region Leadership Conference.
And they’re holding it in
Portland, Oregon.
Now, when I heard that I thought, “Fabulous!
I grew up in the Portland area.
And I still have family and friends there.
Maybe I can combine a little pleasure with business on this
trip.”
In fact, the first day of the Conference takes place on July 24th,
which just happens to be the day after our brother, “Richard’s”,
birthday. If I went up a day
earlier, maybe we could celebrate “Richard’s”, birthday together.
Only it turns out “Richard” will be away on business of his own.
Nevertheless, I decided to drive up to Portland instead of flying, so I
will have a car and can make additional plans.
Normally it takes about 12 hours to drive from the
San Francisco
Bay Area to Portland, depending on just where you actually start out
from. There was a time when
such a drive would hardly faze me in the slightest.
Those days are past. Instead
I decided to leave on Wednesday, the 22nd, and drive halfway
up to the town of
Grants Pass, a few miles north of the
California-Oregon border. I
made a reservation with a hotel there.
On Thursday, the 23rd, it would be a mere five-six
hours to Portland. And
there’s already an “informal get-together” planned for Thursday evening.
The Conference will take place all day Friday, the 24th and
most of Saturday, the 25th.
I plan to meet a friend for dinner-and-catch-up on Saturday.
Then I hope to hook up with some relatives on Sunday before
heading south again, staying at the same hotel in Grants Pass.
After that, it will be a fairly easy trip back home on Monday.
Having made all these plans and arrangements, I also called the
University Place Hotel in Portland.
This is where the Conference will be taking place.
However. The hotel,
which is owned and operated by
Portland State University, was fully
booked on Friday, the 24th.
No rooms available.
Oops.
Shortly after discovering this, I got a rather frantic email from the
Regional Coordinator, the guy in charge of the Western Region Leadership
Conference, informing us all that there was no room at the inn and stay
tuned for further developments.
Meanwhile, didn’t our brother, “Richard”, who has a furnished apartment
in Lake Oswego, say he was going to be out of town that weekend?
Maybe I could stay at his place.
It would mean driving into Portland each morning, but it would be
better than paying $300-$400 per night for one of the other “nearby”
hotels. I contacted
“Richard” via email and received a reply that it was only a matter of
notifying his cleaning service and making some arrangement to send me a
key.
Having settled that, I got another email from the Regional Coordinator
that a block of rooms at the University Place Hotel had just been
released by some other group.
I called the hotel so quickly that the person at Registrations
hadn’t heard about the released block and switched me to their sales
rep. And that’s how I got
one of the newly-available rooms and won’t have to brave the morning
commute on Interstate 5 into Portland each day.
And “Richard” is off the hook.
As for the rest of the Board Members?
One by one, they have all had to back out of the Conference.
The newly-elected Vice President was informed that her boss
needed her to make a terribly-important presentation that Friday.
The Treasurer suddenly found out her niece is getting married
that Sunday.
So it will just be me representing the Mount Diablo Chapter.
On the Plus Side, no one else has to fight for a room at the
University Place Hotel.
Everyone have a Safe and Happy
Fourth of July (aka Independence Day)!
Love, as always,
Pete
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