July 14, 2017
Dear Everyone:
Last week’s Regional Leadership Conference for
ARMA International, in
Seattle,
Washington,
went off very well. This is
the third year that they have combined the
Pacific Region (Arizona,
California,
Hawaii,
Nevada and
Utah) with the
Great Northwest Region
(Alaska,
Idaho,
Oregon and
Washington); and for once, there was enough room for everyone to fit
into the meeting. They
appear to be learning.
The actual meeting took place all day Friday, with a dinner to follow,
and Saturday. Since I am now
a Person of Leisure,
meaning I don’t have to work, I opted to fly up on Thursday and return
on Sunday. My cohort, and
Chapter Treasurer, “Kate”, took the 5:00 AM flight on Friday and jumped
out at 4:30 Saturday afternoon.
When I arrived at the hotel, conveniently located right “at” the
airport, there was only one person working the front desk.
She booked me into a room on the second floor of “Building Four”,
with a sort of map and hasty directions to take “the elevator to the
second floor, then Concourse One to Building Four”.
Or was it Concourse One to Building Four, then the elevator to
the second floor?
In any case, I trudged around, dragging my four-wheeled suitcase with
me, for a while, then made my way back to the main lobby.
This time I went to the
Concierge desk to
ask for more comprehensible directions.
The Concierge, bless her heart, said, “Building Four?
No, no. no. That’s
much too far away for you to walk.
Give me your room key, please.”
And she promptly rebooked me into a room on the third floor in
the main hotel. And directed
a hotel employee to guide me, and drag the suitcase, to the room.
I happily tipped him one of the folded $5 bills that I had put in
my pocket before setting out from the airport.
From that point, things went great.
A short trip up the hall, down the elevator, and just a hop and a skip
(figuratively speaking, of course) to the meeting room each day.
The Friday night dinner turned out to be across the street from
the hotel, although many signs indicated that it would be a really BAD
IDEA to just run across.
Instead the signs directed us to the end of the block, which also
happened to be the end of the hotel parking lot.
Which was when I discovered just how far away from the hotel
proper Building Four was.
(God bless that Concierge!!!)
During each Conference, they like to have some “Sharing Sessions”.
In the past, this has consisted of ordering everyone to abandon
the table they’re sitting at and go to another table to exchange ideas
with folks from other Chapters.
This time “Barry”, the newest President of the
Golden Gate (San Francisco)
Chapter suggested that we “mix things up” by having everyone count off
from one to five. Then each
of the five newly-minted Groups went to a different flip chart on the
wall to consider one of five topics, such as how to use technology in
your Chapter. Or how to drag
in more new Members. And so
on.
This worked much better than playing “musical chairs”, only because the
room was big enough to hold five separate sessions around flip charts on
the walls as well as a dozen large round tables.
Like I said: They’re
learning. After the
Conference, they emailed a link to a “dropbox” containing snapshots of
all four dozen flip charts filled out during the two days.
Lots of great ideas, most of which we’ve heard before, of course.
At one point, someone from the Silicon
Valley Chapter sought me out to say that they have been experiencing
the same problem that we’ve had at our
Mount Diablo (SF
East Bay) Chapter, which is a dearth of members attending the
monthly meetings. We
exchanged business cards and the hope that we might be able to somehow
“combine” meetings, or maybe the cost of better-appreciated Speakers.
We shall see.
The very best moment came when I realized that several members of
another chapter had found my old nemesis, “Clancy”, to be as much of a
pain-in-the-ass as I have.
It’s always nice to learn that you’re not the only one.
And then it was back to Seattle Airport, back to SFO, and back to Home
Sweet Home. The best part of
any trip.
Love, as always,
Pete
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