Monday, May 08, 2006
Seattle--the Emerald City
We stopped off at Ross and Richard’s, unpacked our suitcases, washed two loads of clothes, repacked, caught a few hours of sleep, and then Ross drove us downtown to catch the light rail—so we’re off again….
This time we’re off to Seattle for the Phi Theta Kappa International Convention. Which means we went across three time zones and from one corner of the country to the other--from Tampa to Seattle. The staff arrives on Monday. Tuesday is unloading the truck and setting up the office. Wednesday is a Chapter Officer Academy, Regional Officer Academy, and an Advisor pre-conference. Thursday has several educational forums and the first General Session is on Thursday evening. The Convention ends with a Gala Banquet and Hallmark Awards on Saturday evening.
I’ve been to quite a few Conventions as an advisor and Regional Coordinator, and last year I was Sr. Coordinator and consultant, but this is the first time I was a full-time employee. I had several events that I was responsible for and also I presented three different break-out sessions. I helped organized the Advisor Pre-Conference. I helped organize the 45 educational forums. And I was responsible for the ACA Luncheon. Plus I was note-taker at a focus group. So it was a busy time.
Bob helped with most of the things I was responsible for, as well as doing room checks and helping with the International Officer election. I don’t know if it was because he was there—so I slept better, or that there were no students with me that I had to worry about, but I wasn’t nearly as exhausted as I normally am after an Int’l Convention.
I think I mentioned that we've been walking up steps. We were on the 10th floor of the hotel in Tampa and we took the steps almost every time we went to and from our room. When we were checking in to the Sheridan in Seattle, the lady said “you are on the 25th floor’. We looked at each other and thought, “I don’t think we will be doing steps here”. Although we did go up 10 flights—back down 15 flights—and back up five flights—so we did 225 steps two different times.
Monday when we arrived, Bob and I walked down to the Pike Place Market. Along the street there were cherry trees that were just covered with blossoms—mmm beautiful and fragrant! The Market always has so many beautiful flowers for sale there—this time of year it was lots of tulips—all different colors. Also Pike Fish Market is the place where they throw the fish and have developed a leadership series called FISH. The premise is that even dirty, smelling work like at a fish market can be rewarding, if you make it fun and interesting. It’s really fun to watch. We sat in the park along the harbor for a while, watching the boats come and go.
Tuesday was mostly standing around waiting for the truck to get up the ramp—I guess it had transmission problems. And we couldn’t unload the truck or move stuff to the right area—union people had to do that—we could only point and say “that goes there”. And I didn’t really know what went where—so I wasn’t a whole lot of help. That evening, I took the ACA Officers out to Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory for our bimonthly meeting. We had a fantastic meal—halibut and then the four of us split two wonderful pieces of cheesecake—a chocolate fudge swirl and multi-berry—yummy!
Wednesday was our pre-conference stuff and it went really well. I love it when people come to my session and say their friends told them they had to attend it because it was the best! Makes my head swell—just a little. I’ll see what the evaluations have to say!
The Convention was phenomenonal—Madeline Albright gave the best talk and then answered questions. She is so bright and funny also and really appealed to college students—and everyone! But for us it was seven days of nonstop running. Several days I would get to the convention center at 7 am and not step outside until midnight.
I love convention—I get to see so many of the great friends I have from all over the country--and spend time with my colleagues from work who I never see, since I work from home. People are winning awards and are so excited! I probably averaged getting 50 hugs a day. I was fortunate to be able to present awards to some of the long-time advisors—some of whom are good friends!
And the highlight of the evening was one of my favorite students from our region was elected as Division III VP. Preston Schmidt is a wonderful, talented fiddle player and just as cute as can be. Last year at convention, I said “Maybe you should run for Int’l Office” and he said "I just might think about it!" And now here he is—how exciting! I’m hoping I’ll be assigned to attend some events with him.
It’s so exciting to be seated with a region—and I still have so many ties to Minn-Wi-Kota, that I love celebrating with them—several staff members were watching on the web-cast, but I think you experience it so much more when you’re right in with the crowd.
So now I’m caught up with my travels for just a few hours, because at 7 pm tonight—Bob, Ross, Richard and I LEAVE FOR ITALY!! There will be lots to write when I get back….
This time we’re off to Seattle for the Phi Theta Kappa International Convention. Which means we went across three time zones and from one corner of the country to the other--from Tampa to Seattle. The staff arrives on Monday. Tuesday is unloading the truck and setting up the office. Wednesday is a Chapter Officer Academy, Regional Officer Academy, and an Advisor pre-conference. Thursday has several educational forums and the first General Session is on Thursday evening. The Convention ends with a Gala Banquet and Hallmark Awards on Saturday evening.
I’ve been to quite a few Conventions as an advisor and Regional Coordinator, and last year I was Sr. Coordinator and consultant, but this is the first time I was a full-time employee. I had several events that I was responsible for and also I presented three different break-out sessions. I helped organized the Advisor Pre-Conference. I helped organize the 45 educational forums. And I was responsible for the ACA Luncheon. Plus I was note-taker at a focus group. So it was a busy time.
Bob helped with most of the things I was responsible for, as well as doing room checks and helping with the International Officer election. I don’t know if it was because he was there—so I slept better, or that there were no students with me that I had to worry about, but I wasn’t nearly as exhausted as I normally am after an Int’l Convention.
I think I mentioned that we've been walking up steps. We were on the 10th floor of the hotel in Tampa and we took the steps almost every time we went to and from our room. When we were checking in to the Sheridan in Seattle, the lady said “you are on the 25th floor’. We looked at each other and thought, “I don’t think we will be doing steps here”. Although we did go up 10 flights—back down 15 flights—and back up five flights—so we did 225 steps two different times.
Monday when we arrived, Bob and I walked down to the Pike Place Market. Along the street there were cherry trees that were just covered with blossoms—mmm beautiful and fragrant! The Market always has so many beautiful flowers for sale there—this time of year it was lots of tulips—all different colors. Also Pike Fish Market is the place where they throw the fish and have developed a leadership series called FISH. The premise is that even dirty, smelling work like at a fish market can be rewarding, if you make it fun and interesting. It’s really fun to watch. We sat in the park along the harbor for a while, watching the boats come and go.
Tuesday was mostly standing around waiting for the truck to get up the ramp—I guess it had transmission problems. And we couldn’t unload the truck or move stuff to the right area—union people had to do that—we could only point and say “that goes there”. And I didn’t really know what went where—so I wasn’t a whole lot of help. That evening, I took the ACA Officers out to Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory for our bimonthly meeting. We had a fantastic meal—halibut and then the four of us split two wonderful pieces of cheesecake—a chocolate fudge swirl and multi-berry—yummy!
Wednesday was our pre-conference stuff and it went really well. I love it when people come to my session and say their friends told them they had to attend it because it was the best! Makes my head swell—just a little. I’ll see what the evaluations have to say!
The Convention was phenomenonal—Madeline Albright gave the best talk and then answered questions. She is so bright and funny also and really appealed to college students—and everyone! But for us it was seven days of nonstop running. Several days I would get to the convention center at 7 am and not step outside until midnight.
I love convention—I get to see so many of the great friends I have from all over the country--and spend time with my colleagues from work who I never see, since I work from home. People are winning awards and are so excited! I probably averaged getting 50 hugs a day. I was fortunate to be able to present awards to some of the long-time advisors—some of whom are good friends!
And the highlight of the evening was one of my favorite students from our region was elected as Division III VP. Preston Schmidt is a wonderful, talented fiddle player and just as cute as can be. Last year at convention, I said “Maybe you should run for Int’l Office” and he said "I just might think about it!" And now here he is—how exciting! I’m hoping I’ll be assigned to attend some events with him.
It’s so exciting to be seated with a region—and I still have so many ties to Minn-Wi-Kota, that I love celebrating with them—several staff members were watching on the web-cast, but I think you experience it so much more when you’re right in with the crowd.
So now I’m caught up with my travels for just a few hours, because at 7 pm tonight—Bob, Ross, Richard and I LEAVE FOR ITALY!! There will be lots to write when I get back….
# posted by bjm @ 6:53 AM 
