MY THOUGHTS

Sleeping – what is that???? My mind and body are on Eastern Standard Time and all the functions and activities are on Pacific Standard Time.  Which means that I have been eating at 7-9 PST and going to bed around 11 PST, but waking up at 4:30 – 5:30 A.M. EST.  This hasn’t caught up with me completely yet, but it will and when I crash it is going to be a hard one :).  Anyway enough whining.

Yesterdays opening session was great we got to listen to Martin J. Cowling, Susan Ellis, Linda Graff, Rick Lynch, Steve McCurley and Betty Stallings provide quick 5 minute “what’s on their minds” and responses back from each other.  We had something where we broke into 4 person support circles and had opportunities to discuss things at a much more personal level and help each other problem solve, the tough issues we are facing.  Bill, Kelly and Mark were the others in my group, we did learn a lot and helped.  Each one of presented to the others for 10 minutes, listened to feedback for 15 and then open discussion for another 5.

If I take nothing else from this conference, I will remember these people and how we opened up and helped each other with the burning issues we placed before each other.

In afternoon session I attended Linda Graff’s seminar on Risk Proofing.  I will be putting up a complete summary in another post when I find some time.  What I cam away the most from this session was  that Risk Management isn’t something that organizations can ignore, that it is easy or fun, but it is necessary and is usually full of common sense solutions.  I basically learned not to be scared of “risk management”.  Unfortunately, I had to leave the session 1/2 hour early to attend the State Commission meeting.

The State Commission meeting was interesting and they went over the Possibilities from the Kennedy Serve America Act.  A lot of information was discussed and the round table exercise produced many good ideas and even more questions.

After the State Commission session, we got to see Anne Schink, who retired from our office in January and is now working as a consultant, we went out to supper at the Mexican restaurant where I ate the night before (they all wanted Mexican and somewhere close to the hotel).  It was a nice evening out, we got back to the hotel about 9:30 PST. 

I know this, there isn’t going to be much “down time” at this conference I am basically booked from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. (at least) daily.  I am going to have to find some time somewhere in this schedule just to do some sightseeing, but I really don’t know where or when.  As you can see by the below agenda (even if it is a little blurry) I have something going on all the time.

There are a few times that I have been double-booked, but that is just the way it is.  Doing the best that I can.

I have been up since 4:30 A.M. PST, just can’t seem to go back to sleep…so I will go for a run down to the waterfront and take my camera with me this time :)