Convention – All Done……

Well, finally made it home! While waiting for the flight to Grand Junction, they wanted someone to bump for a travel voucher. Now, for a moment I considered asking if they flew to San Diego and if so, if they gave me a round-trip voucher, I would so go for it. I want to attend a Jack Canfield/Jim Bunch workshop. However, I wanted to get home, too.

BTW – on the flight home, some man who obviously thought he was too good for rules, turned on his cell phone to alert someone he was arriving. Sigh -

I will be putting together notes from convention and posting here, as well as the delegates report that will be sent to everyone.

Don’t You Just Love Flying!

Not so much at this moment! Our flight to DFW was cancelled yesterday and so, as a result, we had to rebook. We had to go get our luggage and then haul to an AA ticket counter.

Now, I do have to say that AA’s messaging service was great until everyone’s cell phone started going off and no one could hear what they were being told.

A couple of people were sent by taxi to Baton Rouge where they caught flights to Denver to spend the night – Mary’s husband drove up from Colorado Springs to get her. There were no more seats on that plane, so I got to stay in New Orleans for one more night at AA’s expense.

We stayed at the Hilton Airport and it was so nice! The Hilton shuttle driver pulled out a water bottle for each of us – I was hoping for something stronger! After I checked in, I grabbed a book and headed for the sports bar. It was a very nice atmosphere and I read while eating and resting from the day. I talked to my son and he actually put it in great perspective! He said, “How often will you get to drink a glass of wine and read a book in a sports bar in New Orleans?”

I am at the airport now waiting to board the plane at 8:05 and get home at 12:30 or so.

The side note? I had to report for jury duty this morning! So, hopefully my husband or mom (she knows the Jury clerk) is taking care of that so there is no arrest warrant out for me when I get home!

All in all, it was an interesting convention. The IAAP members are a wonderful group of individuals and it was terrific to meet more and network with the ones that I already knew. I stayed with Dianne Seeks of the Huntsville Chapter and she and her peeps were absolutely the best!

Our CWM Division had some adventures riding the trolley car, shopping on the Riverwalk, going to the aquarium, and more.

Minnesota next year? I think I am going to wait to get over this flying experience first!

On the way home!

We are finally on the way home! We are in the MSA Airport in New Orleans waiting for our flight, which leaves at 3:20. Great thing about that flight is that it should be designated the official IAAP flight as we have numerous IAAP members on it.

The banquet was last night and it was an honor to receive the Outstanding Division President award for Membership. This honor belongs to the entire CWM Division – YOU DID A GREAT JOB!

This morning was the Leadership Workshop with Dr. Cal LeMon, who has great information on his site and his newsletter, LeMonaide. He was inspiring and gave us lots of great ideas for “Moving the Furniture” within our chapters and divisions.

The Member of Excellence was rolled out this morning and I will be sending everyone the information about this program.

Here is to a really great year with you!

Tuesday – Day of Election Results

Well, we sat with abated breath to see who won the elections yesterday. We had two votes – the second was for Secretary and our own NW District Director, Teresa Bennett CPS was in the final cut!

Here are your new International Officers:
International President – Barbara Horton, CAP

International President Elect – Susan Shamali CPS/CAP

International Vice President – Mary Ramsay-Drow CPS/CAP

International Secretary – Janine Riemersma CPS/CAP

International Treasurer – Karlena Rannals CPS/CAP

2008-2009 IAAP International Officers

in addition, a motion was passed to permit all chapters to have access to online registration.

I am off to have pizza with the CWM Division attendees and then to volunteer at the Evening of Welcome.

More to come!

Second Business Day

Today we voted on the Amendments to the Bylaws and Standing Rules. Bylaws Amendment 2 and Standing Rule Amendment 1 failed to pass. Bylaws Amendment #3 was amended and passed.

We got out an hour early and Margaret, Chris and I went to lunch. We have voting at 2:00 this afternoon and I look to see at least two vote sessions.

I have uploaded photos to Flickr but have not figured out how to get a link here yet. More to come!!!

Sunday Business Session

Wow! What a great business session!

We had several nominations from the floor for International Officers. One of them is Nancy Upchurch CPS/CAP who is running for International President Elect! How cool is that!

The meeting, of course, ran over time due to the candidates nominating speeches, and we ran almost right into the District Caucus.

The District Caucus had lots of attendees. After introductions, International President Judy McCoy CPS/CAP arrived and the group sang “Hey Jude” to her. She is known as Jude, so Teresa thought it would be a great welcome.

We got a small talk and a question was asked of Don B. about the proposed Bylaws. They were also asked if they normally brought a lawyer/counsel to the meetings. The answer was no.

RTF awards were made to the Division Winners. The RTF raised more than $71,000 last year!

The Evening of Welcome is at 8:00, but the CWM Division is going to dinner at Crazy Lobster. Mary’s favorite place.

Pictures to be uploaded!

Friday Night in New Orleans

Haunted House's Balcony

I met up with members from the IA-NE Division and Mary and Carol from the Pikes Peak Chapter. We went on the Haunted History walking tour. Well, 1 hour into it, the smart one bailed, caught a taxi and came back to the hotel to network. That would be Mary, Carol and I.

Here are a couple of pictures, though, from the tour.

This is our Tour Guide Meridian

Before we went, we visited the Hospitality Suite. This is a great place to catch up with people and buy things! The last 50/50 (on Saturday) had more than $600!

Hospitality Suite

NOLA – Here come the Admins!

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I leave for New Orleans for the IAAP convention.

This is an exciting time to be a administrative professional. Technology is changing and we need to change to keep up-to-date. This is an excellent forum to network, share, and learn exactly how to do that.

The thing I would like to impart is that we need to take charge of our career. We cannot be a hamster running on a wheel, trying to meet the needs of everyone. We cannot possibly know everything, let alone do everything.

“What those organizations ought to be doing is helping admins define for themselves who they want to be. They should be helping admins take control of their own profession, and tell the organizations what they’ll do and not do.” These are words from Stacy Brice, Founder of AssistU.

I strongly agree. And now is a perfect time to meet and greet, and start a small revolution.

Blog Away

I am so thrilled! At least two other Divisions in the Northwest District have started blogs for the convention and hopefully, for longer!

Aaron, IAAP-HQ, called me today and said that blog features should be available to those Chapters and Divisions belonging to the web community by mid-September.

As for me – I have downloaded some audiobooks to my MP3 player for the trip to New Orleans. These are some books that I want to read, but I think having them on my player will get them ‘read.’ They are The 10-Minute Stress Manager, The E-Myth Revisited, and 101 Ways to Transform Your Life.

These should help with my virtual assistance business and Division President duties for the year.

Now, if packing were only simple……..

New Orleans – Making a schedule

Wow!

I am getting my schedule together for the convention. Phew! Trying to fit in volunteering, workshops, networking, and a ghost tour! I just sent out the first GPS Tracking ezine to the CWM Division members for the 2008-2009 year.

I am so excited about this convention this year! The Cutting Edge Chapter is a newly chartered virtual chapter and several IAAP members would like to meet while we are there and share tips and ideas. How exciting is this!

Also, another Division blog is linked to this one and the NW District has another Division blogging! That link has been added to our Blog Roll.  Here is Jodi’s note to her Chapter Presidents:

“For those of you unable to join us at this year’s International Convention & Education Forum, I am working to set up a Blog so that you can keep up with what’s happening in New Orleans.  I hope to have the link out to you before Wednesday, the 23rd if I am successful.  Welcome to new technology – let’s hope I can manage it since I’m diving in head first!!

I’ll be writing on the blog each evening so you can stay current with the voting results and happenings at Convention (and secretly, I’m hoping it will convince you to join us at future Conventions – there is no experience quite like it).

Have a great week!

Jodi L. Ross CPS/CAP

IA-NE Division President”

I love it when a plan comes together!