GC Road Trip Report!
Ok, another Roadtrip in the books. If you want to know how many roadtrips I've been on, too bad, wait for the autobiography, cause I doubt I can count that high.
Anyways, here the report. GC was in Monroeville, PA. Its near Pittsburgh. Thats like saying that being in Newark, NJ meant that you've been to NYC. No way. Its twenty miles at best to downtown Pitt, its forty miles to Pitt's airport. Thus, I did not see either of those two facilities. My car did, but thats a story best left for Fresh to tell.
However, the hotel/conference center itself is in the mall's parking lot! [All you shoppers shout Yay!] Overall, I'd give this GC a solid B. The hotel was functional, not fantastic or fabulous, but it did the job. Then again, we weren't there to party hearty either, we had work to do, and so we did it. Which is kind of why I'm a little just blase [Bla-zay?] about the whole weekend. Having the mall there, and all of its ancillary restaurants, fast food, all night food, etc., certainly helped, it certainly beat being in a shuttered up downtown [like Pitt itself is].
For example, do you know you feed a lot of people with $65 worth of McDonalds at 2AM?
But, being at the mall means you CAN get a table for 22 at the Olive Garden, no waiting...for dinner no less, and at 5PM.
"GC Work wise" went well.
Duff won the VP Chapter Development replacement election.
The PSP Foundation now has Official documents - Constitution & By-laws. It also has Members [I think 17 donors was the final list on Saturday]. From that list we elected seven Board of Directors to varying terms of 1, 2, or 3 years. Of those seven, four are officers of the Board. [If you want the complete list e-mail me]
Alumni Chapters were given the right to vote in elections. That was fun. That may be a seperate post altogether.
I have struck a great rapport with Gene Seevers. Long story short, three Alumni Chapters in the traditional back corner table of the Conference Room, who gets put at our table....Alpha Chapter's delegate/alternate. So Gene, and like four other Alpha peanuts sit behind us all weekend long. So Gene and I start conversing, he's asking me questions, my opinion on things, the recent historical background on things, etc., etc. I'm asking him about chapter meetings in the 50s and his fellow classmates from Alpha. It was really cool, we bonded.
In fact, he too will probably rate an entire seperate post at some point soon.
Anyways, the next three major PSP trips are pretty set I believe...
Convention....Atlanta, GA Nov 11-13
Alumni Con....San Juan, PR June '06
Grand Chap....Exact Date TBD - Either Kansas City or Warrenberg, MO [home of Alpha] itself. Gene apparently has expressed his desire to National Council & Staff to get an event close to home & Alpha so he can get a number of the octagenarian alumni out to see us in action. Which after this weekend, I must admit, I REALLY want to see and be a part of that!
Anyways, I'll post other thoughts later, still kinda recovering.
Cyas
Anyways, here the report. GC was in Monroeville, PA. Its near Pittsburgh. Thats like saying that being in Newark, NJ meant that you've been to NYC. No way. Its twenty miles at best to downtown Pitt, its forty miles to Pitt's airport. Thus, I did not see either of those two facilities. My car did, but thats a story best left for Fresh to tell.
However, the hotel/conference center itself is in the mall's parking lot! [All you shoppers shout Yay!] Overall, I'd give this GC a solid B. The hotel was functional, not fantastic or fabulous, but it did the job. Then again, we weren't there to party hearty either, we had work to do, and so we did it. Which is kind of why I'm a little just blase [Bla-zay?] about the whole weekend. Having the mall there, and all of its ancillary restaurants, fast food, all night food, etc., certainly helped, it certainly beat being in a shuttered up downtown [like Pitt itself is].
For example, do you know you feed a lot of people with $65 worth of McDonalds at 2AM?
But, being at the mall means you CAN get a table for 22 at the Olive Garden, no waiting...for dinner no less, and at 5PM.
"GC Work wise" went well.
Duff won the VP Chapter Development replacement election.
The PSP Foundation now has Official documents - Constitution & By-laws. It also has Members [I think 17 donors was the final list on Saturday]. From that list we elected seven Board of Directors to varying terms of 1, 2, or 3 years. Of those seven, four are officers of the Board. [If you want the complete list e-mail me]
Alumni Chapters were given the right to vote in elections. That was fun. That may be a seperate post altogether.
I have struck a great rapport with Gene Seevers. Long story short, three Alumni Chapters in the traditional back corner table of the Conference Room, who gets put at our table....Alpha Chapter's delegate/alternate. So Gene, and like four other Alpha peanuts sit behind us all weekend long. So Gene and I start conversing, he's asking me questions, my opinion on things, the recent historical background on things, etc., etc. I'm asking him about chapter meetings in the 50s and his fellow classmates from Alpha. It was really cool, we bonded.
In fact, he too will probably rate an entire seperate post at some point soon.
Anyways, the next three major PSP trips are pretty set I believe...
Convention....Atlanta, GA Nov 11-13
Alumni Con....San Juan, PR June '06
Grand Chap....Exact Date TBD - Either Kansas City or Warrenberg, MO [home of Alpha] itself. Gene apparently has expressed his desire to National Council & Staff to get an event close to home & Alpha so he can get a number of the octagenarian alumni out to see us in action. Which after this weekend, I must admit, I REALLY want to see and be a part of that!
Anyways, I'll post other thoughts later, still kinda recovering.
Cyas
posted by FINN @ 7:17 PM
3 Comments:
At 2:44 AM,
Anonymous said…
Dude, I am already hyping San Juan, as you may or may not have already seen. Oh, it's gonna be good times.
At 3:28 PM,
Anonymous said…
Much obliged for the report, Finn. I'm jealous of the time spent with Gene.
As for San Juan, I'm not so excited. First off, there's an added $100-or-so cost for everyone who now has to get a passport in order to go. Second, airfare to San Juan isn't cheap unless you're near a metropolis ($500 from Lexington to San Juan according to Orbitz). An all-inclusive would be nice for a group like ours, but the only all-inclusive I've seen in San Juan is too expensive for the service and facilities they provide ($250-$350 per person per night; and many negative reviews on tripadvisor.com for lack of staff and service).
I'm willing to keep an open mind, but I'd be interested to hear who came up with San Juan and some of the positives they listed.
Then again, Carrie and I are hoping to do an Alaskan cruise with our families next year, and probably couldn't afford both trips anyway, unless the choice was somewhere closer to home.
At 12:37 AM,
Anonymous said…
ted... it's gonna cost me the same (about $500) from SFO as it will you from Lexington, from the sound of it.
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