Our ranks both grew and shrank since last year's May meetup at Bodega Bay, backdrop for Hitchcock's The Birds.
I stayed with other media savvy males in the Appian Way place, this time closer to Mother Ship. The CEO handed me a key to a rental Impala, picked up and returned to SFO, which is where most of our party flew in.
Patrick and I took Alaska Air directly to STS, only minutes away from the gathering point. Georgia picked us up in their Turkish-made commuter van, a Ford.
The president and operations manager, our founding couple, figured they'd completed the visionary part and demonstrated an ability to pass the torch in a way that did not delay or retard our progress along the timeline, in itself a feat of administrative smoothness.
In the slide show above, you will see us gathering by day to perform our jobs in a shared workspace at the Mother Ship. There's also a regional HQS in Champaign, Illinois which I showcase elsewhere. By night, we gathered more informally at one of the rental houses or local eatery to catch up.
Finally, after a day of inspection by an outside accrediting group, we went to Show & Tell (a company tradition) and learned a lot more about one another that way. Two shared about the process of giving birth. Others shared about life-changing travels / adventures.
We still have more steps along the timeline but are so far still on track and on schedule.
Admin was beefed up after the top level turnover, plus the Mentors added to their pool. This was my first opportunity to meet some of them. Finding out who one's peers are is an important step towards discovering one's organizational identity, I think most managers would agree.
