Started the day with a long walk, then off to Top Pot doughnuts for coffee with Don Gabor, Jack Corbett, and Tim Mitchell. Greg Larsen stopped in for a while too. Fun to sit and talk with Don, he of course doesn’t know anything about our world, so it’s interesting to hear the questions as he tries to understand the someone complex world of technology, community, relationships that we live in, and to hear how that matches or not other groups he works with.

Then back to the hotel to check email and grab some stuff, then to the chapter leader meeting. Greg Low lead the meeting and it was nicely informal, just a circle of chairs with about 40 people present. Some good discussion, here are a few points:

• Lots of people struggle with LiveMeeting, we need to train more and encourage it’s use with integrated audio
• Current DNN solution works, but a few missing pieces – might need another option to supplement it too
• Really a lot of interest in the speaker bureau

From there I had a Board meeting, welcoming our two new members Brian and Jeremiah, and just reviewing our calendar for the week. Big things are the open board discussion with the attendees on Wed, and then a full board meeting on Fri to set assignments for the next year.

As soon as that was done I went to make sure Don Gabor was all set on the one hour session for volunteers. All was ready, so a 30 minute break to catch up on things. Had about 40 attend and it was fun, the way training should be. Don really engages people, has some nice tricks for doing it and some short but useful exercises around remembering names. Don just amazed me on names, he could name 80% of the 40 people in the room after just doing handshake introductions. I have a LOT of work to do, and it reminded me how valuable it can be to see someone show you what good really is. Everyone participated, no problems at all, good reviews at the end. I think most were very pleasantly surprised, not sure going in what to expect.

An hour break then before the 2 hour networking seminar. Bigger crowd, about 70 in the room, and of them half – yes, half – were first time PASS Summit attendees. Confirms for me that this is the right direction, if we can get first timers off to a strong start, they’ll come back! I did a short intro, and then again Don just took charge and immediately got everyone going, lots of participation. I had to leave early to prep for the reception and didn’t want to leave!

My part in the opening night reception was to announce the log reader winners (I’ll get you a link to that soon) and there was no prep time, my fault on that. Had a wireless mike which I’m used to, but had to deliver the message on stage – which is ok – but no experience with the stage lights blinding me, not used to being unable to see people. Muddled through, and made a note that I need to practice that before I do anything more complicated than read a list! Then we had the quiz bowl which went well, and then off to the SSC party. Saw a few more old friends, had planned to go to dinner afterward but just too tired, headed back to the hotel about 9:30 to call it a night.

Long day, but a good day, and thrilled that the seminars Don did went so well. Looking forward to tomorrow.