Now, you may do your own little AAF version of hibernation during the summer months, letting your mind recuperate by substituting vampire novellas and US Weekly for Ad Fed’s professional development opportunities during the year. But not everyone has this luxury. Oh, no. Some of your loyal board members have no “off” switch, ladies and gentlemen.
I shipped off to Orlando for the AAF National Conference June 10-12, enduring blistering heat and smothering humidity to hobnob with and learn from the country’s most accomplished chapters. Adding to the suffering was the constant siren song of free meals, booze, and cavorting poolside with ad-industry partygoers and the thousands of college students in attendance for the National Student Advertising Competition. Technically speaking, then, it wasn’t all bad.
Contrary to my hedonistic instincts and because I was attending on Ad Fed’s dime, I did actually try my best to learn as much as I could from other clubs and, generally, to improve our position in the AAF world by building relationships with all sorts of people who are simply good people to know. One of my current priorities is to learn and disseminate the national benefits of AAF membership to our local members. And I’m not talking about those tiny discounts on things you probably don’t use anyway — I’m talking about the new AAF website and all of the learning and professional development resources it will offer. Professional development has been Job One for me since I joined the board, and so in addition to sucking up all the knowledge I could to convey on to the folks at home, I also snagged a few good luncheon speakers while I was there as well.
Finally, I got to participate in one of my favorite pastimes — taking credit for other people’s hard work! For the first time in a long time (or maybe ever, I don’t know), our AAF-Black Hills chapter received a couple of national awards, and as the sole attendee, I got to accept them on stage and soak in the applause meant for all of us. They even announced my name as I walked in and had a spotlight on me all the way across the stage until I sat down, and played Metallica intro music (Note: it’s possible that the Metallica music was only in my head, but I know the lights and introduction did actually occur).
We won first place in the Programming category for Division 4 (all clubs under 100 members), and we won second for the Public Service category, and it was my pleasure to accept the awards on our chapter’s behalf.
Thanks again for sending — after all, it was your membership dues that paid the bill. And as long as it keeps paying the tab, I’ll keep doing my best to build and add value to the club anytime you send me somewhere.
Until next time,
Josh
