National Standing - Or Maybe Not

The first national conference that I attended was in 1999 in Mobile, Alabama. The logo on the right is actually the logo for the 1997 conference in Orlando. I searched and searched for the Mobile logo, but none could be found. Probably for good reason that I'll discuss some other time.

I was a day late to the conference because of work issues. We had a delegation of 8 people in Mobile. I woke up the first morning and made my way to the conference floor. It took me a while to find our seating area - it was way back in the nosebleed section, next to Maine and Hawaii (who not only do not have state lodges, but no one ever attends a conference). You needed the Hubbell Telescope to see the front stage. Sitting in our area was one lonely guy. I asked where everyone else was. He said that he was the only one who has attended the conference since the start. Everyone else was probably too hung over to make it to the conference - apparently they thought that this was their time to party like it's 1999. He went on to say that, when he got here this morning, the Minnesota banner was laying across the chairs. Someone was expressing their disgust at the lack of our participation. This was the reason we were sitting in the tooleys.

After seeing first hand what prestige - or lack thereof - that we had at the National Level, I resolved to change it.