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Whoa... I didn't get this post updated as soon as I wanted to, but better late than never!
Conferences keep you crazy busy. Thus the reason I didn't have any time and/or energy to update during that time. I left Honolulu at 9pm Saturday evening, and after 3 different planes I finally arrived in Phoenix, AZ at around noon on Sunday. After checking into the intimidatingly ritzy Arizona Grand Resort hotel I was escorted to my suite and met my roommates, Becky and Marla. Becky is a fellow Hawaii 4-H person, but she lives and works on the Big Island (Hawaii) so I've never met her. Marla is a 4-H agent from Alaska who used to work with Becky when they were both 4-H agents in Idaho.
I had a lot of good conversations with Becky throughout the weekend. Becky has a very interesting perspective about being an outsider in Hawaii, as well as being a part of our dysfunctional organization compared to being involved in 4-H in other states. She understands both sides and was able to provide further insight where Gary, being the state leader, can't. Hopefully I'll be able to write another post about fellow Hawaii 4-H perspectives soon.
The remainder of my first day included a first-timers orientation (where I met a bunch of people from the Nebraska 4-H delegation), and an opening ceremony/dinner that was hilariously enough Hawaii themed. We also, as part of these opening ceremonies, had to create state floats to send down the resort's lazy river. One of the other Hawaii representatives, DeAnn, had brought her Husband and kids to the conference for a mini family vacation, so we decorated two inner-tubes with Hawaiian themed stickers, a hula skirt as a tail, some leis, and mini palm trees, then placed her kids into the inner-tubes and told them to shout "Aloha!" to everyone as they passed by. It was super adorable! Alas, we didn't win the float competition, New Jersey did with a Jersey Shore theme, but we were in the top 5. The opening ceremonies was held in the resorts massive water oasis park, so naturally after the festivities were done we proceeded to repeatedly go down the three monstrous slides they had, as well as float down the lazy river on our own. It was so much fun!
The next day was the first official day of the conference... business meetings, keynote speakers, seminars, exhibitions, etc. The first keynote speaker, Rafe Esquith, was amazing! Never heard of him? Check this out: http://cnettv.cnet.com/eye-eye-rafe-esquith/9742-1_53-50009179.html. He's the only teacher to be awarded the Presidential Medal of the Arts... Ever. He was so superbly inspirational! I don't know how else to describe it. He is an elementary school teacher from Hobart Elementary in Los Angeles County, and he is doing wonders with his students who come from under-privileged backgrounds. I highly recommend that you check out at least one of his books!
That was also the day that I was able to have a long conversation with DeAnn about the state of Hawaii 4-H. It's good to get other's perspectives. I'm building up my list of interviews... I just wish I would've been prepared to take specific notes. DeAnn gave me a lot to think about, but I'm not going to write it here. I still have to mull over it a bit, and it's not fair to share some of her specific opinions without her permission. After talking with DeAnn, I decided to roam around the Exhibition hall where I came across the Omaha, Nebraska stand where they were advertising for next year's conference (it's going to be held in Omaha in October 2011). When talking with the Nebraska delegation they recognized my last name and asked if I was related to Jami Rutt. I was like, "Um, yeah! She's my cousin!" To which they informed me that Jami just started a job in Nebraska Extension down in Falls City, NE about a month ago! Crazy small world!
Tuesday morning was crazy busy with meetings and workshops/seminars. I did walk out on one (respectfully) though because it was on Conflict Resolution and I had already learned all their useful information and the rest of it wasn't really accurate so it was frustrating me. I suppose that's going to happen when I've studied this material specifically for a Masters Degree. The rest of Tuesday and the morning of Wednesday had me really nervous about my father's surgery... so I didn't do much. In fact my roommate Marla was really good about keeping me distracted and even skipped a session or two (she didn't really want to go to them anyway) to keep me company by the pool or chat about the National state of 4-H. She's good people.
Wednesday evening was the awards ceremony/banquet. It was fun to go to a formal event... everyone looked so wonderful!
There is so much I learned but I don't have my notebook on me right now to jot down my notes. I'll post more later!
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