Leadership and then some

Leftover photo from the Paw Paw wind farm - the windmills blend with the haze in the background, and the scale is way off here. They were huge.

The business today was a leadership conference for chapter executive directors and presidents, with national board members and staff. These are the paid and volunteer people who make chapters and the national organization grow. There's some amazing brain power, creativity, devotion and passion in this group, and the national staff and board are working hard to give chapters what they need. It wasn't just a day of mutual admiration, though. There were some tough criticisms on both sides, and at the end of the day we felt a new energy and understanding going through the room. With all this talent, only good things should follow.

Registration opened at 3:00P and the great volunteers here at the Minnesota Chapter got to work. Imagine, when at home you get confused from one room to the next what you're there for, and multiply that by about a billion times when you're stressed and tired from travelling, in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar faces. These are the folks we turn to - what room are we in tonight? What time again? And they abide us asking the same thing every two minutes with calmness and pleasantness.

The welcoming reception was similar to past years - cash bar and great food! A wonderful time to hook up with old friends, meet new people and set your personal agenda for the next 2 days of workshops and lectures.

Due to my crummy memory (he'd said he was coming to conference on our Yahoo group months ago,) I was taken by surprise when someone guided me to "this man over here who wants to meet you." It was Ed Harris, the author of the Scleroderma FAQ. Here's a whole 'nuther kind of leadership - someone who saw the need online years ago for information on scleroderma and took it upon himself not only to make a comprehensive reference, but to lurk in areas where he knew people with scleroderma symptoms might be hunting for information to make certain they were guided in the right direction. Ed's brief note to me in 1995 about scleroderma after I'd posted symptoms on alt.support.arthritis was the beginning of my diagnosis, and we know what that's led to...

After food and fellowship, the hilarity started, with a DJ taking requests and trying to rev the crowd up. To me, there's nothing odder than trying to get a bunch of people who are exhausted and in pain to get up and dance, but fortunately not everyone is an old fogey like me. I knew when the conga line started it was time for me to hit the blog. And now, it's time to hit the special Sheraton bed, also available on their website for sale. No, really! Sweet sleeper