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When Life Defies Logic
…then it’s time to get logical. And logic will triumph! As many readers know, I’m in the process of coordinating our APHA Summits. We had our first Summit adventure in San Diego a few weeks ago. What a delight! We all learned so much from each other! Next up… Newark / NYC, then on to Chicago, and two new groups of passionate advocates. (I can’t wait!) What few people understand is the amount of preparation required to make these Summits happen. It’s not so simple as everyone showing up in the same place at the same time to connect with each other. Planning actually begins many months in advance when cities and venues are chosen, initial contacts are signed, the website and registration are set up… much to prepare. Then in the last few weeks prior to each event, the actual choices are made for room set-ups (round tables? classroom style?), food choices (vegetarian? gluten-free? nut allergies?), and AV needs (are we doing powerpoint? do we need a projector, screen, or wifi?) Of course, each choice comes with a price tag. Hotel price tags vary. And sometimes, those price tags defy logic. And I mean DEFY LOGIC! Which is one reason I say – when life defies logic, it’s time to get logical. As follows: Making food choices usually gets to me. While doing so for our Summits coming up in Newark this week, that was no different. For example, it’s great to have some sort of afternoon snack during the networking event. There are many choices to make, some more outrageous than others. $42 for a dozen cookies. $4 each for bottled water or soft drinks. Those kinds of things. But because the initial contracts all force us to agree that we won’t bring in our own food or beverages, there’s really little choice. Next up – AV decisions, and THE major logic-defier. I will say, that in many years of planning APHA events, this one just totally blew me away, as if we lived in some alternate universe. Years ago I purchased a projector to schlep with me…