Editorial

Kelly R Piercy, Editor

Editorial

What Success Is Made Of

Take one $600.00 suit (on sale at Macy's), Rockports (also on sale so I bought some Top-Siders on the side), add a $50.00 shirt, and an $87.00 tie and anyone can look good as a Master of Ceremonies.

I usually reserve this space to say something about the cause and my perspective on how best to forward it. This month, I want to use this space to talk about the people who stand the line.

I arrived in D.C. on Friday afternoon and the work was well on its way to being done. Amy and Tony drove ten hours with their son. With them came critical copies of the RSOL Statement and Flier. For three days prior to leaving they were copying and re-copying the documents as I continually sent revisions. After an arduous drive, they found their way through D.C. to deliver the documents to the 'On The Ground' team for sorting into packets.

Brenda, Paul, Marshall, and others spent the night setting up folders for the conference and the all important lobbying on Monday.

But, I am way ahead of myself. This conference began months earlier in a three pronged offensive. The Planning Committee began in September when the RSOL Admin Team appointed myself, Paul, Alex, and Joel to form a committee to plan the conference. Immediately, Alain was asked to recommend state organizers to join the committee. Various people were invited and joined the committee.

A location was selected and Tom (of Maryland) began negotiating with the location and looking at the site. Dolley and Donna started investigating local hotels for availability. Lloyd and Dolley started looking for materials to use for the conference and lobbying. Paul started looking for money and Joel kept an overview of everything to keep us on track.

Me, I just bided my time until it was time to arrange for the technology infrastructure and began working on some of the speakers.

Once the location was selected, we all began looking for more speakers. It is amazing when we come out of our fortresses that we all build and realize that there are more people who speak with authority that are on our side than we might believe. As it turned out, we had more front line speakers than we had time and we could not find a way to say no to any of them. Who would believe that a conference for and about sex offenders would begin with someone from the United States Department of Justice and end with a former District Attorney who helped craft the original legislation to create a registry and that each and every speaker would tell us the registry is wrong and why it is wrong. That, the Planning Committee, was the first prong of our offensive. The second front was opened by a single individual who, at his own expense, traveled the breadth of the nation, visiting with state organizers and individuals to listen to their efforts and stories. Marshall Burns started from Los Angeles and drove across the entire southern tier to Florida, stopping in every state to visit with organizers and persons on the registry to let them know that they are no longer alone. He plans to continue his trip across the northern tier bringing his message of hope and solidarity. Alain led the third prong as he tirelessly hounded, nagged, begged, and otherwise cajoled organizers and individuals to 'get on board the train'. I had to be absent from one of the Planning Committee meetings. That is always a mistake. In my absence, I was assigned the position of Master of Ceremonies. Alas, one thing I have learned in my career is that when things get tough, delegate! I began with the well oiled machine we call Georgians For Reform. As my Board knew, I am blind, was scheduled for both oral and abdominal surgery during June, and have not owned a suit for twenty years. Jim, our Operations Officer got a schedule and set us to it. Amy, our Secretary, began making arrangements for our travel and accommodation and that of the speakers invited from Georgia. Barbara, our Assistant Secretary and general 'everything else' person secured tickets and helped Amy with copying and anything else she needed. Our Communications Director kept contact with the speakers from Georgia and kept us apprised of their needs and schedules while seeing to their needs in D.C. Tony, our Treasurer, kept close watch on the accounts before and during the conference. This team never left my side and picked up where ever I needed assistance. Jim kept an eye on the overall picture while Tony did a yeoman's job as camera operator for the conference. Amy took over the computer and is responsible for the smooth presentation of the many Power Point Presentations. Barbara stayed by my side and was the one who made contact, found people I needed to be on stage or taking care of something off stage. Our Communications Director kept watch on all the speakers invited by GFR from the Department of Justice to the Rev. Dr. Powell, Dr. Leon, and J. Tom Morgan. That was only my team. To this day, I am thankful that I did not have to do Brenda's job or Alain's job, or Paul's job. Coffee and donuts is no joke. It is no joke when you are also responsible for set up and take down, registration at the conference, local directions, and the remote microphone. Were it not for Brenda and Tom, there would not have been a conference. Alain was the face of RSOL. While Paul and I remained isolated by our positions as Host and Master of Ceremonies, Alain had to be available for any and every person to ask questions, offer suggestions, render complaints and see to the comfort and needs of everyone from the building Janitor to the Department of Justice.

Joel might not have seemed so apparent to most at the conference. He was not so to me. I can count at least five times during the conference that I interrupted conversations or coffee and sent him after something I 'had to have'. Not once did he fail to accomplish his task quietly and with aplomb.

Paul, of course, needs no kudos. I was only the figurehead on the bow. Paul commanded the ship and kept her steady no matter the wind and seas.

Then comes the quesiton of secuirty. At any conference, there is always a security concern. I headed the Security Team and again assumed my role as figurehead. James and Dennis, both imposing figures were my NCO's. Had there been any issue that required intervention, I would have stood back like any good officer, ready to report the situation well in hand and take as much credit as possible while the real Security Team quietly and efficiently saw to it that my suit was not ruffled.

Then there was Mary Sue. Not only did I task her with an introduction, as I did Joel, at the last minute. She, and Joel, took time they could have used for themselves to interview their 'introducees' and make it look as professional as I have experienced in my many years in Corporate America.

More last minute surprises. I checked with Paul and we decided that we needed to slip Dolley in with an announcement for Women Against the Registry and Rita had to present the Sentencing Project. I will definitely duck the next time I encounter either of these phenomenal women. It seems I gave them each a twenty minute notice that I needed five to ten minutes at the podium and each came up and presented as if they had prepared their comments weeks earlier.

I did manage to keep the conference on schedule. At least that is the way it appeared. What actually happened is this. I came to the microphone in all my Macy's finery and looked like everything was just peachy. I brought up the person to introduce the next speaker and then I quietly went to the back of the room where I grabbed either Jim or Barbara to 'find me ______'. Many times I sent both of them tracking down someone I needed.

When they returned, hostage in tow, I harangued the individual about being thirty seconds off schedule or having to have someone or something in the next thirty seconds.

So, if you are wondering how I managed to look so spiffy in my Macy's finery and everyone else seemed a bit harried...