Congratulations Rick Massarini!

[Keith_A_Howe]

Congratulations Rick! For those that may not know, Rick celebrated the culmination of his tenure on the PPLA board last niight at his President's reception and convention banquet. Holly and I were lucky to be there!

My question is this, Rick now that you are done with PPLA, what ARE you going to do with your free time?

Keith

[Joe_Campanellie]

Yeah right...!

I was president in Maryland for two years and thought I would have all this free time too. I found out that once you are president of an organization and serve at that level...it is VERY hard to let go. It's necessary but very hard. At some point in time you just have to let the people behind you take the reigns of the association. It might not be your vision of the direction that is necessary for success but it's theirs and they will have to make their own way.

[Cheri_MacCallum]

Congratulations Rick!

[Joe_Campanellie]

PS...Congratulations for finishing your term as president!

[Stephanie_Millner]

Congratulations Rick!

[Missy50]

Congratulations!

[Angela_Lawson]

Congratulations Rick!!!

[Rick_Massarini]

Congratulations Rick! For those that may not know, Rick celebrated the culmination of his tenure on the PPLA board last niight at his President's reception and convention banquet. Holly and I were lucky to be there!

My question is this, Rick now that you are done with PPLA, what ARE you going to do with your free time?

Keith

Thanks Keith !

Free time - what an interesting concept !!!
...I'll still be working on the board this year as the ex-officio past president, so I'll still be helping out. Our Past President is a vital asset to our board and our convention wouldn't have run as smooth as it did if not for all of the work put in by my Past President Patrick Bates (he isn't on this forum, so he'll probably never read this), and we hope to keep him working with us for a long time -we couldn't have done it without him. Past Presidents are such a valuable resource for an association - they've been through all of the offices so they can help the new leaders to learn from the mistakes of the old leaders. We made a deliberate effort this year to reach out and re-engage our past presidents by reestablishing our long defunct Past President's Advisory Council to help our Board - not to tell the Board what to do, but to be there if the Board needs them for help, advice or assistance in executing their desires. So maybe our Board might want to keep me around too. So I'll still be there for them as long as they want me around. Associations need grunts to get things done - experienced grunts are even better - experienced grunts who love (and want to help) their associations are better still. We need new blood to lead and keep things fresh and moving forward, but it always helps to have someone who has been through the mill to help out.

An example of the kind of ideas that new blood can bring was our "Sports Bar" at the print competition this year (not my idea - it came from our Association Secretary) - what a hoot !!! A huge success and tons of fun!
We piped the audio of the print judging and the projected images of the prints that were being judged to an adjacent room where everyone could enjoy themselves and "cut-up" as loudly as they wanted to and (with a hotel cash bar) play some games involving guessing the scores of the prints before the judges did. Everyone had a great time, and it put a lot of loud raucous fun into what was in the past a very quiet somber afternoon. It was GREAT! The entrants loved it, and many members who didn't enter any prints this year hung out in the "Sports Bar" and had a great time - even the judges seemed to enjoy it.

So I’ll still hang around and help them out wherever I can - but at least now I have more "free time" to dedicate to business again…
And Thanks, everyone.

[Jeff_Dachowski]

Rick,
Congrats!!!
Jeff

[Ron_Jackson]

Congrats Rick and a job well done!