What a Weekend (2-18 thru 2-20)

Where do I begin. If I had hired professional planners and directed them to create a perfect 4 day/3night package with friends, they could not have done a better job than this past weekend.

The Shrine Bus left the garage, fully loaded, at 7:00 A.M. on Thursday. Approximately 7 hours later, after many great conversations, good food and drink, we arrived at the hotel in Rockford, IL. The ride was smooth, the weather beautiful, and barely no traffic/construction (of course we went around Chicago proper).

We checked into the hotel, and they informed us our originially scheduled hospitality suite was changed. Initially we were upset, however, this error turned out to be the stepping stone to Moslem Shriners becoming one of the "hot" spots of the entire weekend. We were relocated to a large suite directly across from the host temple's suite. We all contributed to the set up, and after a brief respite to our individual rooms for a fresh up, sat down for some liquid refreshment. The guests began arriving and the social aspect began. We cut everything short, in order to go out to dinner. We made a brief drive to an incredible italian eatery, where we had the pleasure of a private dining room. Carrie had the tuna and I had the filet, and of course we shared and it was incredible food. The desert was great also, and then fully stuffed, our beloved Chief Rabban, seeing that we had 11 men in the group decided to orchestrate a football offensive scheme of which I was the QB and we took many pictures. Have I mentioned how I LOVE my Shriner Family.

We returned to the hotel room and Carrie and I began a little ritual. We came to an understanding that our hospitality room would not be closed unless we were the last ones out. We were all pretty tired, after the first day and we hit the hay around 11


Friday February 19, 2010:

Great sleep, Carrie had the early day this morning, getting ready for the Ladie's Luncheon. I followed her and ended up in the Hospitality room around 9:00 A.M. Had the opportunity to talk to a lot of other Potentates from around the Midwest. There is a distressing situation that has repeated among some of the temples and the general sentiment is that we all should be proactive and comprehensive in our executive responsibilities when we return. I expect to deliver this message to all the Board at our next meeting.

Anyway, we drove to the Shrine Center (about 2 miles from the hotel), and had a tour. The Shrine Center in Rockford is comprised of about 1300 members and they are situated on 15 acres of land. What a very nice Shrine Center with a large hall, in which we were led to for the opening of the Business Session.

The Business Session had some interesting speakers, including the Deputy Imperial Potentate of Shriners International. The Ladie's joined us briefly, and afterwards we all were driven back to the hotel. We had a few hours before dinner and Carrie and I visited other Temple Rooms for some socialization.

This evening was the station dinner for the Divan. Each Officer and his lady would sit down with their counterparts once a year and have dinner. After contributing financially each year, the Potentates and their Ladies were driven to a private banquet hall and had a meal fit for royality. The endless bowls of Shrimp and appetizers were incredible. The First Rate beverage lineup was unmatched, and we had filet and sea bass for dinner. Since Carrie is allergic to Shrimp, I had to force myself to carry the load for us and double up on the shrimp. I succeeded!!!!!

Now for some really, really bad news. For all that know my beloved bride, she has an unusual infatuation/obession with sock monkies. The banquet hall we dined in this evening also is the same location of the Sock Monkey museum. Yes, Rockford, IL is the home of the Sock Monkey. Everywhere, and really do mean everywhere, you turn there are sock monkies, they even have a special Sock Monkey festival in the Spring. Thank God we brought a large bus, because needless to say, we came back with more Sock Monkeys.

Saturday February 21, 2010

My turn to wake up early, arrived at the Shrine Center around 8:00 AM for breakfast and the meeting resumed at 9:00 AM. Many interesting lectures took place, and then the vote to eliminate the Winter Business Session came up on the agenda. After some very good discussion, the delegation overwhelmingly voted to eliminate the winter meeting. The result is that this is the last Business Session of the Great Lakes Shrine Association. Beginning in 2011 there will be one convention in the Fall, which probably will have an additional day to conduct the business of the GLSA. I am favor of this move, due to the fact it will give us more financial incentives to bring more Nobles to compete and parade.

We had lunch and broke into counterpart groups. The Potentates discussed the financial issues of some temples and the recent concerns. Once again the general sentiment is that the Board of Directors must, MUST be proactive in understanding the finances.

We got back to the hotel and enjoyed some libations. My cousin, well actually Carrie's Cousin, who lives near Rockford, came by. He had another event that evening and did not stay too long, but eventually came back to assist Carrie and I with our mission of being the last ones in the Hospitality room. All I am going to say about his visit, is that after about 6 combined hours with Shriners, I believe that he may have come to a very important decision in his life, especially when he found out that the Shriners from Chicago have a separate unit dedicated to flying (he is a pilot). I had so much fun with him, and I am going to definitely get his information to the Chicago Shriners.


Sunday February 21, 2010

Well we hear that the snow is coming, over 8 inches, we get everybody out and the bus packed, and leave at 9:00 AM Not only did we have a great ride back, without any snow, but made real good time. Our bus driver has been a Shriner for almost 30 years and what a great job he did driving and putting up with our jokes.

We arrived in Downtown Detroit, cleaned out the bus, took our extra food to the shelter across the street, got into our cars and Carrie and I got home around 6:00 P.M.

So many people worked together this weekend, in order to make it a special weekend. We chose a group of people that worked well together and I believe all had a great time.

As this is my last GLSA Winter Convention, I really could not think of ending it any better than this weekend. Life is Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!