Adler Advisory Council Meeting

Location: Eleven City Diner

Date: Thursday, October 22, 2015; 5:30-7:00 pm

It had been a long time since I had been to one of these, plus I had missed the “Adler After Dark” for this month.  In the interim, the council seemed to have grown to include several volunteers as well as another staff member.  Our email group, being hosted by something called “Minigroup”, was shutting down and there was lot of discussion around how we could find something else.  I arrived to see that Bob and Michael were already there along with 2 other volunteers, and the staff member Jola.  We were missing Carrie who was stuck in traffic and they refused to seat us till everyone was here.  This was ridiculous, but I guess the manager realized the folly and they finally did take us to our table.

We started by discussing which group to use for email and apparently there are 2 candidates.  It’s always amusing to me when most of the meeting is spent on discussing logistics around the meeting, rather than the important topics.  Next on the agenda was a review of the themes for next year and in particular, any ideas that we may have for specific programs.  Never shy for an opinion, I gave my inputs on some of the themes, including ideas for experiments.

"Romulan Ale" anyone?

Michael asked if there was anything other than facilitation that we should be trained on.  I asked what about “sales”, so that we could get repeat business from guests who are in attendance.  Now, I would never describe myself as being a salesperson or even remotely enthusiastic about doing sales.  But, if we could learn some key phrases that could help out, then why not.  We talked about having a “refresher” training program for us and the only day which looked feasible was “Valentine’s Day 2016”.  Sure thing I said.  One of the themes being proposed was on “New Inventions” and I said that it would be cool to do that program with young scientists.  Another theme was to celebrate 50^th anniversary of “Star Trek” and I said that rather than volunteer, I may attend that one – especially if they were serving “Romulan Ale”.  

The owner of the restaurant came over and very nearly threw us out, saying it was a busy time and if we wanted to meet, he could open up the conference room on the top floor for us.  Chalk another one for great customer service at this place, but that did force us to wrap up and leave.  Michael said that the December event would go on till midnight since it was the night new “Star Wars” movie comes out.  Apparently there would be special programming that evening and I totally expect to see several “Storm Troopers” and even “Darth Vader” in attendance.