Storage Unit Moving Day May 2023

 The final steps of moving Tennessee PTA items from Nashville to Knoxville happened in May. I met Dana Price at Northgate Mall to close down the Post Office box and to collect items for the state office administrator.  On May 6, G and I made a quick trip to Knoxville and back by dropping off more stuff collected from Dana and from my home office. These were things necessary for the office administrator to prepare for the Student Awards Ceremony less than a month away in Brentwood.

I sat in the president's chair but no desk. The former president's desk is now the office administrator desk.

And I sat at the conference table in the new state office. Turned out to be a good picture!

Then what I dubbed as the triangle trip began on May 10th. In the 36 hours period from the afternoon of May 10th to May 11th, I traveled from Chattanooga to Franklin, then to downtown Nashville, and the next morning from Nashville to Knoxville and back to Chattanooga. This also required taking vacation time from work. I have no idea how much vacation time I used over the last 4 years as president-elect and president for Tennessee PTA but it was a lot!

The triangle trip was moving from one storage unit in Nashville, divide the content, and move some stuff into another storage unit in Knoxville and the remaining content into the Knoxville state office. Whew - that was a lot of planning, preparation, and everything working just right.

Once again, Two Men and Truck Company was hired to move stuff. They moved all of the office content from the state office in Nashville to the state office in Knoxville during the month of March. Now we would use them again to move the storage unit stuff out of Nashville.

I left work in Chattanooga at 1 pm Eastern, noon Nashville time and headed to Franklin, TN. Earlier I had contacted the buyer, then the buyer's property manager, and then connected the property manager to past state president Kim Henderson all in order to pick up the lettering that we had on the exterior wall of the Nashville office. My first stop would be at Kim's house to pick up the box of lettering. 

My next stop was downtown in the Gulch part of Nashville to start arranging the storage unit. I planned and sketched out on paper what I wanted and started the process. But I had no food since previous evening and I was starving, so I decided to return early tomorrow morning before the moving truck arrived to finish the rest of the separation: stuff to storage unit and stuff to office.

I stayed at the nearby Hayes Street Hotel. A very different hotel and I am not going to return to it in the future. However the Las Palmas is attached to the hotel building next door and I would highly recommend their food!

The next day I was up and gone early. Luckily the streets connecting the hotel to the storage unit were not busy work commuting streets. I arrived a bit early for the opening of the gate, so I parked in the next door\s business parking lot. That business? The Larry Flynt Hustler Club!  Yep our storage unit was located next to the Hustler club on one side and the Greyhound terminal on the other side.

Once inside the compound -- security code to enter the lot, code to enter the unit--I took the lock off and closed the unit down at the office. I returned to the unit and finished my separation job from the day before. I finished before the moving crew got there -- right on time at 9 am. The separation job I did was so helpful as it speeded the process along -- the office content was loaded first to be unloaded last and the storage unit stuff was loaded last to be unloaded first. I saved Tennessee PTA a bunch of money by cutting down on the loading time.

The storage unit was almost evenly divided so one half went on first, the movers placed separation ropes, and then moved out the other half of the unit.

We both left at the same time but I could drive faster than the truck could so I was a few hours ahead at the Knoxville office waiting on them. When the movers arrived, everything worked out perfectly in no time! First the storage unit in Knoxville then to the state office.  A very successful trip!

And I placed the box of lettering in the president's office for the next president.

Building Sold - April 4, 2023

Downtown Nashville and I am trying to find the attorney's office. I made the trip up to Nashville and plan to return back to Chattanooga all in the same day.  I was briefly the only Tennessee PTA president with two offices at the same time -- one starting up in Knoxville and one being sold in Nashville. 

Finding the attorney's office, I parked in the underground garage, riding the elevator up, wrapped inside a beautiful building.

As I wait I reminded myself that I made my last visit to the office at 1905 Acklen Avenue this morning. I picked up the equipment for our closed out Comcast account to be returned. Took a few pictures. Called the utilities to make a transition to a new building owner.

The only thing we had to leave -- the building plaque by the front door.

The building was completely emptied. But there was a full storage unit just a few minutes away that needed the contents moved to Knoxville. That comes in the month of May.

At the attorney's office, I met the realtor and the attorney. We signed a lot of papers! The building is sold! All the hard work  paid off with only one more big thing left to do -- moving from one storage unit in Nashville to another storage unit in Knoxville.

Special edition of our Tennessee PTA newsletter announcing the sale of the building.

But our announcement was preempted by the Nashville media the day before we announced to the membership.

A goodbye video

2018 National PTA Legislative Conference

One of my many trips during March - May of this year was to Arlington, VA/Washington, D.C. for the National PTA Legislative Conference. The event was held at the Crystal City Gateway Marriott with the Day on the Hill at the Capitol in D.C. Everyone calls this event LegCon - much easier to write about using the nickname.

Charles Scott and I standing in front of the US Capitol

Before I write about my trip and adventures and who I met and more, let me answer this question: what is LegCon? At the core, no matter the level, PTA is an advocacy association--an association working to improve the lives of children and families. Attending LegCon for me was a great way to enhance my advocacy skills, learn and implement new advocacy strategies, talk about PTA priorities to our US representatives and senators, and of course, connecting and networking with other PTA members from across the country. PTAers from every US state was there.

If you are in the PTA, take the opportunity sometime to attend LegCon! It is an experience and training worth having for the rest of your life.

National PTA lines up the speaking points for everyone to base their conversations and chats with their legislators. Our two main asking points were Support Bipartisan Gun Safety and Violence Prevention and Invest in Safe and Supportive Schools. One of the bills we were supporting for Gun Safety and Violence was approved by the House on the very same day as our Day on the Hill!

Now to my travel and walking notes! I had a weird flight schedule flying out of Chattanooga on Delta but flying back into Chattanooga on American. I flew in from Atlanta to Reagan National, took the hotel shuttle to Crystal City Gateway Marriott, and checked in. What a beautiful hotel - I had a view of the indoor pool plus there was a huge underground mall connected to the hotel with all kinds of restaurants, subway stop, and other stores. Very cool -- worth visiting just for the entertainment value!

On my first day, I attended several workshops that got my Tennessee PTA friends and me ready to go for Wednesday's Day on the Hill. The workshops were very informative in preparing strategies, in preparing talking points, and in preparing how to pace yourself.  Good stuff.  And I got to meet PTA members from different states as they paired state delegations with other delegations at different workshops. I met people from Florida, Arizona, Washington state, and much more. And a met a new PTA friend from Tennessee. I love meeting new PTA colleagues!

We decided at our planning session workshop to forego the subway at morning rush hour and pay for taxis out of our pockets. That was a good decision because Wednesday morning was cold and windy!

Tennessee PTA waiting in line at the Rayburn Office Building

We arrived as a group, taking two taxis, at the Rayburn Office Building. There was already a line! Woo - I was glad our stay out in the cold wind wasn't too long. As the acting federal legislative chair for Tennessee PTA on this trip, I had set up a visitation schedule two weeks earlier. Everyone really liked my schedule!

Once into the Rayburn building, Cheryl, Anita, and Charles went to the first appointment with Rep. Steve Cohen (Memphis) while Betsy, Kim, and I visited several other offices as unannounced visitors. We visited four other offices and came back to Rep. Cohen's office. Our group was still sitting in the foyer waiting room, so we joined them to make one big Tennessee group to visit Rep. Cohen. What a great meeting we had and possible future involvement at the local district office with PTA!

Tennessee PTA delegation with Rep. Steve Cohen

We took a lunch break at the Rayburn Office Building cafe area. It was crowded. Rep. Cohen greeted us as he walking by with his lunch - very cool. The serving lines were really long so I decided on a sandwich and Coke. Let me tell you, I had the best PB&J sandwich ever. That's saying a lot since I'm not a PB&J fan.

Well, we decided to split the group for the rest of the day. This gave one group extra time to cross over to the Senate side and get into Dirksen Senate Office Building. That left Charles Scott and me to visit one more representative and then hoof it over to Dirksen for our next appointment.

We had a great conversation with Rep. Marsha Blackburn. We saw a picture of her when she was young with big beehive hairstyle. That was cool to see. She said she had heard of PTA before so that was good joke to break the ice. Always good to make everyone comfortable.

Charles and I standing with Rep. Blackburn

I'm sure my wife would not have approved of my color coordination, but I decided to go with a camel brown suit jacket, purple shirt and tie, black pants and shoes. I thought I looked pretty debonair with all of those colors blending! Of course, I'm always looking good.

After meeting with Rep. Blackburn, Charles and I started walking over to Dirksen. When we walked in front of the Capitol, we got lucky with our picture as there was no one in the background at all. I took pictures of the Capitol and of course the Library of Congress. I spent many hours in that library when I was college student in D.C. Yep, I had returned back to my old college stomping grounds a few decades older and several pounds heavier! When I was a student here, I visited so many US legislators that I no longer have any idea who they were. Well except, Sen. Richard Lugar - he was larger than life in the early 80s.

Selfie

The Library of all Libraries

We had a short wait to get past security to get into Dirksen. Again, the strategy of conquer and divide was working as the one group was meeting with Sen. Lamar Alexander while Charles and I met with a staff member from Sen. Bob Corker's office. Both groups had really good meetings -- so exciting to the do the work of PTA, that is, advocating for every child with one voice!

Group One meeting with Sen. Lamar Alexander

After the National PTA reception in the Dirksen building (where three of Sen. Alexander's staff showed up to mingle with PTAers), I headed back to the hotel to explore Crystal City mall. That is a great place. I had a great meal at King Street Blues, wow, just excellent.

The next day was debriefing. The best speaker of the entire conference spoke that morning - Bradford Fitch from CMG. He gave us great advice and tips to continue the advocacy work we started here and bring it home. After his speech, we sat down with our Arizona PTA friends and planned a strategy of what we were doing when we got back to Tennessee.

After that workshop planning, I caught ride on the hotel shuttle to the airport and flew home to Chattanooga via Charlotte.  I had a great PTA learning and advocacy time. I learned a lot, I reminisced about my college days in DC, I met new PTA people, I conversed with US reps and senators. All in all, LegCon was just a great experience!

What I did for Two Weekends in July - PTA Summer Leadership Training!

Summer Leadership Training at Knoxville.

Imagine six people from different parts of the state piling workshop materials and luggage into one van and that group traveling to different cities in Tennessee.  Well, that's what I did.  Tennessee PTA annual summer leadership training was split up this year into a three-day weekend and a two-day weekend.

Chattanooga - Johnson City - Knoxville was the first part. Then Nashville - Memphis was the second part. I led workshops at four of the five stops, missing out on the stop in Memphis.  I met a lot of new PTA friends and reconnected with current PTA friends.  The traveling team built a camaraderie traveling from the state office in Nashville to Chattanooga, to Johnson City, to Knoxville, and back to the state office to unload.  And in Nashville the next weekend, we met up again to lead workshops. Four of the six travel team went on to Memphis the next day to lead another series of workshops.

What other Tennessee volunteer organization does this? Sending volunteers out, who give up vacation time and work pay, to travel to different parts of the state to connect, to network and to train local volunteers. I say not a single one except Tennessee PTA!

The PTA difference! 

Also - there were two restaurants worth mentioning for great food!

In Johnson City - we went to the Mad Greek with two local PTA leaders joining us for dinner.

In Knoxville - we went to the Cedar Bluff Aubrey's with several local PTA leaders joining us for dinner.
 

More group pictures from each of the stops that I attended:

Summer Leadership Training at Johnson City

Summer Leadership Training at Nashville

Summer Leadership Training at Chattanooga

Stuff the Bus at Live United Day at the Chattanooga Market

The point of Lookout Mountain facing downtown and the Chattanooga Market this morning was concealed by a low lying clouds.  But the clouds soon moved to a bright sunny day at the Market.

Today was United Way of Chattanooga Live United day!  I am very humbled that a Twitter conversation last year about merging the United Way's annual Stuff the Bus drive and the Hamilton County PTA Council's Teacher Supply Depot turned into reality this year. I am the president-elect of the Council.

It was very cool to see fliers and posters about Stuff the Bus that had both the Hamilton County PTA Council logo and the United Way logo on them.  All of the school supplies donated to Stuff the Bus will go to the Teacher Supply Depot. The Depot is jointly operated by both the County PTA Council and the County Deparment of Education.

 The County PTA Council had a display inside the Market. I thought this was great public relations for the Council to be a part of the United Way booths.
Media Coverage:
Hamilton County Council Facbook Photo Album: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.350561295025749.80398.16640499677471...
Times Free Press article: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/aug/20/stuff-the-bus-donors-kick-off-...
Fox 61 video: http://www.myfoxchattanooga.com/story/19319842/stuff-the-bus-supports-less-fo...

Food on the Road for Summer Leadership Training

One of those questions always asked of summer leadership training staff is where and what did you eat.  Usually, we don't tell, but I'm going to commit a faux pas and dedicate this post to answering that question. I would say first that I did bring a big bag of snacks and drinks that I paid for without reimbursement, so I provided my own road-tripping snacks and Mountain Dew. As did every other member of the traveling team.

After arriving Friday night, the whole team drove out to a PTA supporter's house, a beautiful home by the way.  Her and her family had us as guests for dinner.  A delicious fare of salad and lasagna was served.  I would have to say that the lasagna was better than almost any Italian restaurant I've visited.  Then she brought out a homemade parfait for dessert. Yum, yum!

On Saturday, we had breakfast provided for us at the Clarksville training stop by Sango Elementary and the vendors at the stop.

When we got back to Nashville, we ate a late lunch at Chilli's on West End Ave.  I had the very delicious shrimp tacos.  Oh yeah, definitely worth it! And spicy too!

Dinner was on our own Saturday night. Some went back to the PTA supporter's home as guests for dinner. I and another team member had coupons for free pizza! And when I say free-no money needed. But let me tell you--Jets Pizza in Nashville is voted number one for a reason.  A small pizza (a small pizza!) each stuffed my friend and I full!  And man was it good.  When I have a chance, I'm going back to pay for a pizza from Jets because I know it will be worth it both in quantity and quality.

My Sunday morning breakfast was provided by my snack bag.  I brought cherry frosted pop tarts with me knowing I needed some type of breakfast Sunday.

On the way to Memphis early Sunday afternoon, the travel team stopped for lunch at Logans in Dickinson.  I had the chopped sirloin steak with two sides. Great meal!

After settling into our hotel, the travel team went to Jason's Deli. Each one of us received a donated $10 gift card from Jason's Deli.  I had the roast beef sandwich and chips and free ice cream. All for under $10!

The Hampton Inn at Southwind had a great complimentary breakfast.  So, the whole travel team was able to eat a free breakfast before going to stop number two at Southwind High School.

Our Monday lunch was paid for by Memphis-Delta PTA Region, the local host for our stop number two. McCallister's Deli provided different choices of boxed lunches.

After packing up and leaving Southwind High School, the team stopped at the local Dairy Queen for ice cream. I had a vanilla malt. The whole tab was picked up by a volunteer from the travel team! Thank you, kind sir!

Our Monday evening dinner was my first visit to a P.F. Chang's!  Hmm, hmm good! I had the surprisingly delicious orange peel shrimp! Are you seeing a seafood pattern? I love fish and seafood!

Stop number three was in the state office in Nashville. The vendors were there at 7:30 am so an early free breakfast could be found.

Mid-Cumberland Region and South Central Region, the local hosts for this stop, paid for the team's lunch of deli-sliced meats and cheese and cake!

On the way to Chattanooga, we stopped at Sonic in Smyrna for more ice cream! But I didn't have ice cream as I settled for a corn dog. But the whole tab was picked up by another volunteer from the travel team! Thank you!

Well, I went home for dinner Tuesday evening as the travel team pulled into Chattanooga for stop number four as did another person from the travel team who lives in Chattanooga.  So, I don't know where the remaining travel team ate. Their hotel had complimentary breakfast for them.

Lunch at Chattanooga for the travel team was barbeque and all of the fixins provided by Renee at World's Finest Chocolates.  Man that was some good BBQ!

Well, I had to go to work the rest of the week but as you can tell, we had a lot of free food and we didn't go hungry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Extreme Volunteerism and Opportunity of a Lifetime

Today, I sat down and pondered.

From Friday to today (Wednesday) I went to Nashville, to Clarksville, back to Nashville, to Memphis, back to Nashville, and then to Chattanooga.  It was the Tennessee PTA summer leadership training for parents and PTA leaders.  What a learning experience but also what an opportunity for service leadership.

Can you imagine taking a week's worth of vacation time and dedicating yourself as a volunteer to traveling in a van from city to city in six days?  One can imagine but there is nothing like reality.  No one really knows unless it is experienced.

Yes, there is the grunt work. Loading and unloading, sometimes twice-a-day; last minute changes; setting up and then putting back up: the variety of tasks will make you recall that line in your job description: other duties as assigned.  Other duties included to keep on going on even after a squirrel ate through a power line, which cut off power to the AC and for the projector.
Yes, there are other sacrifices such as leaving family, sleeping on a hide-away bed, and doing things outside of your comfort level.

But there is the best part, of course, presenting workshops-answering questions-meeting PTA leaders.

There is nothing more important to me and to the traveling team than serving others by sharing information, by imparting necessary knowledge, and giving support.

And the camaraderie among the Tennessee PTA traveling leadership team is icing on the cake.

The Crazed Time of the Year

My luggage is meeting me in the living room. It is afterall July--the crazed time of the year for statewide PTA leaders.

The cool thing for my social media friends--I am presenting a workshop on social media for PTA non-profits in Clarksville, Memphis and Nashville.

But I am also giving two other workshops in each of those stops and away from my family for the second weekend in a row.  The life of an executive volunteer in a state nonprofit organization.

Well, I am also on the TNPTA marketing committee, and this image post has gone viral all over PTA-land in Facebook.  The committee created the picture to help combat stereotypes of PTA volunteers. Enjoy. I'll tweet some pictures and check-in on foursquare when I can.

Front Porch Jam Session--Education Discussion at Tennessee PTAConvention

Since Wednesday, I’ve been in Nashville for pre-convention meetings and then for the Annual State PTA Convention.  Here is a picture of my convention badge:

This afternoon, the Tennessee PTA sponsored a “front porch” session.  And it was really good. I learned a lot, tweeted a lot on behalf of Tennessee PTA, and heard some good questions from Tennessee parents.

The front porch panel was Dr. Gary Nixon, Executive Director of the Tennessee Board of Education; Kevin Huffman, Tennessee Commissioner of Education; Jamie Woodson, President and CEO of SCORE (State Collaborative on Reforming Education); and Dr. Jesse Register, Director of Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools.

I learned about so much stuff that every parent with children in schools or people who live in the community with school children should know.

There were a lot of concerns about the TCAPS standardized test being 20 percent of a school-aged student’s grade.  But TCAPS are being replaced by Common Core testing.  Common Core testing will be done on computers so school systems across the state need to get the hardware and connectivity rolling by 2014 (although there is a back up paper plan for testing).  Common Core is already implemented for two grades and will be expanded for all grades in three years.  One of the parent questions centered-around schools that would not be ready for computers in 2014.  One of the best quotes came from Dr. Register speaking about the lack of digital access in the Nashville school districts among economic disadvantaged students said that the achievement gap will not go away until the digital divide goes away.

On the subject of parental engagement, all of the four front porchers praised the training and involvement of PTA parents in the school systems.  One of them said there are too many parents not engaged; we need your help to get more involved.

Another question was about student health.  PTA has long been a passionate advocate for healthy children and families.   Did you know who the biggest advocate was for hot lunches and immunizations many decades ago? PTA.  All four front porchers praised the PTA leadership in healthy children.  Tennessee PTA is a big supporter of the children health/nutrition program in the schools.  Dr. Register said that in his economic disadvantaged schools, the school district has implemented a backpack program on Fridays to send food home with students for the weekend.

Helping children across the state and supporting school systems to give every child the opportunity to learn and to achieve—that is why I volunteer so much time and energy into what I consider a worthy cause. The future of our society, our leaders, our hope.

Three 2011 Highlights

2011 was a blessed year.  A lot of good things happened to me and to my family.  So, I decided to narrow those good things down to three categories and to choose one highlight for each category: Hamilton County Council of PTAs, Tennessee PTA, and work.
HCCPTA: At the Principal Dinner, I was installed as the president-elect of the council and was presented with my National PTA lifetime achievement award certificate.
TNPTA: This was tough--so many good things to choose among.  The successful planning, designing, and creating the new website was a huge accomplishment.
Work: Another tough one to choose only one thing, but this is my top one in this space -- co-authoring an article in the peer-reviewed Journal of Library & Information Services In Distance Learning (See the ERIC entry here)

New People, New Leaders in Hamilton County PTA Council

Last year, I led a group that restructured the Hamilton County PTA Council.  And what a change that re-structuring brought for PTA leaders and students in public education!

The council has four new officers who never served an elected office on the council before!  And almost every committee chairman is a new council leader!  This is awesome in that PTA leaders are being trained and developed to become the new council officers of tomorrow!

It is always good to see growth in PTA leadership on the council.  New people bring new perspectives as leaders.