We all arrived at 8:00 this morning to the Heber Springs Community Center where the conference is being held. The doors weren’t open yet so we all mingled in the hallways and looked at the vendor tables. They finally opened the doors around 8:45 and I found a table near the front so I could see without a lot of heads in my way.
You know how you start out holding all your valuables any time you leave your place, and then as you get more comfortable with your surroundings you feel more comfortable leaving it at your seat? Well, maybe you don’t usually have that experience, but I’ll tell you what made this day remarkable. Here we were with a room full of people from all walks of life at a business conference, and the day started with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. Terry Cooper (we call him “Coop” for short) is the head of the organization and he opened up and was very tender-hearted, having a difficult time controlling his emotions and stopping several times when he was on the verge of tears. The first speaker who was supposed to be speaking with us about finances actually spent most of his time giving his testimony and preaching a sermon about prayer. At noon, a collection was taken for a shelter for domestic violence/abuse survivors. This is one thing I love about this organization. I don’t know if everyone in the room was Christian, but they all heard the gospel today!
Here are the pictures from today:
One of the tables with NRVIA and RVIC things we could buy.
A room full of RV inspectors and their spouses. Note the guy holding his fingers up like bunny ears? He told me later he couldn’t help himself!
We each got totes with materials in them, including this agenda booklet.
There was a video introduction based on the movie, Top Gun, and then Coop (on the left) and Steve Anderson (the head of Workamper News) came in looking like they were out of the movie. Funny!
But then things got serious. Coop called our future IMT (Inspector, Manager, Trainer), Howard Jaros, forward and called him a prayer warrior. Coop removed his hat and had Howard say an opening prayer.
Coop led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and invited all the veterans to salute the flag.
There is now a Canadian IMT and Coop introduced him to us – Rob Rees – and then had us stand while he did the Canadian Pledge to his flag.
Then Coop brought all the IMT’s up and introduced them. (LBD stands for Learn By Doing. These instructors teach the hands-on class, like the one we attended in Louisiana last spring.)
He also introduced some of the headquarters staff. Stephanie is Coop’s daughter and his wife, Lady Evada, is standing next to her. Stephanie is the one we call with questions about technical issues with the RVIC software. Lady E teaches RV cooking classes and represents Redwood RV’s.
This was Steve Higgins, the Director of Operations at Forward Financial Group which was started by his pastor. At the podium is Luke, Steve Anderson’s son-in-law and the techno-guru, and Steve Higgins’ wife.
Lunch was catered and this was the line for the food. You see a woman standing there holding a gray tray. People were throwing in money for the domestic violence shelter. We donated over $1000 just at this one meal!
Then we had a presentation from the woman who is in charge of the shelter, Shoshana Wells, while we were eating. By the time she was finished speaking, people were offering her even more money, including offers of monthly support from some.
I went up to speak with her about my background afterward. As you can see, I was very cold. They have been keeping the room too chilly for me. (I had a heavy vest on under my jacket.) But those who know me well know I’m usually cold. Cold hands, warm heart!
During the afternoon session, things got a little more technical.
Scott Miller and Kevin Placzek (one of the IMTs) talked about the business insurance package they’ve put together for all of us and they were willing to take suggestions from us as to what we need from our insurance. I had the feeling they are on our side.
Randy McMann (being a bit dramatic here) spoke to us about brakes. I will admit that I closed my eyes for a few minutes during his presentation, not because he was a boring presenter but because I didn’t entirely understand what he was talking about. It was all about hydraulic disc brakes vs electric drum brakes on trailers. I guess Hydraulic disc brakes are better.
Ron Russell talked about tires. Boy, did I understand that! In the future I think we will be buying American made tires with higher PSI’s. We need to get our RV weighed so we know how much weight our tires are supporting.
We were supposed to have had a barbecue outdoors at our campground after class today, but it has been raining all weekend so they had it in the conference room instead.
I had an email from my mother today:
Now that I’ve had a good night’s sleep, I can more adequately fill you all in on what Dr. Kim told us. He said he wasn’t able to remove all of [Cal’s] cancer, as he found it in vocal chords and near blood vessels going down his neck into his chest, which would account for the pain he had been feeling in his chest. He said he removed about 97% of the cancer, leaving the left half of his thyroid gland intact which hadn’t been invaded with cancer cells and gave Cal the best chance to recover his speech. He said because of the extremely aggressive form of this type of thyroid cancer, he would not be around long if he didn’t receive a lengthy series of radiation treatments. Dr. Kim will begin Mon. a.m. to arrange these treatments with the Portland VA which collaborates very closely with OHSU [Oregon Health Sciences University] he said for the latest word on cancer treatment. We continue to hope and pray for a complete bill of health, knowing the God who made our bodies, certainly knows how to renew their health. I’ll be bringing him home this afternoon.
I was surprised to hear Cal went home so soon after surgery, but I know Mom will give him lots more TLC than he’d get in the hospital!