Last night I got back from Austin, and the TJCSGA State Convention. I was SO GLAD to be back home. I really enjoyed the trip, but I realized I'm getting old, and that feeling is never a good one.
Starting off from the end of the last post the trip got better. Saturday was the final full day in Austin, and our first guest speaker was former Congressman Chris Bell, who gave a great speech, even if it was at times a little non-Republican (what do you expect from a Democrat). He made some good comments, and I was pleased with what he had to say … some of those at the conference needed to hear it. You could see a few of the more conservative members of the Executive Board squiriming in their seats … a good feeling.
Saturday afternoon I had a fairly relaxed time. Got some more printing done, then had a meeting with our delegation to determine who we would be supporting at the state level. Also discussed our college's decision (?) to run for president again (for the Region). The guy who wants this, clearly wants it for the “prestige” — which is an odd thought to me. (Note, there is NO prestige to being president of the region.) It did give me an insight into the people from our school more, and I think this is where I started to realized I was getting on in life.
Saturday evening, we had our final region meeting where elections took place, and also my final meeting as president. It was kind of bitter-sweet. Very nice words were said about me, which I appreciated, and I actually got a feeling that our region had benefitted from my term in office. I was shocked at the results for president, as our school won again. To be honest, I was dumbfounded. Still, they won by one vote, so at least it was close. The new president representative has a lot of growing up to do, but I'm confident that this will occur.
After it all, a couple of us went over to the bridge where the bats come out at dusk. It was pretty amazing to see it all happen. Then I went out to dinner with two of the guys from our delegation. I really enjoyed it. One of the guys is turning out to be a good friend, which is kind of confusing to me — he's straight (I didn't know gay guys had straight male friends). I've come to the realization that I enjoyed the evening because he was there.
Sunday was probably the most “fun” day of the convention. It was held on the floor of the TX House of Representatives, and it was the first serious debate to happen throughout the entire convention. The issue being debated was over the allowance of schools to be allowed to vote in the elections if they had missed roll call (which affected about 5 schools). On one side the argument was that they had the right for their votes to be heard, on the other, the argument was that if they were responsible enough, they would have been on the floor at roll call (note, roll call took place almost twenty minutes later than was announced; so these schools were more than twenty minutes late to the convention). Naturally, we were on the side of the rules – and after using a great deal of procedural manuverings we won! Yay for rules!! I have to say that the president of our delegation, did a FANTASTIC job on representing our college, and making sure that the rules were followed.
After all that, we checked out of our hotel and did a group lunch. Then off to the airport and home. That was really nice to get back to, as I started my post with.
Chris collected myself and Layton, and we came home to cook up some burgers and enjoy a bevvy or six. A perfect ending to a busy long weekend.