Every month we have a Publicist Meeting where we all gather together and discuss ways to continually improve our effectiveness.  At the end of each meeting we coerce…er, that is, encourage…someone new to lead the next meeting.  I was the lucky "volunteer" chosen to lead the April meeting, held yesterday afternoon.

The biggest decision one must face when planning the monthly Publicist Meeting is what food to provide.  Following tradition, I had solicited my fellow employees as to what snacks I should supply, and they, in turn, followed tradition by giving me no feedback whatsoever.  This didn't surprise me, of course, but it did fill me with the nasty urge to bring only a couple of bags of pork rinds.  I restrained that urge, however, and brought a fruit tray and some strawberry cream cheese tarts.  The fruit tray because the office is trying to be more health-conscious (we have two new treadmills, which I will try once I figure out what all the lights and buttons do) and the strawberry tarts because they are both tasty and rather fancy.  Let it never be said I'm not a sophisticated host.

I had also planned on having the Account Executives-those employees responsible for securing new business for the company by acquiring new clients-join us for the meeting for some brainstorming.  The idea was for all of us to share some of our areas of interests, and discuss how we can use that knowledge to our clients' benefit. 

Regrettably, the Account Executives were unable to attend the meeting because of their need to be at the Seniors Spring Expo, an event they had been working on for some time.  Undaunted, we-the publicists-compiled a list of our interests and hobbies, which included everything from weddings to animals, to be shared with the AEs at a later date.  It was heartening to hear many of the publicists list social work, environmental issues, and/or non-profits as projects in which they would like to be involved. Overall, the April Publicist Meeting was a success; we discovered a number of strengths and interests within our combined pool of talent to put to good use for our clients, and everyone enjoyed the fruit tray.  There were even some strawberry tarts left for me to take home.  I will take the time to figure out those treadmills soon, I swear.