CRPRA meets the 2nd Thursday of each month, September through May.

Mark your calendars!

 
        by Eric Wylie

What do you do when the guest speaker can't attend?

As a Steering Committee, we've pondered this question over the years, and have had a 'plan' of sorts in place to respond to such a situation. For the first time in recent memory, we were forced to put that plan into action in December when the guest speaker, Eric Bochner, was not able to make it to our meeting. (We did, however, still enjoy our chocolates from Bochner Chocolates, courtesy of CRPRA and our intrepid chocolate scout, Amber O'Connor!)

In lieu of a guest speaker, yours truly led a group discussion aimed at helping those in attendance with particular communications or PR issues. Through lots of good interaction and idea sharing, we talked about:

• Having an attitude of abundance instead of an attitude of scarcity (being positive)
• Finding and acting on opportunities to connect clients with one another
• Perceptions and assumptions of businesses based on their size or marketing prowess (i.e. - A large company that does an excellent job of marketing most likely has very expensive products. Not necessarily -- please see "Wal-Mart.")
• Acting as a consultant to customers - not always being there to sell, but to advise
• Web-based collaboration tools - which ones to use - are they helpful, etc.
• The high value and return on investment of good customer service/creating positive customer experiences
• Suggestions for specific people to invite or topics to be covered at future CRPRA meetings.
  

Although we didn't break much new ground, it was a good discussion, and we all used our positive attitudes to make the best of the situation. Our thanks to all who participated for their time and understanding.

With our back-up plan now expended, the next time we have a guest cancel you'll get to hear all about my rock collection! (Just kidding! We're already working on the "new" back-up plan.)

Why didn't CRPRA just cancel the December meeting?

Even though the weather had been frightful, we continued with plans for the meeting to be held because we felt road conditions had improved enough that most people were back to work and could attend the meeting. As it turned out, only four of December's registered attendees were unable to join us.

We sent a note to all registered attendees the morning of the meeting to let them know that the meeting was still "on." It wasn't until after that notice went out, closer to the meeting time, that we learned that our guest speaker was not able to travel up from Iowa City to be with us.

As a Steering Committee, we do our best to schedule 'in-town' speakers in the worst of the wintry months - like January and February - to avoid this situation. We had not counted on such a large storm in early December. Future CRPRA planning sessions will now include a review of the Farmer's Almanac!

A note about Reservations and "No-shows"

Once we, as an organization, make a commitment to a caterer (which happens several days before each meeting) we are on the hook to pay the bill for the number of people confirmed with the caterer. Since we are NOT a for-profit organization, we don't have the cash-flow to cover those who register but choose not to attend and provide their payment. That is why we bill "no-shows" - we must be able to cover the expenses of every meeting.