Oh,
What a Convention!
by
Paul Dutton, Paul's Pro Window Washing
"You
have worked hard all year and deserve a break, so come to
the IWCA Convention in San Antonio and relax. You deserve
it." I remember reading that somewhere before leaving to go
to the convention.
As
I packed on Tuesday, I had a million last-minute details to
finish up. It always seems that leaving the business for a
few days takes twice as much preparation and work for some
reason. If you're like me, you were packing until 1 o'clock
in the morning. Finally after a rough day of turbulence on
the plane and crazy one-handed bus drivers in San Antonio,
I miraculously arrived at the Holiday Inn around five in the
afternoon. Great, now I can finally relax and crash out in
my room. Wait, I have to register, find a spot for my J. Racenstein
contest display and still have to get a room. Hey, there are
the guys from last year, I can never remember a name to save
my life.
Holy
smokes! It's 8:30 p.m. and I haven't even had dinner. Let
me see, the schedule says the first seminar is at 7:00 a.m.,
that's 5:00 a.m. California time. So much for sleeping in.
I ought to be nice and rested with four hours of sleep from
the night before, too. I knew I would sleep through my wake-up
call. You know, pick it up and drop it back down again and
go right back to sleep. Anyway, I meet with Jon Capon at the
residential Round Table Thursday morning. Just listening to
all the different residential guys bring up the different
challenges each faces because of their economic areas and
geographic problems was interesting. Coming from California
it's hard to conceptualize driving your four-wheel drive through
the snow in a Colorado blizzard to do some windows for a crazy
lady. Many of us had the same problems of bow to keep a contract
customer on her regular service time. I wish we could have
talked for hours, but on to the next seminar.
Next,
the regional seminars for the different areas of the countries
- what a great idea! I hope these regional roundtables will
produce regional organizations or branches, or branch
offices, for the different regions around the country. Can
you visualize regional meetings in each state once a year,
culminating with a grand IWCA convention having each region
represented? As each region faces its own problems and has
its own economic concerns with employment, repressed economies,
state regulations, and insurance problems, regional meetings
would address these issues more directly.
I
have always been big, especially in the last three years,
on networking. It is and will be the ultimate marketing, and
advertising of the 90's. The IWCA has stumbled upon this and
we window cleaners being the sharp group that we are said
yes. Let's network regionally as well. The skills bank has
been initiated and is going to become crucial and vital to
the growth of all our companies. Now we can help each other
out and can also exchange ideas through networking.
Coming
back on the bus from Rio Cibolo Ranch that night, I was fortunate
enough in my intoxicated state to talk with Milton Johannson
(Hallsta Fonsterputs) of Sweden, and through international
inebriation communication we were able to converse on lots
of topics, always followed by Ya, Ya, Ya, tis good. Truly
unforgettable night at the ranch playing basketball, roping
the mechanical steer, and wolfing down all the food I could
find, washed down by beer or Margaritas, and talking with
members. OK, I can finally get caught up on my sleep. Who's
the idiot that set off the fire alarm three times that night?
Well, that night the alarm went off several times because
the 7th and 8thfloors got flooded. Needless to say, many of
us didn't get much sleep at all.
Shoot,
6:45 a.m. again. Man, these 7:00 a.m. seminars are brutal.
Both these seminars, Operations Management for Large Companies
(over ten employees), and Operations Management for Small
Companies (under ten employees), I felt were very crucial.
What if you're like me and have seven to eight employees and
plan to grow to eleven or twelve in the coming year - which
should I attend? Should I sit in and see how the "big guys"
do it, or should I sit in on companies my own size - decisions,
decisions! Well, fortunately there are tapes you can buy of
each seminar so if you missed anything you can still purchase
tapes, even after the seminar or Convention is over. The trouble
is, we all wish we had more time to delve deeper into these
topics, maybe we can extend the number of days of the convention
next year.
I
noticed after attending and talking with many different companies
all over the United States and abroad that there seem to be
two categories: the residential and the high-rise people.
Many of us in the residential field watching the speed contest
were amazed and shocked. We started making jokes like "at
least we wipe our sills," but mostly it was "yeah, try that
fanning stuff on a window with five years of grit on it and
I’ll show you a lousy job." I know dissension amongst us doesn't
promote good will, so let me just say I have a lot of respect
for those highrise guys.
The
Convention was a great value for the money. I can't believe
the amount of seminars, dinners, the cost of the banquet,
Rio Cibolo Ranch excursion, and the cocktail parties, only
came to $200 per person. What a deal! You know the sponsors
like J. Racenstein, Unger, Pulex, Unelko, Ettore, and many
others forked out some dollars to make this convention as
successful as it was. Many of us don't realize how much time
and effort and planning goes into these conventions. The IWCA
board of directors did a great job of planning.
As
I sit in the airport in San Antonio, I have a lot of emotions
buzzing through me. The Speed Medley contest was a lot of
fun and I guess I didn't do too badly coming in eleventh place
over all. The networking between companies for many of us
was just invaluable. The exchanging of problems and ideas
and common ground made us all feel there's someone else out
there that is experiencing the same thing. Tomorrow when I
go out in the field, I'll have a sense of feeling that I'm
not alone any more. Boy, I sure am glad this was a restful,
relaxing vacation. Maybe I can sleep on the plane on the way
home. The stewardess asked, "You look tired," when she served
me my drinks. And I said, "Oh, well, nothing twenty hours
of sleep can't cure."
This
article was reprinted with permission from American
Window Cleaner magazine.
