Monday, June 30, 2008

2008 Summer Regional - Indy

Last weekend Cornbread and I went on our 4th summer regional for Edward Jones. Every year is different and more comfortable than the previous. This year was wonderful!

We were in Indianapolis from Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning. My mom came and stayed with the girls while we went away by ourselves - it is awesome! And benefits everyone involved:)

We got there on Thursday afternoon - later than we had hoped, but still in time for Cornbread to speak on a veteran's panel for the segment 1 & 2 FA's. I hung out in our room alone - with no one asking me questions, no one fighting or crying, no cartoons. It was beyond lovely:)

The last two years have been in beautiful resorts in Wisconsin. This year was in the heart of downtown Indy. Its definitely a different experience to have the weekend in the city rather than a resort. Both are fun and exciting - not sure which I like better.

We didn't do many truly exciting things while we were there, but it was fun to just hang out in the city for a few days. We walked to the zoo on Friday afternoon, hung out at a billiards/bowling bar with the company on Friday night, watched the Sox win their games against the Cubs, hung out at the oldest bar in Indiana and listened to live blues, went to an Irish pub and went running (btw - I fell in love with running in the city!). Nothing mind blowing, but it was all fun and it was all filled with hanging out with other people.

There were a couple of nice differences this year from the previous years:
* Since last summer, the region has split and become smaller - we went from 72 FA's and their spouses to 53 FA's and spouses - HUGE difference. There were 11 brand new FA's and several of them did not have spouses. The smaller region makes the meetings go quicker and makes getting to know the others a whole lot easier. Since there were 11 brand new FA's there were 42 veteran FA's. This means that the pool of people that we've been with at previous regionals is smaller and more familiar. It also means that there were quite a few new people to get to know and try to be as welcoming as possible and help them feel as comfortable as possible (something that we did not experience at our first regional).

* Because this was our fourth regional it was much more comfortable than the previous three. Last years was good, but this year was awesome. It is strange - I now totally understand why people didn't go out of their way to make us feel comfortable at our first regional. I also understand why people didn't make an effort to get to know us. There are many factors that go into this, but a big one is that due to the nature of the business and the training that EJ FA's go through, many of the brand new people are not there the following year - so why try to get to know them if they won't likely stick around? Now, because of our experience, we try hard to get to know them and put some effort into meeting them when we're at these things. We do what we can, but at the same time the responsibility does not fall entirely on our shoulders. One thing that I try to remember is that if we can support these guys a little better, maybe the fallout will be less. We hung out with a new FA all day on Thursday. It wasn't the most comfortable situation for me, but it was important to do.

* Because it was our 4th regional, we knew quite a few of the veteran's - we had the opportunity to get to know them at the last two meetings because we didn't bring our children with us.

I think for the two of us it is so important to go without our kids - not only for the fact that it is nice to get away and go on vacation without them, but since we try to place high priority on building relationships it is much easier to try to do so without dragging kids all over with us and being interrupted while trying to have a conversation. Even if the other person has their kids, its still easier for US to focus on building that relationship if our kids are not there.

It was a nice weekend away. We were exhausted by the time we got home because we stayed up way too late every night, but we were still able to stay up late enough last night to watch the White Sox sweep the Cubs:) A perfect ending to a wonderful weekend (oh, and my mom cleaned my house while she was here - much better than I ever do. I think I will come up with a reason for her to come here for a couple of days every week, uh, I mean month;)

3 comments:

kkoois 3:11 PM  

glad you had such a good time! is your mom free for a weekend of babysitting and cleaning in memphis anytime soon?!?!?

Kristy 1:27 AM  

Sounds like a WONDERFUL getaway!! Has it been a year already??

one hot momma 7:48 AM  

How blessed you are to have your mom available to help out! It is so important for you two to get away without the kids too! We keep saying that and never actually get around to doing it! However, my parents took the kids overnight Saturday and we went out for our anniversary! It was so needed, and so wonderful! Glad you were able to enjoy yourselves! GO SOX!

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