Fall 2019
The Airplane Speech By Al Gage, CPP, PRP, PAP
Dear AIP members, Hello all! I am very excited to have been elected AIP President for 2019-2020. I started to say, “and I can’t wait to go to work for you,” but that has already occurred. Admittedly, I am a little overwhelmed by the administrivia of the job, but I believe I can get through it.
Table of Contents President’s Letter
1
Calendar of Events
2
AIP Officers
2
Deadline Dates - Communicator
2
Welcome New Members
4
Education Committee Report
4
2020 West Coast Practicum
5
Thank You Donors
5
Annual Session Wrap-Up
6
AIP Amazon Smile
8
One of the things I would like to talk to you about is your “airplane speech.” Some of you may know it as an elevator speech, but I find that you can’t complete the task of an elevator speech for parliamentarians in the time it takes to ride an elevator, unless of course it gets stuck. I am talking about that awkward moment when you sit on a plane and the person asks you what you do for a living. Of course, you respond, “I am a professional parliamentarian!” They always respond in one of two ways. The first way they respond is, “Wow, you don’t even have a British accent!” The second one is more common and entails a long blank stare while they consider whether to feign as if they know what that is or just simply say, “What is that?” I know many of you are not working parliamentarians but all of you have expressed an interest in the topic and I am sure ALL of you have a higher level of knowledge of parliamentary procedure when compared to the general public. So how do you answer that question? I have heard answers such as a parliamentarian is a meeting facilitator, or we are experts in meeting procedure. These responses usually evoke the same blank stare! We all seem to eventually get back around to have you ever heard of Robert’s Rules of Order? Usually, one of these responses will result at least some level of understanding.
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Fall 2019
AIP Communicator