Sunshine and Joy.....Sunshine and Joy

Good morning...wow, it's early! School starts in three weeks, and Paige and I will be in for a serious adjustment. We are going to have to start going to bed early and getting up early next week in order to to get back in the groove in time for school. She's starting a week earlier than she did last year - August 17th. I remember when I was in school; we didn't start until after Labor Day. Times have changed....

So...I guess I'll send in my Pod Credentials paperwork today and register for the GP Meeting. Luckily, it's close to the house so we can drive down Friday morning and come home Saturday after the meeting. I hope that those attending the meeting will really listen to what the Board is presenting in regards to the GPM format and agree to change it. This year has been an example of why it needs to change. It is not fair for an individual to ask to host it, then have cooks from other Pods that they really aren't even associated with any other time, help them raise the money for the meeting. If those Pods wanted to be that involved, they would have asked to host the GPM, in my opinion. I know I sound negative about this, and I know I'm bordering on sounding like a downright bitch, but I'm not saying anything that isn't true. Hosting a GPM takes two or three pods at the least; it's negligent to think one person can say, "I'll do it" and then expect other people to step in and do the work they don't like to do. If it weren't for DAM Pod people helping out, then who knows what would be happening with the meeting. Still, I don't agree with how this year's meeting has been handled and I hope things change for the better after the GP's are presented with the new format that's being proposed. I also think it's crap that I'm being told to hurry up and register. I've got till August 15th. I think it says a lot about the state of CASI when less than half of the GP's are registered for the meeting. Maybe not as a whole and in every area of CASI, but at least when it pertains to the 2010 GP Meeting.

Like any organization, CASI is experiencing growing pains. The key is to make the most of the opportunities that are out there by striving to communicate better with the members, allow the organization to evolve by, "gasp", doing things differently than they've been done before, and to hold the BOD and members accountable for making CASI stronger. Blame is what you get when you don't communicate and you just fight and point fingers. Accountability is what you have when you work together, communicate, and take responsibility for your actions and decisions - even when they don't produce the results you thought they would. I hope that instead of being afraid of change, CASI will embrace it and recognize that it is the key to not just survival, but success. Businesses, and CASI is just that, have to evolve in order to continue to grow. I hope more people will run for the BOD. Change has to start with the Board. If you don't like what the Board is doing, then vote for people you think will do what you feel is needed for CASI. If you don't think those people are out there, then run yourself. You don't have to be satisfied with the status quo. Every one of us has the potential to make a difference. I know that there are a lot of members out there unsatisfied with the current state of CASI - do something about it! I know you may snicker and think it's easy for me to say as I sit at my computer and complain....but that isn't the intention - at least for me. My hope is to make people think and encourage people to say how they feel and voice their opinions. We are just as important to CASI as the sponsors. Without us, there are no cook offs. All of us have a right to expect that our voices be heard and see our organization taken care of and ran by people who want to see that everyone in CASI benefit from the rules, policies and decisions being made. If that is negative and critical, then yeah - I guess I am. Challenging a group of people to do better is the least we can do; we're all going to be better off for it.

Just when I think I have problems, my dogs are trying to fit under a bookcase in the kitchen to get a lone morsel of food. Never mind that their guts are round and tight because they just ate. Those poor babies....they act like they don't know where they're next meal will come from.

Good day everyone......it's almost Friday!

Kelly