The three of us huddled around my tiny kitchen table with notebooks spread out before us running through a diverse agenda. My kitchen also serves as the Executive Conference Room for the new company we’ve started. It’s kind of nice because the fridge is right there if anybody wants anything. “Acoustic Café” my Sunday morning ritual is playing on the radio. If things get touchy, the liquor cabinet is also within arm’s reach.
The kitchen/Executive Conference Room is adjacent to my Beloved Back Deck which also serves as the Executive Offices of the President/CEO. We’re establishing satellite offices on Wilmington Island and Pooler (more on the expansion plans later). The living room completes the Corporate Headquarters although we haven’t figured out its use yet.
We’re having our first staff meeting. We’ve meet over lunch a couple of times but this is the first official staff meeting and we’re dressed for the occasion. I have on running shorts and a tee shirt.
I’ve really missed corporate life!
For years I ran a weekly management meeting with all of my direct reports. I tried to keep it light and fun because the issues we were managing were so serious and dark. Over time, I turned over the management of the management meeting to a Chief Operating Officer. She was a bit more serious about it all than me though she rarely showed up on time.
Towards the end at Union Mission I took to taking the entire management team out to lunch for meetings at Johnny Harris’s, a Savannah institution. None of the African-Americans liked it but it is where old Savannah goes (all white) for meetings. In Savannah most every important decision takes place over lunch. I’m not sure why this is, but it is.
Besides I really like their “Noon Special”
We’d gotten through a lot of trauma and everybody was working killer hours so I thought it important to lighten everything up a bit. Not that I was especially light at the time. I was depressed.
Anyway a year has passed since I’ve haven’t hosted a staff meeting ... or a meeting of any kind. I do attend Bored meeting but I don’t think that counts.
But yesterday we met for about three hours. One showed up Bra-less because she thought we were going to Bar Church and when she’d asked me what people wear to Bar Church, I thought she’d said Bra-Church and told her that I’d never seen one there.
The other wore blue jean shorts and some designer tee shirt.
I must say that I’m very pleased with the corporate culture we are establishing in the new Corporate Headquarters of the new company we have started.
To commemorate the “soft” launch of the new company I’d cooked sausage gravy and biscuits for brunch which was served in the kitchen/Corporate Board Room. This was a symbolic decision on my part. Sausage gravy and biscuits launched my career in Louisville when I’d craw out of bed on Sunday mornings and cook it for over a hundred homeless people because all of the soup kitchens were closed for the weekend (who knew hunger took time off?).
Those Sunday morning breakfasts were the starting point of a career that has been amazing. Well … up until last year. But it’s kind of like the wedding renewal vows that I’m conducting on the beach later today. They’ve been married 25 years and want to renew their vows. So we’ll gather on the beach and I’ll say something like …
“Dearly Beloved! We are here today to celebrate O Johnny and Judy’s 25th wedding anniversary … 16 of the happiest years of their lives.”
21 out of 23 years for me isn’t too shabby!
Anyway … I wanted to signify the launch of this effort is going to be just as amazing as that first one was. Jesus started the whole “Born Again” movement with a Last Supper consisting of bread and wine. I figured sausage gravy and biscuits, served with screwdrivers is perfect for this endeavor.
At some point we left the kitchen/Corporate Board Room and retreated to the Beloved Back Deck/Corporate Executive Office of the President/CEO. It’s at this point that I lost the tee shirt. But we sat out under Fran’s thousand shades of green talking about how committed we are to this. How the opportunities are there! How the needs for what we have to off are incredible. How business has already sought us out. Even Union Mission could use some of what we got.
Then “Acoustic Café” was over and they started playing regular rock ‘n’ roll. I called the meeting to an end and everyone left with their assignments. I played Frisbee with Goddess.
Last night I returned to the Beloved Back Deck/Corporate Executive Office of the President/CEO and propped by feet on the railing. I was thinking deep thoughts like “Is your foot equal to the size of our face”?
Then I had to go to bed. The rest of the week is full of stuff that I’m now obligated to do. It’s a good thing that Corporate Headquarters is located beside the ocean. Cause we’re diving in the deep end.
And it’s going to be a beautiful dive!
