Giggle Juice – The End of an Era

Howdy TAGITM!

On the September 12th board call, one of my favorite dudes, Scott Joyce, said it would be his last meeting after nine years of service to TAGITM. Not going to lie, folks, it bummed me out. It’s that same deal when someone retires and you’re so happy for them, but then you realize they’ll be riding off into the sunset holding one of their beloved and comically fruity adult beverages of choice and you’re not going to hang with them as much. I’ve had the privilege of serving with Scott the past few years, and man, has it been fun. Straight up awesome guy. He’ll still be around, obviously, but now I’m going to have to think twice before ordering fruity drinks around board members because Scott won’t be there to deflect scrutiny. THANKS SCOTT! Of course, I’m kidding bro. Thank you for your exceptional leadership and the many years you gave to TAGITM. I hope you enjoy every bit of that newfound time you’re going to have. Maybe you’ll have time to figure out that whole hot tub fiasco Monica “Mom Jeans” Liwag from CDWG ratted on you about.

On to other business. In August, I had the privilege of attending the GMIS Meets annual conference in Point Clear, Alabama. I’m going to tell y’all now, Alabama has been lying to everyone this entire time. It was an amazingly beautiful location off the bay. This super cool town named Fairhope was nearby that is killing it with their downtown. I know that because I saw how much Mrs. Mc spent in a single afternoon. Totally worth checking out the next time you and the fam may be driving through to Florida.

That aside, I had a great time chatting up our peers from across the nation. I would say it was a more intimate gathering but with a very similar vibe to us. Definitely a fun bunch, great folks, and they were thrilled to have TAGITM in the house! Their incoming president Brenda Ternes made the mistake of befriending me, so now we’re practically besties, which she’ll probably wind up regretting at some point (lol). In my defense she does keep a life-size Captain Piquard cutout in her office. I’m not a Star Trek guy, but clearly this is someone with a sense of humor. Props to her! GMIS is in very good hands and our collaboration could turn out to be a really cool benefit for all parties.

One great thing I got out of the GMIS event is something a couple of TAGITM board members have really been pushing for membership, that being an accreditation program. I met the gentlemen who is helping drive that out of New Zealand of all places. Did you know Australian and Kiwi slang are not the same? Don’t ask how I know that. The board will be meeting in person next month in College Station and I do hope to elaborate on that topic a bit. More to come on that!

Several committee meetings have begun in earnest recently to prep for some P-R-E-T-T-Y amazing events on the horizon. Angie and the Education Committee are working hard on our Regional Summits, currently scheduled for 11/14 and 2/6 in Grand Prairie and The Woodlands respectively. The GIS Committee agreed to host our FIRST EVER GIS Summit, which is locked in for 1/16 in Lewisville. Hopefully Lana doesn’t get mad at me for sharing this, but I hopped on the Conference Committee call this week and they were talking about themes ranging from cowboys to the 80’s for our annual event 4/22 – 4/25/25. Yes please!

The last thing I’ll mention is another one of my favorite dudes, Mr. VP, and he of the glorious order of the beards himself. Mr. James O’Brien is proposing an OT specific track with some other fascinating ideas on building public speaking skills. Anything and everything is on the table, y’all. If you feel strongly and would like to advocate for these ideas and/or throw out your own, please feel free to reach out to myself or anyone on the board to have your voice heard. We want our TAGITM events to be the best possible experience it can possibly be for all. Govies, partners, media, all my new GMIS homies I’m going to annoy CMP about….everyone!!! That’s all I got folks, until next time, thank you for reading and have a wonderful month!