Conference 101

This past weekend I attended a conference in Seaside, Oregon for the Surfrider Foundation training. I'm a somewhat active member, previous board member, in our local Bellingham WA chapter. Surfrider was paying for our hotel and some food and it was at the beach. Enticement enough.

The enticement ended where the conference began. It was held in a hotel basement. We were shown no movies. We played no games, not even any silly mixers to meet everyone. The only interaction was you raised your hand to ask a question to prompt moderated discussion. 9am - 4pm underground on the nicest sunniest day of the whole weekend with a swell peaking mid-day.

Our de-facto president is resigning after this event. My roommate got upset about how they handled the Snowrider project. The whole thing was a buzz kill and I learned very little. Power point presentations put me to sleep. The media presenter gave bullet points but no visual examples. Media for crying out loud! that should have been the easiest presentation to make interesting.

There were no group activities, no surf sessions, no beach walks, not even any drunkenness or debauchery, which is fine, but past events have been sponsored by Fish Tale Ale. Hello?

Sorry Surfrider, but you really let me down.