Sue and I drove in together and arrived about a half hour early. To my surprise, and pleasure, probably half of the class was already there. As we walked in and got coffee we immediately began meeting and greeting; there was very little standoffishness here - everyone was an experienced business professional and knew how to act like it. Everyone that I met seemed very pleasant and I quickly discovered that most of them had been told the same thing by their predecessors that I had been told by mine - accounting knowledge in the program is rare and to be treasured. I found I suddenly had at least ten new friends eager to get to know me and secure my goodwill and future help.
At about 9:30 we got started and Professor Arnold spoke for a few minutes, announced that 2008 is the 50th anniversary of the FIM program and then introduced the alumni, after passing on our first reading assignment from Professor Miles. Fully half of the students from last year were back today to give us a tour, share their insights and help make us as comfortable and prepared as possible. They also tried to impart to us the importance of tradition at USC and to pass on some of the FIM traditions to our class.
Several of the alumni stood up and spoke about various aspects of the program and I was immediately impressed with the presence and excellent speaking skills they brought to the presentation. I was particularly impressed with Fred from Basha's (the spokesperson for the 2007 class), Lou a 33 year veteran of Safeway (who I believe was recently promoted to Vice President), Erin the class of 2007's Spice Girl (she works for McCormick) and our very own Matt Johnson. There were several others, but those are the ones that were both most outstanding and that I had the most opportunity to talk with throughout the day. They were so excited for us and passionate about what we would be learning that it was infectious and I think we all started to really get excited too.
After they spoke and answered questions for awhile, we broke into smaller groups and toured with a few of the alumni. Most of the students hadn't had a chance to get their books, parking permit, etc. yet so we made a lot of stops to do that. We broke up at about 1pm with the alumni inviting us to come to Oakwood, where I'm living, for a barbeque in our honor at 5pm. Sue and I had lunch with a few of our classmates and then headed back to Oakwood.
Just after 5pm I headed to the barbeque for more meeting and greeting. It was a nice casual atmosphere and I got to meet some more folks and get to know some of those I'd met earlier a little better. About an hour into it Denny, 2007's BBQ speaker, gave a toast and the 2007 class presented us with a few gifts. The first was the FIM barbeque tools, that they had received from the 2006 class. One of the FIM traditions is that every Thursday evening, no matter how much work we have to do and how stressed we may feel, we're supposed to have a barbeque. Somehow I was spontaneously elected grillmaster by my class (and perpetual washer of the barbeque tools) and I immediately got to work grilling burgers and dogs with 2007's grill man Mike "Moose" Johnson from Unified Grocers. They also gave us a propane heater since it gets pretty cold as soon as the sun goes down. Stephanie, from Associated Foods, was appointed class handyman and charged with getting the heater assembled by next Thursday and Dawn, from Safeway, volunteered to be our BBQ speaker/toast giver.
The BBQ broke up about 9 and I went back to my apartment to get started on some reading. Today was a great day and I'm even more excited about USC after feeling the enthusiasm from the 2007 class.
1 comment:
Haven't you learned anything, the cook never has to do the cleaning. You need to elect a BBQ tool washer for 2008.
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