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On July 5... 
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Centennial Organizer
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Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:34 pm
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Post On July 5...
I started the day of July 5 by going over to the Westin Hotel. In the conference room, the Registration crew had gathered to make registration packets. We bagged all the Souvenir Books and then assembled packets with local materials, schedules, and name tags. We had a good turnout, including some new volunteers who just showed up. Yes, I did some bagging and assembling, until it dawned on me it was time to go get the U-Haul truck that would be used to move art panels and supplies.

I flew out of the room and drove down to Overland Park to rent the truck. Tracy took it to my house, then we went back to move his car to my place. We loaded things into the truck that were stored in my front hall. Then I left him to go on his route to get things, and I went back to the hotel to be ready for the delivery of the glass showcase. Once it arrived I went home and called the hospital to check on Pat Taylor. They told me she had passed about 40 minutes before my call.

Pati was a longtime member of KaCSFFS. She had volunteered for anything she was capable of doing for the Centennial right from the start. She was in a nursing home, and in a wheelchair -- but in 1976 she and Pat Cadigan were the two Kansas City people allowed to contact the Heinleins for the 1976 MidAmeriCon convention. She used to speak of him as "Uncle Robert".

At one point when I was hunting volunteers via our announcements list, she wrote a post that was her equivalent of the old Senator's speech in The Puppet Masters...basically "up on your feet, you ward-heelers!" She wanted to be with us, and she wanted all the KC folks to participate.

As she had her first major stroke the day before our local convention, so she passed on the day before the Centennial. I thought of it as her bid to go party with Uncle Robert in person. Her husband, John, was the liaison for the activities in the Hyatt. He said if it hadn't been for the Centennial, he would have spent the entire weekend in terrible shape, and hiding from everyone. He felt that being with us saved him from a horrible helplessness. He spent that Thursday afternoon arranging for funeral details -- and then went on to help keep the trains running.

Thursday afternoon I arranged for someone else with a truck to go get the video person, and then I went back to the hotel. I made sure the truck was unloaded, that the things we needed had actually been picked up, and that the art panels were being set up by the volunteers. Then I went and put things out on the Centennial sales table.

I think I finally went home to bed after that. Reading? You mean Bill did a reading in the Ballroom? Yes he did. It was the first thing I missed.


Sat Jul 05, 2008 9:32 am
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Heinlein Nexus
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Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:10 am
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Location: Pacific NorthWest
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Post Re: On July 5...
John did an amazing job and helped me with Programming more than I can adequately express. He defined Unconditional Service,


Wed Jul 09, 2008 8:49 pm
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