My wife, Tanya, was an event coordinator/planner for an organization called Coaches Outreach. Tanya was the person who handled all the logistics for the company’s six summer marriage conferences for high school coaching couples. This meant that she traveled every Thursday-Sunday for six consecutive weeks in the summer to be onsite for these important conferences that strengthen many couples’ marriages and in many cases save marriages. Coaches, like those of you in public assembly venues, work incredibly long hours, often to the detriment of healthy family relationships.

Tanya would have left yesterday to travel to T Bar M in New Braunfels, Texas, for a conference that begins this afternoon and runs through Sunday. She lived for these conferences despite the grueling hours and frequent travel. She got to renew many acquaintances with coaching couples and when she met first-time attendees she treated those people as if she had known them her entire life.

Tanya would have been an incredible event coordinator for you. Still, she was fulfilled working in a ministry for high school coaches and in a very small office of five. She had no assistants or others to help her carry out making sure food was hot and ready, that rooms were ready, that the A/V was working, that all registrations had been handled. She did this with incredible style and grace.

I received a phone call this morning on my cell phone from a coach who asked for Tanya regarding this weekend’s conference. As several of you know, Tanya passed away more than two years ago at age 48 during an angiogram day surgery procedure. She went in for the procedure and within two hours I was removing her from life support after a coronary dissection sent her blood flow off.

The phone call this morning jolted me — paralyzed me — as I answered and told the coach that Tanya was deceased. He still had her number to call and sounded very distressed at having called me. I assured him it was OK but he continued apologizing over and over. I further assured him that Tanya was watching over this weekend’s marriage conference. I just know she is. He continued apologizing.

We hung up and I took a deep breath. I had not thought much about this weekend’s Coaches Outreach marriage conference, but now it was the only thing on my mind. At this very moment Tanya would have been meeting with resort staff going over all logistics before attendees began registering in this afternoon. I attended one conference with her every summer and got to watch my angel in action. She was incredible. She is incredible.

I continue doing my best to move forward in life. We were taught in Grief Share class that those who tell you that your departed spouse (and those same people offering you advice) would want you to “move on” are terribly incorrect with those words. Indeed, we move FORWARD, we do not move ON. You do not move on from losing someone you shared life with for almost 25 years. You do attempt your very best to move forward.

IAVM has helped me move forward. You have helped me move forward. You have helped me to know better the event planning and event coordinating I need to do in my own life.

Treasure your relationships, whether it is with your spouse, partner, family, friends, anyone. I am grateful that Tanya was placed in my life to love for as long as we were together. Don’t get bogged down or frustrated by the “day-to-day” in your relationships. Those are inevitable. Just know that any day could literally be the last you have with that person you love the most. Treat that day as such.

I realize this blog does not help you run your business or your venue any better, but I decided to take a little editorial license by sharing these thoughts, personal as they are. If you ever find yourself in need of talking to someone about a loss, I am always here for you, just as so many of you have been for me throughout the years.

The Green Sports Alliance, a membership organization of nearly 500 professional and collegiate leagues, teams, and venues, along with supporting organizations such as vendors, suppliers, and sponsoring corporations – as well as individual athletes — issued a challenge to all sports lovers: join the Alliance in the fight against climate change.

“In the current climate, we’ve gone from a state of concern to a state of emergency,” said Justin Zeulner, executive director for the Green Sports Alliance. “Climate change threatens the sports industry’s very existence. It has never been more urgent for the industry to take action – and it’s doing just that.

“Across the board, from owners to athletes, sports organizations are focusing their attention and resources on greening their sport. That singular focus is essential to winning in sports – and in the battle against climate change. The stakes are too high to risk inaction. Losing is not an option.”

And now, the Alliance is opening up its membership ranks to include individual fans.

“Live green or die” has been basketball Hall-of-famer Bill Walton’s battle cry for many years, and the Alliance adopted it as well. Together, the Alliance and Bill Walton urge athletes, fans, and all sports lovers to take the LIVE GREEN OR DIE ™ challenge. Anyone can go to LIVE GREEN OR DIE ™, take a pledge, commit to greater sustainability, and join the Alliance in leading the sports greening movement.

“We have the moral obligation, duty, and responsibility to do everything we can to remedy what’s happening – environmental cancers, poisoned water, and unbreathable air – all due to climate change, which is a self-inflicted tragedy,” said Walton. He urged people to take the challenge. “Get on the Green Sports Alliance express. This is not something that will happen by itself. Our success, our future, our lives depend on each of us taking positive and concentrated steps forward based on knowledge, science, and technology.”

After more than two decades of successfully helping fairs and festivals refine and streamline food and beverage service, Greg Flakus, founder of GF Strategies, has announced plans to retire at the end of 2017.

“We do plan to continue to work with the festivals this summer,” Flakus said. “We also plan to continue on a selected basis working with venues that are seeking help with selecting a master food contractor or an on-site look at their food and beverage operations.”

Since 1996, when GF Strategies accepted its first customer outside of the Northwest region, the Houston Livestock Show, the company has helped 53 fairs implement a sales tracking system for food sales. The system is in place from Massachusetts to San Diego to South Carolina. The results have allowed these fairs to increase their year over year sales and benefit from the company’s expertise on menus, layout, signage, seating and transaction levels by area and event wide.

In 1992 GF Strategies was asked by then-manager of the Oregon State Fair Don Hillman to help the fair with a project to select a new food and beverage contractor. They also created what would become the model for sales tracking long before cashless sales and smartphones arrived on the scene.

“Little did we know that that project would lead to the formation of our company as Winning Ticket Strategies in 1993,” Flakus said. The company changed its name in 2000 to GF Strategies, more appropriate to the concept.

The Oregon State Fair in Salem still uses the system, as do some of the top fairs and events in the nation, including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; The Eastern States Expo, West Springfield, Mass.; San Diego County Fair, Del Mar; and the Arizona State Fair, Phoenix. In all the company has worked with fairs in 20 states, including state fairs in Oregon, Indiana, Oklahoma, Washington, and Colorado, and major fairs in California, Texas, Indiana, Vermont, Oregon and the home state of Washington. In Oregon, 10 fairs continue to use the GF Strategies system as well as eight in California and six in Washington.

The company also provides food and beverage consulting to festivals, stadiums, arenas and convention centers, including on-site visits to review food and beverage operations, assistance with selection of a year-round food service provider and labor and food cost reviews.

Schuler Shook announced the promotion of two talented, dedicated staff members to Principal.

Paul Whitaker, LEED AP, is promoted to Principal in the firm. Whitaker’s diverse experience in both architectural lighting design and theatre planning are complemented by his continued work as a theatrical lighting designer off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. Whitaker first worked in Schuler Shook’s Minneapolis office as an intern and project designer from 1997-1999. He re-joined Schuler Shook in 2006 as a lighting designer and theatre consultant. He became a senior theatre consultant and senior lighting designer – one of the few people in the firm to hold both titles – in 2014.

“Paul’s depth and breadth of knowledge and skills allow him to work on an architecture project pursuing LEED certification as well

as consult on some of today’s best spaces for performance. Paul’s promotion stems from his true leadership at Schuler Shook,” said Michael DiBlasi, ASTC, Partner and Practice Leader in Schuler Shook’s Minneapolis office.

Whitaker’s significant projects in theatre and lighting include Target Field Station; Macalester College Commons and Music Building; Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas; Howard Theatre; The Palace Theatre; and Woody Guthrie Center and Guthrie Green.

Jim Hultquist, ASTC, LEED AP, is promoted to Principal in the firm. Hultquist joined Schuler Shook as a project theatre consultant in 2009, working with Robert Shook to start the firm’s Melbourne office. He became a senior theatre consultant in 2012 after the successful completion of the Hamer Hall refurbishment and his work in developing a strong and lasting presence in Australia. Hultquist now leads a team that offers theatre, audio-visual and specialty lighting consulting services.

“Jim is great to work with, enjoyable and personable, and a strong leader for our Melbourne team. I am incredibly pleased with all that he is doing for our clients in Melbourne and beyond,” said company Director Robert Shook, FASTC, FIALD.

Hultquist’s notable projects include Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Renewal; Hamer Hall; Cairns Performing Arts Centre; Bunjil Place Theatre; Sydney Lyric Theatre; and Her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide.

Please welcome our newest members who joined IAVM in May 2017. Thank you for being a part of the association!

Also, let us get to know you better by participating in the I Am Venue Management series. Please visit http://www.iavm.org/i-am-venue-management-share-your-story to share your story and photo.

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