The Best for Last

Poem for Rob

What does it mean to be the best?

It isn’t a contest among the rest.

It happens when fate meets the test of time;

One in a million -- with faith, hope, and love - it shines;

The crème de la crème always rises.

Such is Life, with its periodic surprises.

Who do you want on that wall? Red Sky at night or squall;

On the horizon - one who stands tall;

Laughing out loud, the last -- youngest but never the least;

Strong and smart -- as a gentle beast.

Propose a toast to all that is great;

Family, friends and twist of fate.

Pop the cork, rock solid and steady, willing, able, always ready;

Bang on copper-bottom pots and pans, throw confetti.
A year older. Another year wiser. Never give up the fight.

You are proof that mom and dad would eventually get it right.

Happy Birthday Rob Morgan August 30, 2015

Lynn Mary Lynn Zsa Zza

Atom Bomb anniversary. KA-BOOM!

Lynn is born – make some room.

You thought her older brother had center stage?

Well -- welcome to another age.

Yacht Club, The Leprechaun, S&H stamps.

Couches, ash trays, end tables, alabaster lamps.

My sister Lynn - It has always been;

Lots of laughs, bubble gum, Rin Tin Tin.

Andrews. Augustine. Horace Mann.

Kool Aid Stands, Terry the milk man, Kick the Can

Marlboro cigarettes, Roll-on deodorant -- Ban

Just in time to tease the oh so sensitive Dan

“Walkin’ through a meadow - a bird flew over me”

Rob performs 4 all to see - Rip Van Winkle-Rip Van D

Boot’s Theater or Boots Made for Walkin’

Arts and Drama - Everybody’s Talkin’

Captain Penny or Kangaroo, Combat, Ghoulardi  

If we’re the sum of these parts, I wonder -Who are we?

Teenage angst – I’ve got Friday on my mind.

Race to the moon -- a giant leap for mankind

Stop the war! – Especially if it means skipping school,

Saddle shoes, uniforms and golden rule.

This is the Age of Aquarius. Be nobody’s fool.

Bell bottoms, 45s, late at night, oh so cool.

Bustin’ out at eighteen -- you wanna be free

Four Alter boys -- all in -- Let it Be

St. Luke the Evangelist writes it down;

Lickety–split -- married -- out of town.

Time goes on, smile, remember the joy, be happy

Life is a journey, lots of livin to do -- make it snappy

Ice cream, chocolate cake and birthday wishes;
I think it's Greg's turn to do the dishes.

 

Love ya Lynn – Wes. (Did you really convince me to get into a cardboard box and ride in it like a roller coaster down the basement stairs?)

At the Trainwreck

It is July in St. Louis. The American Marketing Association incoming chapter President Pier Alsup calls an informal gathering to order at the Westport Trainwreck Saloon.  The heat index is in the high nineties but it is a welcome contrast to perhaps the rainiest June on record in Mound City.

Board members file in casually. Over quesadilla, mushroom poppers, chicken drummies and a beverage of choice you get a preview of the coming year. Angela, Bob and Pier attended the Leadership Summit and the take aways are parceled as topics unfold. Molly and Wes have provided some input as membership co-chairs. Wes, of course, is compelled to again revisit the leaky bucket metaphor that addresses the essential two part strategy for any successful chapter membership plan: 1. Retention and 2. Member Acquisition.  

Bob is a fan of a strategy that allows our chapter to get recognition many of us feel is long overdue. We deserve to be on one of those Chapter Excellence Award banners but have only submitted the required paperwork a handful of times in recent history. Wes recalls a year when the submission earned special recognition for collegiate efforts.

We celebrate the success at UMSL and look forward to steady progress at Lindenwood University where we hope we can grow and mentor future marketers and maybe future chapter leaders too. The marketing roundtable program is re-tooling. Dan reported on the roundtable at the Conference last February and results were highlighted on the AMA St. Louis website. The website features a new look and the chapter logo which was rolled out last year.  Bob is convincing in his assertion that the site has enhanced functionality as well.

This local branding may be a bit of a sore point at International Headquarters. IH has a new CEO and it is clear the larger association is wondering if positioning itself as the most relevant source of marketing knowledge in the world is strong enough.  The power in 75 regional chapters does not go unnoticed. The CEO diplomatically suggests that we are “better together” and the Professional Chapters Council (PCC) leadership seem to concur. (A curious thing, given the fact that PCC is made up of leaders of exceptional chapters, many of whom have worked their way through their own divisive branding exercises.)   

The chapter year is officially underway. The annual golf classic at Creve Coeur Golf Course managed to happen  July 3, 2015 with 30 golfers on a holiday weekend. Now the beginning of strategy ideation begins as the torch is passed.  Good call Pier! And Pier, Greg, Mark, Bob, Courtney, Amanda, Kym, Dan, and Wes disperse from the Trainwreck. They are sure to start the word-of-mouth, social media and committee conversations that gets us on track one more time. 

Rangers in a Time Machine

We were just kids in the 1960s. We were well into a new decade when we entered the big factory that was Lakewood High School. The school was busting at the seams with the decision to admit both freshmen and sophomores beginning in 1970. We felt that new decade was mostly dull in comparison to the tumult we came to know and love of the rebellious wonder years prior. That decade gave birth to considerable angst.

In the 1970s, the generation gap widened with the onset of anti-war sentiment. We wanted peace. The music of the Youngbloods singing “C;mon people now/Smile on your brother/Ev’rybody get together/Try to love one another right now” gave way to the sardonic Woodstock anthem by Country Joe and the Fish“What are we fightin for?/Don't ask me I don't give a damn, the next stop is Vietnam/Open up the pearly gates. Well there ain’t no time to wonder why ---.WHOPEE we're all gonna die.”

That bleak view of the future evolved nevertheless. Even though we weren’t fully aware of it we were at the nexus of larger counterculture generation. We had strength in numbers – Boomers, born between 1946-1964, ready to change the world. With time: The war ended. Nixon resigned. the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold War was a distant memory.

Blink -- dozens of channels to choose from on TV. Cable programming made media buyers scramble. It was nothing when compared to what was to come. Print media, notably the daily newspaper became obsolete.

Blink --  digital disruption, brought on by an onslaught of technology we never would have imagined. We saw the Kodak moment completely overtaken by social media. We saw the explosion of Blockbuster retail movie rentals replaced by a variety of online alternatives. We saw land lines, once an ubiquitous presence in every home, become unnecessary. The telephony monopoly that we busted up in the 1980s reemerged as an insidious essential utility with clean white AT&T retail spaces in strip malls and gallerias around the nation. Apple made Forrest Gump rich.  

Blink -- we like, tweet, pin, post and crowd-source everything. We connect with our classmates in ways that are ironically both genuine and artificial. We get and give a glimpse of our kids and their kids. It becomes crystal clear the future does not belong to our bloated generation.

Blink -- we are out of our element. We have to ask a twenty-something how to operate our intuitive smart phones. We have to go online to get almost any kind of service. We are forced to interface with tech specialists offshore or around the world to connect our internet router.

Meanwhile, marketing mavens blog about engaging and influencing conversations about anything and everything, all the while, never looking up to make eye contact.  It makes me happy to think about that time in the 1970s when we were High Schoolers with an opportunity to change everything. Now I can’t help thinking how much fun it would be if nothing changed at all. 

Accountability Sam

Sam Silverstein agreed to meet me for coffee this warm St. Louis morning in June. He has just has just released his book Non Negotiable The Story of Happy State Bank & The Power of Accountability. He is at home between speaking engagements, working with clients and promoting his book No More Excuses and Making Accountable Decisions. He is past president of the National Speakers Association and clearly knows a thing or two about public speaking.

It is this point that struck me as an insight into Sam’s world as he reveals just how he met the CEO of Happy State Bank and how that encounter became the case study for this straightforward business book. What is telling, for me, is the humility with which Sam confesses to being astonished as he observed the presence of this banker from Texas. Non-negotiables transform everything and everyone for the better. The book explains in plain terms why. He offers a powerful example that reads like a best-selling business parable.

Amarillo is in the center of the Texas Panhandle, a 26-county area that is bordered by New Mexico and Oklahoma. Here, where the southern plains meet the desert, is where Sam rolled up his sleeves. The book is a by-product of this engagement. Offered for the reader are the 20 Non Negotiables for this successful Texas Bank as guided by the Chairman and CEO. Offered to the reader is food for thought. Sam preaches Accountability and with his book has a powerful  substantiation of how it works.  

Leelinau Falls

Alison Saar was born in Los Angeles in 1956 to a well-known African American artist, Betye Saar, and an art conservationist, Richard Saar. Alison became a sculptor. Saar earned her B.A. from Scripps College in California and an M.F.A. from Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles. She began making sculpture that focused on the theme of cultures of the African heritage. Her work has been exhibited and is represented in collections including: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

The sculpture she created for Laumeier was carved before it was given its name, while perusing a book on mythology, Saar discovered Leelinau, a North American Indian legend, the story spoke to her work and gave her sculpture its name. It was added to Laumeier Sculpture Park’s collection in 1997. Saar learned of the ledgend of Leelinau. She was attracted to a nearby sacred grove that was inhabited by spirits and fairies.

Leelinau loved  the solitude of the forest. Her parents arranged for her marriage but she was quite distressed and went to the woods to find solace. Leaning up against a tree, she heard the voice of a tree spirit whispering to her. Leaving her family and friends. Leelinau, on the eve of her wedding day, fled to the arms of the Tree Spirit instead of meeting the man her parents had chosen, Leelinau, which means delight of life. Saar intended that the wooden female figure and the oak tree would increasingly becoming one over time through natural degradation.

Tragically, Leelinau fell from her perch high in a tree located in a special place along one of the trails at the Laumeier Sculpture Park. At a recent meeting of docents at Laumeier, there was a sigh of relief and some bittersweet laughter about the ephermeral nature of life and art. And so we mourn the loss of treasure hidden away at our jewel – part park – part museum – all St. Louis. 

(above) Leelinau in better days was installed in the height of an oak tree along a trail at Laumeier Sculpture park, Now on the heels of the Mother's Day Art Fair in May of 2015 she lies in pieces (middle) and a last peek of the wire hair with leaf detail (bottom). Below: Laumeier e-newsletter in February 2016 copy.

WHERE DID THEY GO? Alison Saar, Leelinau, 1997

Alison Saar's Leelinau, 1997, formerly located in Laumeier's Eastern Woodland, was inspired by the legend of Leelinau, a North American Indian girl who was enticed by the sacred wood inhabited by spirits and fairies. Growing up, Leelinau preferred the solitude of the forest to the company of people, so she escaped to the woods for comfort when her parents arranged her marriage to an older man. There, she heard the voice of a tree spirit whispering to her, asking her leave her family and follow him. On the eve of her wedding, Leelinau retreated to the sacred wood to be with the tree spirit forever. Fragments of lore and myth like this one, as well as the customs from culturally diverse backgrounds, echo in Saar's powerful artworks. Leelinau was hung upon the side of a tree along the Art Hike Trail, with her long hair hanging almost fourteen feet from the top of her head. Saar intended for Leelinau to be an ephemeral artwork which would decay with exposure to the elements over time, and the artist confirmed this intention during her 2014 visit to Laumeier. In May 2015, a storm destroyed Leelinau past the point of repair, and she was respectfully de-commissioned from Laumeier's collection on her 18th birthday. Kelsey McGinnis, Graduate Research Assistant

   

Judging the Show - Art Fair 2015

Typically, 15,000 come to the annual three-day Mother’s Day weekend Art Fair at Laumeier Sculpture Park in Sunset Hills. This is the 28^th annual fair -- food vendors, a wine garden, live music and 150 exhibitors add to the experience. Ceramics, textiles, jewelry, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, drawing and sculpture are on display and for sale. The effort for Laumeier and each participating artist is significant. It’s a big deal.

Laumeier Sculpture Park is a living laboratory where artists and audiences explore contemporary art. It is one of the first and largest dedicated sculpture parks in the country. It is an institution of international significance as well as a unique complement to the cultural landscape of the St. Louis region. The Art Fair is one of those times the general public comes to visit this regional (arguably international) treasure. This perennial showcase is an important part of a larger conversation about contemporary art.  

Laumeier Sculpture Park will complete construction of the Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center and renovation of the Kranzberg Education Laboratory for Art this year (2015). Ambitious plans on the horizon that will provoke dialogue about art and its very real impact on how we view the world. It is an exciting time at Laumeier Sculpture Park. So here we have a community engagement that is truly a celebration of art and artists. All of the exhibitors are winners but a short list are recognized as those judged to be among the best of show. The process, of course, is somewhat secretive. It involves scrutiny of work on display prior to the show in full swing. To win recognition is a validation that doesn’t compensate for the expense and commitment of traveling from points near and far -- Creve Coeur, Chesterfield, Ballwin in our back yard to U.S. points  midwest, west, southwest, southeast and northwest and northeast.       

This year, rain is in the forecast but it is unlikely that it will dampen the spirit of what it means to be an artist. Laumeier nurtures emerging artists at art camps, it offers docent tours of its collection and welcomes guests to study and view monumental and contemporary sculptural art in an inviting public place. But it is this showcase of these passionate artists turned merchants over this weekend that reminds all of us of the dedication it takes to be a be a viable artist. Of course, jury recognition and/or revenue from sales at this show has little to do with acceptance of  the artist vision consistent with curatorial platforms. That is another matter entirely. Regardless of your position on what is or is not ART – pay your ten bucks, have a glass of wine, purchase something for your living room that matches your couch, have some fun  In that context you are still contributing to the discourse. Your opinion matters! And maybe (hopefully) you will come back and visit Lauemeier when it is FREE and the sun is shining.   

Sunset Hills (MO) – Artists at Art Fair 2015 included Jane Johnson from Port Charlotte, Florida Mark Waninger from Jamestown, IN with cheese plate made of woods; Leonard Tinnell from Missoula, MT; Holly Foss from Minneapolils, MN