A Trip to Cabo, an 80s Prom Murder Party, and a Board Meeting

My week last week was completely insane. I started the week off down in Cabo San Lucas at the invite of some dear friends who’d asked my husband and I to join them for a few days at the beautiful Montage Resort in Cabo. You are probably thinking “oh , boo hoo…really rough life going to Cabo…” and normally I would totally agree with that assessment, but I spent pretty much my entire trip working on my computer to get things ready for the opening dinner event and board conference taking place Thursday night and Friday knowing I would be flying in Thursday afternoon and need to run the National Advisory Board Spring Conference for the board I Chair at Utah Valley University’s Woodbury School of Business.

Planning these board conferences I do twice a year is akin to planning a full wedding every six months. There are invitations to go out, venues to book, menus to plan, flowers for tables, entertainers to book, seating charts to create, and the list goes on and on. Then on top of all that there is a board meeting to hold with an agenda to create, speakers to schedule, presentations to pull together, more food needing to be ordered, another room to have setup, swag gifts to order and get logo’d, and so on and so forth. It takes months and months of planning and preparation and no matter how much I do in advance for it, the week of the conference is always still mayhem as I try to get all the last minute details taken care of.

I began this Board conference with an 80s prom themed murder mystery dinner party.  I tried to think of every fun little detail I could incorporate to make it a really special night for everyone down to having little rubix cubes, poprocks, and bubble gum packs set around each centerpieces at all the tables. I’m just a huge believer in showing people love with all the little details that make the event extra special for people – especially when I’m trying to show gratitude and appreciation to them for helping support the University by agreeing to serve on the board when I asked them to.  Pouring my heart into making these events special for them is my way of showing them how much their support means to me.  And in return they always do an amazing job of showing up at everything and fully getting into whatever activity I plan. I loved how into their 80s costumes they all got Thursday night – we had an absolute blast together.

Friday was the board meeting and the discussion from the board members was so valuable for the University. Their ideas and advice to the University are priceless…genuinely priceless because the collective business expertise of those on the board is far more expensive than any University could afford to pay for, yet they gave it freely.  What a huge value they so generously provide as board members.

By the time things were finished on Friday I was completely and utterly exhausted and ready for a vacation…if only I could go back to Cabo and do it over again the right way where I actually relax…sigh…

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )

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