RAM Regional Manager Meeting Recap!

February 12, 2014 – Regional Manager Meeting – Panama City Corporate Office

“Shoot for the moon!  Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars!”  Les Brown

On Wednesday, February 12^th a Regional Manager Meeting was held in the Panama City Corporate office.  All regionals were in attendance as well as Regional Vice Presidents.  They all arrived safe and sound Tuesday evening, despite weather issues, delayed flights and lost luggage!  The joys of traveling – but these “stars” arrived with smiles on their faces and eager to work and play with their fellow RA comrades!

The meeting opened with a welcome from Kerri Toth and Denise Ost, followed by a discussion on miscellaneous topics.

Then came the “fun”, a team building game called “Saving Joey!”  Everyone was divided into groups of two and each group was given a small clear plastic cup placed upside down with a gummy Life Saver under the cup.  A gummy worm was lying across the cup, along with a swizzle stick and two paperclips.  The cup represented the capsized boat, the life saver was the life jacket, the swizzed stick was the oar and last but not least the worm was Joey!  Joey’s boat had capsized in the rough seas and his life jacket was trapped underneath his boat.  His oar was his only means of movement to get back to land safe and sound, but it had fallen into the rough waters!  Joey now sat perched on top of the capsized boat and he needed help.  It was up to the teams to flip his boat over and get him back inside with his life jacket ON him and his oar lying across the top of the boat.

Sounds easy right?  Well here is the catch!

They could not touch Joey with their hands, they could only use the two paperclips supplied.   They couldn’t stab him with the paperclip because that would hurt him and they couldn’t stab the life jacket since that would cause it to deflate.  All of this had to be done without him touching the water because he couldn’t swim!

It was interesting to see how every team tried different ways to rescue Joey.  Unfortunately he was drowned several times.  But finally Rachelle Hundley and Tony Fergusen were able to save him and get him safely home!

The meeting continued as we discussed ideas and finalization plans for each regional’s upcoming manager/maintenance supervisor awards luncheon.

After a light lunch of salad and soup, several of our support divisions participated in providing updated information.  Dawn Bellows spoke with us on HUD and RD updates.  Melissa Middleton discussed new plans for OneSite.  Wanda Sampson, Kathy Vossler and Tonya Ward discussed miscellaneous accounting topics to include Timberscan, utility bills processing and utility spreadsheets.  Sandy Bartlett and her HR staff visited briefly to offer their support.

The meeting was wrapped up with a few closing comments and we all geared up for our evening event.

It was off to Rocket Lanes for some bowling fun!   Teams of four bowled two sessions and it was interesting to see the competitiveness, team spirit and the very interesting way some of us bowled!  Lots of greasy bowling alley food was enjoyed with tons of laughter and smiling faces.

After all the learning, fun and giggles, alas it was time to return to home and work.  Return flights were cancelled due to weather so the Miami crew and the North Carolina crew had to rent cars and drive home!  Everyone arrived home safe and sound, excited, and full of ideas to take back to their respective teams.

Thanks to all here at the corporate office that helped put everything together, it could not have been done without you!  We have a great TEAM and work for a great company, RA!

So until next time…………………