Networking in Various Ways

Last Saturday morning (9 June), I drove to Smartt Field in Portage Des Sioux, Missouri (St. Charles County) to help IPMS/Gateway with a Make & Take program. The local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) was hosting their Young Eagles, a youth aviation outreach program, in conjunction with local Boy Scouts studying for the Aviation merit badge. (This was a merit badge I earned as a Boy Scout, back in the day.) Myself and four other club members ran the Make & Take, in which the kids were given simple to assemble model kits (of aircraft and cars) they could put together. We offered advice and help as they requested. In the end, the kids got to take their models home with them. We had about 12 kids take part and I helped a few of them with their models. I really had fun with this and I hope we got a few more modelers out of this event.

The next day, I was at DeSoto Park to officiate Latin American Soccer League games. I had the middle on the first game, between two of the league's better sides, and that went well. The second match of my shift, between two of the league's worst, had my partner on his toes, and I was helping him as best I could. In the end, though, it came off rather well.

I had a rather busy Tuesday (12 June). First, I was at The Hive@44 Business Coworking Community in Fenton for the Yellow-Tie networking event. That went pretty well, including talking with a bus charter company's rep who had good words about a firm I had just applied for a part time proofreading job the day before. (I'll follow up on this opening early next week.) Then, I drove to downtown St. Louis for the GO! Network meeting, which had a panel discussion on using recruiters and staffing agencies to help find work. It was rather interesting talk they gave. That night, I was at Crusoe's in Oakville for the monthly Mehlville Oakville Alumni Association meeting. There, I gave an updated on the Mehlville '82 reunion (the notice came in my email that night) and offered advice to three Mehlville '88 grads looking to do a reunion in the near future.

Late this afternoon, I was at the new Benton Park facility of Back 2 Basics Marketing for their open house. (They moved into their facility about two weeks ago, one of their people told me.) I had a nice time, networking with some of the people there, including several Back 2 Basics employees. Letting them know I'm out looking, they are keeping me in mind for possible freelance work in the near future. After that, I headed to the Fountain on Locust for a dish of ice cream and an iced tea. I was tempted to stay for cocktails (they had a 1960s theme night), but I was rather short on cash and had plenty of alcohol already in me, thanks to the punch at the Back 2 Basics open house.

I'm off to help register voters tomorrow. Hard to believe the primary election is just about two months away, and the general election is about five months away.

Later.