Evidently, my "phone in" participation in last Thursday's Commission meeting provided a bit of comic relief and sparked a spirited game of "Where's McKiernan?" (Similar to the old game "where's Waldo?"). The answer to that question was not (as some publicly speculated) the Chiefs game.
Here's the straight (if fairly boring) scoop...
My son, Pete, plays in a band called Breaking Even. They are pretty darn good (if I do say so myself as a proud dad) and on Thursday night the 22nd, they had the opportunity to be the opening act for a show at the Granada Theater in Lawrence that featured a well-known regional band plus a band formed by members from several nationally known recording/touring groups.
I told our staff that I was going to make the trip to Lawrence and would miss the Commission meeting (since my son's band was scheduled to take the stage at 8:00). Unfortunately, two other members of the Commission had already announced that they would be absent from the meeting. Oops!
Since I had already reviewed the agenda and thought that it looked like a fairly straightforward meeting, I told our staff that I could "leverage my technology" and participate in the meeting by phone from Lawrence while I was waiting for the concert to begin.
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| Setting up for the show... |
The Commission meeting began at 7:00 as scheduled and I participated by phone from the driver's seat of my car (parked on a side street near the theater). The meeting went well (although I think my phone came through fairly loud when I un-muted it to cast votes).
However, as 8:00 approached and the meeting was still in full swing, I began to worry that things were about to go haywire. My son's band was only scheduled to play a 30 minute set, so if I wanted to see them I needed to get in the theater at 8:00.
I left my car, walked to the theater, gave the guy at the door my ticket and walked inside. My phone was still muted, so no one at City Hall knew I was changing locations.
Now, you need to stop for a moment and imagine what kind of a doofus I looked like standing in the lobby of the theater… An old guy in business casual clothes (I had several meetings at City Hall before I left for the concert), with an iPad containing the meeting materials in one hand, a cell phone in the other hand connected to a big pair of noise canceling headphones as I continued to participate in the meeting while loitering near the front door. LOL. :-)
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| Breaking Even takes the stage...just as a vote is called! |
The folks back at City Hall were still engaged in a conversation regarding one of the items on the agenda when the band took the stage at 8:00. I thought I could sneak into the theater and see their opening number, but no sooner had I gotten inside the doors than I heard a call for a vote in the Commission chambers. I ran for the door of the theater, but I knew I was doomed...
not . enough . time . to . get . outside ...
I'm pretty sure that everyone in the Commission chambers clearly heard the group's opening number when I un-muted my phone to cast my vote. Yikes!
Sorry about that. :-) The meeting wrapped up about three minutes after that, and I enjoyed the heck out of the remainder of the group's performance.
Back to "serious" stuff next week… Have a great weekend!
~ Brian
bmckiernan@wycokck.org
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