Aww, look what I got in email

I just got this lovely email, and got the author's permission to share it. It is so sweet--Sue Ann

I just returned home from the DC international conference and was tearful as I left and these two days following. I SAW WHAT WORLD PEACE WOULD LOOK LIKE. It was an amazing, uplifting, grounding, confirming, enlightening, connecting, learning experience and I can’t wait for the next in Chicago. My husband attended half and I the other half and he got as much or more than me, as he has at the regional meetings. To be surrounded by others who as my 5-and-a-half-year old would scream and cry or not listen and see the smile of knowing concern letting me know they had been there and knew I to would handle it and get through it made me what to establish a LLL neighborhood. It all begins with nursing and I can admit I want to nurse for the rest of my life. The speakers were awesome and those attending my new family, I never even asked names, as if we already knew. I hope to see you all again. Thank you LLL [and] the Founders for your strength in principle to move and enlighten the world to the greatest gift the world has to offer--people that are breastfed connected to knowing the comforts of peace is found in the love of connectedness.

Celeste Schoen Reading PA

Podcasts are GO!

I just linked up a big batch of podcasts at our Podcast Page. There's a lot of great stuff available there for your listening pleasure, including discussions with famous authors, tips to make your family life easier, and even some music!

I had SO MUCH FUN...

...and I worked SO HARD in the Tech Room!!!

I guess I was one of the first Tech Room people to leave the conference -- my kids and my husband were getting a little sick of being away from home, so we said our goodbyes around 4 on Tuesday.

Personally, I felt (and still feel) like I never wanted to leave! Working in the Tech Room was exhausting (the night after our first full day of being "open for business", I was so worn out that I couldn't even speak! I was communicating with my children via hand gestures!) but I loved it! Getting people hooked up to all of our great online resources was so energizing and exciting! I can't wait for 2007!!

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

Man, am I tired! I spent a really nice last day in Washington, D.C., with Sue Ann and her son. We were all flying out late afternoon, so we spent the morning and early afternoon at the National Zoo. I'd never been there before, and was delighted to see a panda for the very first time. It was lunchtime, and we got to see the male panda chowing down on bamboo -- extra cool.

After a blissfully uneventful flight, I got home around 8 pm, and actually had an hour to myself before the rest of my family got home. (They had been at dh's African drumming performance). It was good to find everyone's surprises I'd bought while away, and to shift gears from podcast interviewer/computer geek to cuddlly mom and wife.

There are still TEN more podcasts for me to upload to the website, and TWENTY still to add to the RSS feed! Yikes - we got so busy toward the end, there! Lu Hanessian, Gordon Neufeld, two live a capella musical performances, some really excellent stuff. I'll work on making them ready for the LLLI website (http://www.lalecheleague.org/05conf/podcasts.html ).

I'm really zonked from the Conference - I'm not used to being that extroverted, for that long. But still, I can hardly wait until my next podcast interview. It is so much fun to ask people about the things they love the most!

Relief, Tired!

I got back to my parents' home in North Carolina last night. I immediately fell dead asleep. I had been all perky until I got there--obviously I had held on to my energy as long as I could. We never did get the ability to access the lalecheleague.org site back, but now that folks are heading home, we will be able to move along (once everyone wakes up) and upload the rest of the podcasts and photos--I see the bloggers are already summarizing!

I'll be doing a lot more with updating our post-conference web pages once I get home to my nice, functional computer on Monday.

Thanks to all who have read these blogs and especially to those who commented. That has been fun!

Sue Ann

All is no longer quiet!

It's a good thing we have a sense of humor here in TechRoomLand! Everything was going just swell until about a half hour ago, when all our computers suddenly started to refuse to display anything on www.lalecheleague.org. That really slowed down our ability to to the chats or to show people that site! We figured out that the site was NOT down, but that instead, the hotel server was refusing requests to view that IP address. We've got the hotel staff on it, but since we are going to close in an hour (boo hoo), I am guessing we will have to do AIM chats for the last couple. Poor Gordon Neufield (hope that is spelled right) has been very gracious about figuring out how to chat.

Luckily all the podcasts are going swimmingly--we'll have them all up on the web site quite soon. We also have more photos to upload--Sandee has been so busy taking LLL CN pictures that the conference ones are moving slowly. We will get them all up eventually, though! They are GREAT. And for those who ask, we plan to keep the podcasts available indefinitely--we think they will be a great resource.

Well, think positive thoughts as we wrap up a really FUN time here in DC and enjoy the dinner tonight. I will be back to report from the hotel lobby in the morning and wrap up the conference web pages. We'll keep posting here for a while, and keep this up to collect comments, of course.


Sue Ann

All's quiet

Wow, it's 7PM and all is quiet here in the Tech Room, except for a few slow clicks on the keyboard. It's been a busy several days, with 133 pictures taken and uploaded to the Community Network.

SandEE has really been rockin' on taking and editing pictures so they can be uploaded to the conference website. Check out her new hobby!

...hmm, that sounds like one of THOSE spam emails, doesn't it? ;-)

Sandy

Teen Helpers Check In

today i got my fortune read and it said i didnt eat enough cookies, so i ate some. now im much better and the balloon on my hand wont kill me. that was a relief.

ummmm..... i dont know what to post..... me and kynan went to this drama workshop, and it was lame. the guy running it was kinda mean.

i got some sequins at the drama thingy and they are cool. i agree that the thing was lame though, even though thats the first time i ever said lame. ever.

yeah..... hes weird, ignore him.

irma is cool. hes a canadian irish scotsman. his parents where from ireland and scotsland and then had him in canada. they moved there cause they like vikings. currently he is suffering from identity crisis. oh well.

yeah.

ok, thats it for the teens. byes from celia! say goodbye kynan.

goodbye kynan.

Glori Enzor's Handout

Glori Enzor, DDS, had a very useful handout for her session on breastfeeding and dental health, but it did not make it into the conference syllabus. She would like to let those interested know that they can email her for a copy of the handout at threepearls at comcast dot net.

Sue Ann

Funner and Funner

Things are still going surprisingly well, as the other bloggers have been reporting. Other than MY inability to get the URLs right on some of the podcasts right (sorry, copy and paste error), the projects are going very well. I am having a great time listening to Elisabeth record the podcasts, and this moring we got to introduce the technology to a large group of international attendees in one of the Global Sessions, which I co-lead with Marian Tompson of the AnotherLook organization (and LLL Founder). Everyone really got fired up at the possibilities of using podcasting to reach audiences working with HIV/AIDS and Breastfeeding--from mothers to researchers to medical professionals. Look for the session report to appear on the LLLI Web site's advocacy section soon after the conference is over.

We have been so busy taking Leader photos for the LLL Community Network that poor Sandee hasn't had time to upload yesterday's conference photo highlights. We hope to remedy that soon, but do like it that over 100 new images have been uploaded, and more than 40 new members have signed on to the CN during the conference.

There has been non-work fun, as well. I had a lot of fun at the knitting session in the Alumnae suite that I hosted, along with LLLI Board member LaJuana Oswalt (my old pal) and Edie Eckman, a well known knitting author and designer (and recent friend, LOL). Many people learned to knit there, including my own 14-year-old son and at least one LLL father.

Well, I need to go network now, so I'll sign off. More soon!

Sue Ann

Blogging in the Lobby, midnight

I'm working from the lobby of the hotel, a little after midnight, to wrap up the processing on the interviews I did today. The free wireless is nice, and so are the leather chairs (cushy!). However, it is less relaxing than working in the hotel room in one's jammies. I'm just too cheap to pay for wired access in the room, if I can get wireless for free! It'll be fun to spend that money at the Conference bookstore.... That reminds me -- I need to make sure I have good prizes for all four of the kids - and their dad, too.

So, I'm taking things I've already exported from Garage Band into iTunes, and now updating the information on them: making them conform to the naming conventions and file formats that we've used up until this point. Once that's done, I will update the RSS feed for folks who subscribe to the entire LLL Podcast. Tomorrow, the webmaster will update the page with podcast links.

So far, the feedback I've heard has been favorable. Participants have been mostly excited about podcasts, and all of them kind and personable. Some people who have listened have been positive in their comments -- and not just comments to me, but to others as well! (That's the kind of gossip I *like* to hear)

Can I breathe a sigh of relief yet?

I feel very positive about this project, but also am very very tired. Being this engaged with other people and this extroverted, for this many hours in a row, is wearing. I really believe I'm an introvert at heart, and a very insecure one at that!

Off to get a little sleep. I'm very excited to talk with Margaret Kenda in the morning. She writes about infant and toddler (and older) feeding issues, and, it turns out, used to live in Iowa years ago. A cool connection!

I love the sound of clicking in the morning...

The Tech Room is not busy, but it's buzzing! We've got a chat going on (with world-renowned author and all-around cool woman Diana West), someone is typing up her session notes, two people are taking our Online Survey, two are previewing our new design prototype, one woman is having her picture uploaded to her CN profile, and I'm blogging (obviously). So many happy clicking keyboards! Have you stopped by yet?

Design preview available

We are pleased to announce that you can now preview the LLL ID registration for single sign-on to all of LLL sites in the Tech Room. The prototype is available for viewing and clicking. This exciting project will be rolling out in the coming months and will offer a single sign-in to all LLLI online resources. Please stop by, take a look, and give us your feedback!

Yesterday was FUN

I am knocking on wood like crazy. Why? Because the Technology Room is going SO WELL! Only a couple of little printer malfunctions have kept us from a 100% technology success. And we dealt with those problems easily.

Lots and lots of Leaders and others have taken our Tech Room survey, and more than 20 new members signed on to the LLL Community Network yesterday, thanks to a wonderful promotion effort at the World Assembly (its theme was "the Community Network Live").

In the afternoon yesterday, the Technology Room hosted a session on enhancing your LLL Life with computers. The participants seemed to truly enjoy all the tidbits the staff passed on, and occasionally got giddy with the thrill of learning a new little computer trick. The marvels of Excel formatting just sent them over the moon! It was really a privilege to share our hard-earned skills with a new group of Leaders.

We are just having so much fun it isn't funny! Please read our other Conference blogs, visit our photo page and listen to our podcases. You can have fun, too. Here's the link to our Tech Room web page: http://www.lalecheleague.org/05conf/techroom.html

Sue Ann Kendall

IMS Session Notes Available

The IMS first day featured "Open Space," a meeting technique that is being used in many LLL meetings and workshops ( http://www.openspaceworld.org/ ). Notes are always taken from the sessions. LLL Leaders may be interested in what transpired. You can view the notes and share what was learned there here: http://www.lllusa.org/USWD/IMS2005/index.html

Quiet! Session in progress...

At this very moment, we are running our Preconference Session on "Optimizing Your LLL Life via Your Personal Computer". A lucky half-dozen (or so) women are getting an intensive 4-hour session with the crème-de-la-geek of the LLL Online Staff. We're discussing and answering questions about ways to use technology to streamline group work and use the resources available online to LLL Leaders.

Overheard at the session: "It's a very confusing world!"

Smooth Running Technology Room

It's smooth running here in the Tech Room! There has been a great response to adding pictures to the Community Network and we are compiling pictures to post on the conference website :
http://www.lalecheleague.org/05conf/05conf.html

Our podcasts bring the feel of a radio station to the room -- make sure and check them out at:
http://www.lalecheleague.org/05conf/podcasts.html

Sandy

Hi from IMS Day #2

Hi, tech room fans. Some of us have even LEFT the room, as things are working well so far.

Nancy Jo Bykowski and I visited the USWD/ID Publications/Online departmental meeting this morning, once we found it (hard to find some of the sessions that didn't have locations listed specifically). We enjoyed hearing some wonderful stories and got some very useful ideas from the participants. We invited them down to the Technology Room to visit the LLL Community Network. We had an Open Space session come visit the Tech Room, yesterday, which was also a special treat.

So far, we are doing really well taking photos for the LLL Community Network--17 Leaders have come in for their photos so far! We've taken lots of photos, thanks to roving photographer Sandee Luttkus. Resident techie Sandy Thorne has set her up with a very nice system for making photo albums that are easy to upload, so we'll have more pictures this year! Check out the photos so far at http://www.lalecheleague.org/05conf/photos.html -- Sandee's out collecting more right now! We love our Sandee/y combo.

Our teen helpers are running around helping lost conference attendees and doing arts and craft activities. You can learn more about Celia from her conference blog, and we have recorded a podcast with Kynan, the other teen volunteer. Speaking of podcasts, Elisabeth just recorded one with Stephanie Weishaar, LLLI's Funding Development Director. Look for it any time now!

More later! Things are popping here!

Sue Ann