Ready to begin

It's Friday morning here in Orlando, and today is arrival day for our participants. We have a crew of 30 people at the airport waiting to greet the almost 400 people arriving from the 64 colleges across the U.S. It will be an exciting day as the hotel fills up with our guests, over half of whom have never attended this event.



Yesterday was volunteer arrival day. Our 70 volunteers are like a family, with many of them having worked this event for 19 years, going back to its inception. Arrival day is a day of hugs, introductions and catching up on the news since we all saw each other last year.



I conducted my training class for the scorekeepers who will be using my program to score the matches in each of the 8 gamerooms. Although 7 of the 8 scorekeepers have worked this job in previous years, there is always some nervousness about not messing it all up; This is something that they do 2 days each year, so it's almost like learning it all over again each year.


In the evening we had our volunteer orientation meeting, followed by the volunteer dinner. This is the last chance for old friends to relax and catch up before the work starts in earnest the next day.

At dinner I sat with Mary Oberembt and Eric Conn. Mary is the producer of this event and one of the most amazing people I have ever met. Her creative and organizational skills are unmatched, and this event runs mostly on the brute force of her determination. Eric was the Honda executive who helped to create, oversee and protect the Honda Campus All Star Challenge from its creation to present day. Now, after 19 years Eric has retired and passed the reins to new (and unknown) hands. Eric has much love for this annual event, and has requested to attend in future years as a volunteer. Maybe next year, he'll be among our volunteers on airport duty on arrival day!