“Excellent”, “Best I have been to”, “Wonderful”, “Job well done”.  These were words I heard over and over during the week of October 26 – 28, 2011.  If you don’t know what was going on during those dates, we held the 16th annual SCPRA Conference and you missed a great time of training, networking, seeing old friends and creating new ones.

First, let me say that our new Conference location (Avista Resort) is top notch.  The hotel is 5 years old; each room consists of 1 – 3 bedrooms and baths with a full kitchen, dining room and living room, as well as a washer/dryer, all at a favorable cost.  The hotel staff bent over backwards to meet our every need.  I look forward to holding our next year’s conference at the Avista Resort.

We had 3 full days of sessions challenging our knowledge as Records Officers.  Cathy Hazelwood from the State Ethics Commission spoke to us on how to handle situations such as receiving gifts in the course of performing our respective job duties.  Bryan Collars spoke to us about the SC Electronic Records Archives that is in the works at the SC Dept. of Archives and History.  Region meetings were held and we are grateful for those who stepped forth and accepted the Region officer positions for the two Regions electing new officers this year (Midstate & Coastal).  I am looking forward to attending the workshops being planned by the PeeDee and Upstate Regions this year.

 We were all introduced to my counterpart at this year’s conference; Mrs. Linda Johnson, President of Georgia Records Association, as she set up a booth in the vendor’s area and then spoke to us on GARP (Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principals).  During the conference I spent some time networking with Mrs. Johnson and have picked up on some new ideas that we will consider implementing within our own association.  We were then introduced to Dr. Salane of Columbia College who spoke to us on “Managing the Impact of Organizational Change” - - something we are all experiencing in today’s economy.  She was very informative and was able to bring out the rapper in some of us as she challenged us to break up in small groups and come up with a rap dealing with change.  (You can view some of the aspiring rappers on the SCPRA Facebook site).  We then had Ramsey Makhuli to show us how to “Manage Stress” brought on by organizational change thru stress relieving exercises.  Finally, we brought back a presentation that was presented at a Midstate Region Workshop a few years back and repeatedly requested.  We had Special Agent Mark Berube of the Gang Intelligence Unit of SLED speak to us about “Gang Recognition – Signs & Symbols”.  On our last day we had Ms. Rose Rock, author and mother of actor Chris Rock as our closing speaker.  She is a wonderful speaker, author and I highly recommend her book:  "Mama Rock's Rules".  For those of you who missed the conference we are placing the powerpoint presentations on our web site and some of the videos on our Facebook page. 

Plans are already underway for next year’s conference.  We have our hands full as we try to surpass this year’s conference.  A great time was had by all and I look forward to next year.  I hope to see you there!!

Respectfully,