Theresa:  All right, Leanne. Take it away.

Leanne:  Well, thank you all very much for joining us for this Speaker Series call. This is one of our four Speaker Series that the Alumni Association hosts throughout the year. We thought it would be very appropriate to focus on the upcoming reunion in Portland. 

One of our main focus for the year as the Alumni Association is helping Theresa in the planning and organizing of the reunion. The reunions generally have been scheduled for every other year, and so this planning process started some time ago. There's been many, many people involved, and I think that we're in the process of putting together a really exciting weekend for everybody. I'm really looking forward to a great, great reunion. 

With that, maybe I could turn it over to you, Theresa, if you want to launch into some of the details.

Theresa:  Yeah. Absolutely. Thanks again, guys, for tuning in. For those of you who are able to make it to the reunion, it will be really fun to see you all in Portland. I'm just going to give you an idea of a little bit about the hotel and then go into the agenda a little bit and then we can open it up for questions and things like that. Remind me, if I forget, to tell you about a new potential excursion on Friday because I might forget.  

I'm excited because the hotel that we're at is awesome. It's the Marriott Downtown Waterfront. It is a beautiful hotel. It's right across the street from this big park that runs along the Willamette River, which is very pretty, lots of relieving area. So that's nice. It's just right across the street, and there is a pedestrian audible signal to cross that street so that will be nice. 

We're also going to be setting up doggie litter boxes on the very bottom floor of the hotel. If there's an emergency at night or something like that or you're in a hurry and you just need to do a quick one, we will have some boxes set up as well. 

The area there, like I said, is gorgeous. The rooms are very nice. They all have a balcony. Some of them look over the river, and some of them look over the downtown view, but both are very nice. There is food. There's a restaurant in the hotel, as well as a little café --

Erika:  Hello?

Theresa:  Hello. Yes?

Erika:  Hi. It's Erika Wolf. I just joined. Somehow it disconnected a minute ago but then luckily I was able to get back in.

Theresa:  Okay. All right, Erika, well welcome. We're just talking. I was just going over a little bit about the hotel that we're staying at. 

So there's a café. There's a nice restaurant, and then there's a café that for breakfast, and then there's a coffee shop as well. So there are options for grab and go and that kind of thing as well. You can also order through room service if let's say you wanted a box lunch or whatever and then pick it up at the front desk and go across the street and have a little picnic on the grass if you want. So there's lots of options that way, which is really nice.

Transportation to the hotel, we are trying to get a relationship with Lyft and Uber or Lyft or Uber for a discount for our reunion, so that's in the works right now, so keep your fingers crossed. There's also a shuttle called Blue -- oh, I've got it right here, oh dear, let's see if I can remember -- Blue Star Shuttle. They pick up at the airport and drop off at our hotel every half hour. The schedules are online at bluestar.com. I will send all of that out. The fare is $24 round trip, so about $12, but if you only go one way, then it's $14. But if you buy the two tickets for round trip, it's $12 which is a pretty darn good deal. Like I said, I will send all of that out prior so that you guys can make reservations if you want to go that direction as far as taking the thing.

You can also take the train, the ACE -- is that's what it's called, AJ-- from Portland airport if you're feeling adventurous and don't have a ton of luggage or whatever. That actually drops off about four blocks from the hotel. They're pretty short blocks, but if you -- and that's $1.50. So that's an option.

All right, so that's some information about the hotel. All of our conference and everything will be held there. We won't be moving off site at any time, so that should make it pretty easy. I stayed there for a couple nights to review the property and stuff, and it was very nice. Staff are very nice. 

I'm going to go over the agenda a little bit that we have so far and remembering this is a draft, and there may be surprises popping in because I don't want to give you all the secrets. On Friday, October 18th, is the beginning day, although a lot of people are flying in on Thursday. Registration will start at 8:00 a.m. and be all day, and you're just going to check in, let us know you're here, get your name tag, get whatever special goodies we have cooked up for you, get all that good stuff. 

Then -- let's see -- at the hotel, we will have a hospitality suite that will be open all day that day so that if you come in and your room isn't ready or something like that, you can go there and hangout, or if you guys just want to hang out -- we'll have snacks up there -- you can do that. We plan on having Maya Scott who's our artist in residence -- she did the gratitude tree last year -- she's going to be doing a really cool project that I'm going to keep as a bit of a surprise for now for you all to participate in. It follows our theme of Tails, Tails on Trails, and all that stuff. So we really -- just to back track a little bit, our whole idea behind this particular reunion and our theme was that we all have a story and part of the fun part about us all getting together is sharing our stories. Maya's art installation that people will take part in will have something to do with that.

We'll also have some vet techs on site, so if you need your pooch's nails trimmed, ears cleaned, or anything like that, you want to see a vet tech, we will have that for you. And we're looking at a program called SignUpGenius or something so people can sign up for a time rather than having to wait in line. You'll get some more information about that is it draws nearer. 

Then we have set up some really cool tours. The first tour I'll talk about is the Downtown Portland Walking and Tasting Tour which I just had to try myself because I wouldn't want [crosstalk 00:09:21]. So my husband and I did that when we were up in Portland. It was so much fun, and I was so full that I couldn't finish the ice cream at the end, so note to self, go hungry for that. It does stop at a few different places. We stopped at -- I think they're always sort of changing, so I don't want to tell you exactly where we stopped, but we stopped at four different places. We had a salad, our appetizer at one place. We had a sandwich at another place. We had a chicken dish at the third place. We went to a chocolate place. We got to taste at the fourth place. And at the fifth place, we had ice cream and that's where I couldn't -- I crashed. I couldn't hang in. A couple of the places had wine. Just it's very nice. 

They keep these as small tours with about 12 people per tour, so that -- because these are small venues that you guys are going to be going into, some really local, interesting restaurants and things. I think that will be a nice tour. If any of you did the China Town tour last year, that's why we want this to be smaller tour so that people get a little more time in each place and can ask questions. The walking is about a mile, and we'll have shuttles that will take you to the beginning of the tour and pick you up at the end of the tour so that you don't have to walk all the way back to hotel because that would be a little bit more of a hike. So that tour, we're offering in the morning and in the afternoon. 

We also have a Coffee Tour for the coffee drinkers amongst us. Again, that's going to be a small tour of 12 people. The lady who runs the business, actually, I think she has a really good friend that's a guide dog user, so she was super excited about wanting to do this tour for us. You go to different roasteries. I did not get a chance to do this tour myself, but I think it'll be awesome because Portland is really known for its coffee, and so I think that will be good. We have one of those in the morning and one in the afternoon as well. 

We have the Lunch Cruise Tour which I also got a chance to try on the Portland Spirit. It was so nice and relaxing. The dock is just walking distance from the hotel. We'll walk everybody over there. It's just sort of across the street and down a little bit, but that's where you will board. You'll have lunch on the cruise. Your ticket pays for your main entrée. They do sell booze on board, but that would be extra. I just had the entrée. I didn't pay for extra for appetizer or whatever. It was plenty of food. I couldn't finish it and I am a big eater. That was good. What we did is we sat downstairs. They had a piano player playing as we cruised down the river, and then after you were done eating, we went upstairs and sat outside on the boat.  They give you, as you come back up the river, they give you a little bit of an audio tour of the area. It was just super relaxing, and a nice way to start off the day. We've got a lot of people signed up for that, so I think it will be also just fun to visit with everyone. 

Also back at the hotel, we will have shop opportunities. The gift shop will be there. They'll bring some items from the gift shop. They won't, obviously, bring everything, but we will have some designated items. We will also have GuideLights and Gadgets. KaeAnn Rausch, one of our illustrious alumni, and her husband run this business, and they have lots of really good tools, toys and things for dogs, as well as canes, other gadgets. So I think you will enjoy that. We also have a vendor -- and I'm forgetting what her name is -- she makes this really cool backpack that's ergonomic. So she'll be selling her wares. I'm very [background noise00:14:22].

Then, once everybody's back from all their touring or hanging out at the hotel or whatever, we will have our welcome reception which you will have the theme of Portland. So we're hoping to spice it up with some Portland specialties, and you'll have drinks and appetizers and all that kind of stuff. All that came with your registration. 

The next day, on Saturday, is our workshop day. So we'll have breakfast in the morning with everybody and a general session. Then we'll have some breakout sessions. I'm not going to give you exact times and exact spots of where things will be because this may shift around. But we have one of our grads, Chris Cook, is going do a presentation about Aira. I should also let you know that Aira will be free for us during that weekend at the hotel. Guide Dogs has paid -- we erected an electronic fence around there, so anyone who uses Aira or if you just want to try it out with just your cell phone, everybody will have the opportunity to do that for free. 

We're doing -- another one of our grads, a new board member, Kelly Egan is going to do a vision workshop, and that means more like a vision for your life type of workshop rather than vision to see through vision. So that should be really good.  

We also have another grad, Katherine Martin Simonson [sp] who is going to talk to us about low vision, rehab, low vision aids, high tech and low tech stuff that might help you if you still have residual vision and want to access different things and see what some of the new gadgets are. 

We're planning to have a workshop for those of us who are bringing friends or family [crosstalk 00:16:21] who aren't guide dog users and have their little time together. Then we're going to break for lunch. So like I said, we're going to have a long lunch break about 12:00 p.m. to around 2:00 p.m. So you can go across the street, enjoy lunch, go to a restaurant, or you can order a boxed lunch and go across the street, whatever it is you want to do, or just eat at the hotel. We're right downtown Portland, so there are plenty of options for food. They will have all of that info lined up for you. 

All right. Then we have sessions in the afternoon. We have a cruising and travel type of workshop, Dimensions in Travel will be there, along with Vickie Kennedy, I think, is going to help out with that one and Bruce and some of the other board members as well. So that'll be a great one to get to be a part of. 

Then, because our theme is about telling our story, our very own historian Ann Pollack [sp]  is going to do a journaling workshop. 

Another session will be one of our grads, Tom Neville [sp] has written many -- a lot of curriculum and books and things about birds, bird song, and identifying birds and that kind of thing. He going to do a presentation for us, a workshop on that. 

We'll also have a workshop around advocacy as well.

Then, if we're not all so tired, then we will all get together for a very fun dinner together, banquet, and I have some awards. We'll have a great meal. And this year, sort of the theme, and it goes with our story telling theme will be Pick of the Litter. We'll show the film Pick of the Litter and have some of the people who are in the film talk a little bit about it after we view the film together. I think there will be also some delicious snacking during the film. We can't have a film without snacking. 

All right. Then the next day on Sunday, we get up again, have breakfast together and a closing session. And them some folks will go up to the Oregon campus. That's an add on excursion up to the Oregon campus for a tour and a lunch up there. Others of you signed up for the Portland Spirit River Brunch Cruise, which also includes champagne on the brunch cruise. That will be enjoyable. We have a lot of people signed up for that.

Then, then, you go home and that's the end of that. But I did want to remind -- I remembered -- that on Friday -- and I'll be sending out information about this as well -- we are going to add a really cool excursion. It's going to be fairly limited in how many people we can take, but one of our board members, Jack Heim, and our fabulous support center specialist, Toby Contraras are both really into indoor rock climbing. So we've made an appointment at an indoor rock climbing gym, so we're going to offer that as an excursion as well. It will be a little bit of rock climbing indoors. So you'll get more information about that. And that is pretty much what we're looking at for the reunion. 

Something that the Alumni Board, when we were listening to people's suggestions from the past, we [Inaudible 00:20:50] interested in -- maybe it's their first time going to something like this. They might want to buddy up. Our board members are available to buddy up with anybody who might be coming that might want a buddy. We also have a Facebook page, which I'll let somebody other than me let you know how to access. I think we already have a few people on our Facebook page. That's a great place to go if you're looking for a roommate or a buddy, a little bit about different things that you might be doing when you get to Portland, or to share tips, that kind of thing. So that is also another resource that is available to you. 

That is the deal. Leanne, am I missing anything? 

Leanne:  I think you did great. The only thing I would add is that you can register through the Facebook page, and there is an opportunity there to select the additional excursions that you want to participate in. 

Theresa:  Right. Thank you, Leanne. So to register, if you haven't registered already, you can go to guidedogs.com/reunion. That'll take you to the reunion page, and there's a registration button there. I apologize. When we tested this website for the -- it's called Greater Giving -- that we are using for registration -- it didn't have a captcha and now it does. So if you have any trouble filling it out or want help. Give me a call and I will probably have Danielle here from Guide Dogs give you a call to help you sign up online, or you can send it in, send in a check and just send in your things via mail. 

Jessica:  Hey, Theresa. This is Jessica. I can talk about the Facebook group if you want.

Theresa:  Oh, that would be awesome. Thank you, Jessica.

Jessica:  Deanna Lewis and myself, Jessica Naert Stone, are two of the board members of the Alumni Association Board Members, and we put together this group. It's called Guide Dogs for the Blind Reunion 2019 Portland. Also on the GDB reunion page, there's a direct link to this Facebook page. And what it does is there's several different grads that have posted and said, "Hey, I'm looking for a roommate." And so somebody else says, "Hey, I will room with you." So there's a group of three right now that's getting together to room, and so they all connect, and then they take it offline and they figure out who's going to pay what and things like that. 

There's some people that are posting like, "Hey, I'm going on the lunch cruise. Who else is going?" So it's just an opportunity to meet people, to talk to people, and they are also asking questions. One person wanted to know if you could do some of the different activities all la carte. So we researched that, and we'll go back to Theresa and Leanne and ask if there are any other questions that we don't know. 

So it's just a really good way to meet each other and to get your questions answered and ask any questions or concerns you have. If you're wanting to do transportation -- so I know one of the questions we got was coordinating transportation with somebody else like from the airport to the hotel. If you want to do that, you can do that through this group. It's just a way to communicate with other people who are also going. So if you want to join the group, you just can Google Guide Dogs for the Blind Reunion 2019, and it will pop up or Facebook it or go to the direct link on the reunion website. Back to you, Leanne and Theresa.

Theresa:  Thank you, Jessica. I guess we can open it up if people have questions.

Danette:  This is Danette.  

Theresa:  Hello, Danette. 

Danette:  Hi there. Let's say, okay, if I was only coming on Friday and if I wasn't really interested in doing tours, what time would I have to be there? I'm going to be taking the train.

Theresa:  Right. So you'll have the vet people and the gift shop will be pretty much open all day, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. So that would depend on if you want to do the gift shopping or the vet.

Danette:  Which of course I would [laughs].

Theresa:  Yeah. I know. I know. So I would say why don't you think about getting there around noon, 10:00 a.m., noon, something like that and hang out with us.

Danette:  Okay. I have another question too. I know there was talk about doing something for GDB raisers and handlers. Is that going to fit in somewhere?

Theresa:  Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you, Danette. We are having -- goodness. I forgot two very important pieces on Saturday. Because there's a lot of puppy raisers coming too to this reunion, and so we are going to have a session for puppy raisers and grads talking about how we can work more closely together and what do we -- be more support for one another and that kind of thing. So there will be a workshop session for raisers and grads. Then the other one that I forgot to mention, which is also super important, is the chapter leaders workshop. Some of the alumni chapter leaders who are coming, we will have a leadership workshop for our chapter leadership.

Danette:  And that's on Saturday?

Theresa:  That's on Saturday as well, and they're not at the same time. So you'll be okay. 

Danette: They're not at the same time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Theresa:  Okay.

Vickie:  Theresa, it's Vickie.  

Theresa:  Hi, Vickie.

Vickie:  Hi. How are you? Anyway, Theresa, I'm flying in late Thursday evening. My plan gets in at 9:30 p.m., and I understand that you're going to have a relieving area in the hotel somewhere? Because --

Theresa:  - Yeah. Exactly. 

Vickie:  - I think by the time I get over the hotel, it will probably be 10:15 p.m., 10:30 p.m. 

Theresa:  Yeah. You're not going to want to be going over to the park. [Crosstalk 00:27:47] So yeah, and I want to let you guys know that when you fly into the airport -- this is what I do anyway -- I put on my ticket that I want a Meet and Assist so that there's somebody there to help me to get my luggage and all that stuff. On the way to where you get your luggage is the pet relief area, and it's really pretty nice. So you might -- if you're either flying out and you have a delay or something like that or you come in and you've been on a long flight, the relieving area inside the terminal is really pretty nice at Portland.

Vickie:  It's right outside of the baggage area. [Crosstalk 00:28:32].

Theresa:  And they have an indoor one too now, Vickie, that's between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.

Vickie:  Okay.

Theresa:  Yeah. We will have those boxes set up for you, starting on Wednesday.

Vickie:  Okay. Thank you very much.

Theresa:  You got it. 

Jessica:  Theresa, this is Jessica. I just wanted to mention one thing if you're okay with it.

Theresa:  Please. Go. Go. Yes. Yes.

Jessica:  Okay. Absolutely. Theresa mentioned a little bit ago about the buddy program that the Alumni Board is doing. I want to highlight that a little bit more. I know when I went to my first reunion as a first timer, there's anxiety and you're wondering what to do, who am I going to talk to, how to do different things. So we really, as an Alumni Association Board, really want to help you with that. So if you would like somebody on the Board to help you and to be a mentor or a buddy through the reunion, just send myself an email or Theresa and email or Leanne an email. We'll get you connected with a Board Member to help out. You can also post on the group things like that. Because we really do want to make this as easy and as fun for you, so that you can tell your story through the reunion and you can network and you can participate fully. So if you do have any anxieties or concerns, reach out to us so that we can help you, get you set up with a buddy or support you in any way that we can.

Unidentified:  Thank you.

Mindy:  Hello, Theresa. This is Mindy Wolf. 

Theresa:  Hi, Mindy.

Mindy:  Hi. I'm excited I'm going up there. I just wanted to mention one thing. I'm actually bringing a friend who also has a guide dog [inaudible 00:30:11], so Andy Wolf and Annie Funk [sp] are here. But when we were at the San Francisco reunion, when we went on excursions, my poor husband was helping everyone on the bus and off the bus. He won't be there this year, so will there be extra volunteers? 

Theresa:  Yes. Yes. And that is definitely a concern was just volunteers. It's a lot to move this many of us around. So yeah, we are going to have volunteers, and that's why we're keeping some of these excursions and stuff to smaller groups, so that it will be a little less crazy is my hope.

Mindy:  Okay. Thank you for all your hard work.

[Crosstalk and audio cuts out 00:31:16]

Unidentified:  You go first, Holly.

Holly:  Okay. Sorry. This is hard to do. On the lunch cruise, I have been really bad about registering anything for the reunion. My mom had a knee replacement in May, so that's been my life for the last two months. She's doing great. She's doing great, and hopefully, she won't fall at this reunion. But anyway, with the lunch cruise, is it a set menu or do we get a choice or how does that work? 

Theresa:  Yeah. Thanks for asking that. Yes. It's a pre-fixed menu, but you get a choice. So I think there were maybe four different things we could choose from. One was a vegetarian thing; one was a beef thing; one was a chicken thing; something like that. So there was choice, yes.

Holly:  Good. Because there's people with food allergies and stuff, so I want just concerned about that. 

Theresa:  Yeah. If you have really significant food allergies, let me know, and I can get you in touch with the vendor. 

Holly:  Okay. It's not me, but I know [background noise 00:32:34] very, very, very allergic to onions.

[Background noise 00:32:42]

Theresa:  Is there somebody going through paper? 

Holly:  There's serious static on the line.

Theresa:  Yeah. All right. There was another question that came in at the same time as Holly's. 

Marcy:  Yeah. That was me. It's Marcy from Huntsborough, Ontario. I'm just wondering will the vet techs and the gift shop be available on Sunday?

Theresa:  Sunday, if you go to the Portland Campus, yes, the gift shop will be open at the Portland campus on Sunday. But there won't be a vet tech and there won't be gift shop at the hotel. We just don't have the staff for it.

[Crosstalk 00:33:31]

Unidentified: The gift shop, when you got to campus, it's very, very, very crowded.  

Theresa:  I think because we're doing the brunch cruise too, it's not as bad. Right now we only have 20 people signed up.

Unidentified:  Because it was a zoo last time. 

Theresa:  Yes, it was. 

[Crosstalk 00:33:47]

Marcy:  So Sunday if you don't go on the brunch cruise or the trip to the campus, you're basically on your own? There's not much doing at the hotel that's planned, correct?

Theresa:  Right. Exactly. So you can go do your own Portland stuff. There's lots of cool stuff to do in Portland. And we are going to make a list of some of those things, if people just want to do their own toury things and stuff because there are some really cool ones. There's a really cool Japanese Gardens, and there's this amazing donut place called Voodoo Donuts. I had a donut there that was a maple bar with bacon. It was so good. 

Unidentified: Those are supposed to be really good.

Unidentified:  Mm. 

[Laughter]

Candy:  Theresa, this is Candy Weinper, and I was wondering do the tours that we're going on include the tip, or should we bring extra cash, or will they take a credit card? How do we work that out? 

Theresa:  I included the tip and transportation in there.

Candy:  Oh good. Okay. Thank you.

Theresa:  If you wanted to do something special, like someone was particularly good or something like that, that's great. Slip them a high dollar bill or something, but yeah, it's otherwise taken care of.

Candy:  I'll be contacting you because I definitely want a buddy. It's my very first time and I'm excited, but there is a bit of anxiety, so thank you.

Theresa:  Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. 

[Crosstalk 00:35:24]

Unidentified:  I was going to ask you about that [inaudible 00:35:25] thing. Is it just the Board Members that can do that or everyone?  Because I've been to every reunion we've had except one, and I be willing to help.

Theresa:  Yeah. Contact Jessica. If people want to be a mentor or buddy or whatever, contact Jess. I'm sorry. Jack, you had a question or a comment?

[Crosstalk 00:35:52]

Jack:  Yeah. I helped organize the rock climbing excursion, and I just thought I'd mention that we can take climbers from experienced climbers all the way through absolute novices to folks who've never done it before. I've run a couple of these clinics for first time blind rock climbers. I think that every one of them had a blast the first time they ever climbed. I know I did. It's really good exercise. It's really a lot of fun. And I think that rock climbing is probably the sport that takes the least adaptation for a blind person. You're almost the same as a sighted person. 

Theresa:  Which is scary when you look down because you can look down. 

[Laughter]

Danette:  This is Danette.

Theresa:  Yeah. Go ahead. 

Danette:  Okay. A couple questions. You said the Blue Star Shuttle. Do you know if it goes to the train station or is it just the airport?

Theresa:  I don't know. 

Danette:  I can call them and ask them. 

Theresa:  You can call them and ask them, and it's Blue Star -- I don't have my magnifying glass right here, of course. I don't know where I've left it. But it's bluestar.com.

Danette:  Bluestar.com. Okay. And also, the reunion price, has it changed yet? Has the price gone up yet, the registration price?

Theresa:  Yeah. It will probably by the -- we're a little over a hundred which -- I should change it today, but I am not going to. I will change it -- or I can change it next week. I'll take away the $200 option. 

Danette:  Okay. And there was one more question that I totally blew my mind right now. I forgot. Never mind.

Theresa:  Okay. If not, email mail. 

Danette:  Oh, I know what it is. The email that you sent me today. Either one of you can do it, or both of you can do it.

Theresa:  I can definitely do it. I don't know about Leanne. Yeah.

Danette:  Okay. I'll send her an email and send her the invite.

Theresa:  Yeah. Perfect. All right. Any other questions?

[Crosstalk 00:38:43]

Unidentified:  -- we had reunions there before, and as I recall, it only stops at hotels because when you come out of baggage claim, you go over to the little counter and you pay the fee. Then the bus comes -- the shuttle comes and takes you then to your hotel. And then for the return trip, they make a reservation and actually come and pick you up at the hotel in the lobby.

Theresa:  I think because our hotel is one of the -- I think and I will do more research and send it out to you, but it looks like because our hotel is one of the main stops, I don't think you have to make a reservation going back to the airport.

Unidentified:  Oh, really?

Theresa:  Yeah. [Crosstalk 00:39:34]

Unidentified: If you do both ways, you get a discount, I think.

Theresa:  Yeah. Yeah. you do. Yeah.

Unidentified:  If you book it together, you get a discount.

Theresa:  Right. And the thing is there's no harm in making a reservation. Then you know you've got your shuttle too.

Unidentified:  Yeah. I think it saves $4 or something like that.

[Crosstalk 00:39:59]

Holly:  Theresa, this is Holly McKnight again. We're still playing with the flights and things like that and trying to use advantage miles and yada, yada, yada. When will the reunion hotel rates kick in? What nights are those for?

Theresa:  So we have rooms on -- some of them might be booked up by now, too, right, in our block -- Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Holly:  You answered my question correctly. Yay. That's what I needed to know. Cool. Sweet.

Theresa:  Yeah. Go got it.

Laura:  Hi, Theresa. This is Laura Harrison. 

Theresa:  Hey, Laura.

Laura:  Hi. I was wondering if we've already registered and we've already chosen excursions but we'd like to add an additional excursion, is there a way we can do that?

Theresa:  Yeah. You just go back online, and all those things can be added separately. So you can just go back in and put that in, and it will just be a new sale, and it will show up on my thing, God willing.

Laura:  Okay. Perfect. And then the other thing is I am a puppy raiser for those who don't know me, and there are I know at least six puppy raisers that are coming. And anytime we're on any of the excursions or just around the hotel, if anyone needs any assistance, we are right there for you guys. Someone had mentioned their husband wasn’t coming or something like that. I know when we were in San Francisco, we had a lot of that kind of stuff, and that's how we got to know everybody. So we're all looking forward to it a lot. 

Theresa:  Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Do we have any other questions or anything that you're dying for us to do? Yeah. Go ahead.

Nahseam:  Theresa, this is Nahseam Brown from Ohio. I came in about five minutes late. My husband and I were grocery shopping. Where would the relieving area for Regatta be when I first come? I come in on Thursday about 1:00 p.m. Where would I go? Is it at the park, or do I have to ...

Theresa:  You have two options. Probably the one that's nicest will be just across the street at the park. So it's just right across, just one street right across, and it's all grass. So it's super easy. But at night or whatever, if you want to -- or you're in a rush to get from workshop to workshop or whatever, we will have, starting on Wednesday, a relieving area set up on the -- it will actually be the basement floor of the hotel. It's a floor that they use when they have a car show or something like that, so it's just this big concrete area. We'll set up relieving boxes there.  

Nahseam:  Okay. I could talk to the hotel staff, and they would --

Theresa:  - They'll know where it is. Yeah. Yeah. It will be pretty easy.

Unidentified:  I had one more question. If we are registered for one excursion, but we're doing to sign up for another one, but they're back to back -- I told Deanna I'm doing the cruise on Friday, but I'm dying to do the walking food tour. Would that be too much food [laughter]? Will I be rolling by the end of this? 

Theresa:  You'll be full, but you won't need dinner. I don't know, something I've learned recently, is you don't have everything that's on your plate [laughs]. I would recommend both of those. They're both really nice tours. Bring a little doggie bag with you [laughter].

Unidentified:  Literally, right?

Theresa:  Mm-hmm. 

Unidentified:  Well, thank you. Those were my major questions. 

Unidentified:  Are there fridges in the rooms?

Theresa:  I don't -- god, oh. I am not sure. If you need one -- I'm not sure that they all have a fridge.

Unidentified:  Okay. Just curious.

Theresa:  I'll find out. We'll put it on the Facebook thing when I find out.

Unidentified:  Okay you guys. This is [audio cuts out 00:45:12] again. I don't have -- I'm not on Facebook. So you said there was a website I could go to get more information or to connect with other people?

Theresa:  Yeah. That's a Facebook website, unfortunately. Jessica, do you have to be a member of Facebook to access it?

Jessica:  You do, but if you contact me at jnaert, N-A-E-R-T, @guidedogs.com -- that's also the email that's on the announcement that went out about this Speaker Series call -- I can post on Facebook, and I can connect with other people, and I can help you with that individually. It's not on Facebook. So just contact me and I can help you facilitate that. 

Unidentified:  Wonderful. Thank you.

Theresa:  Thanks. 

Jessica:  Of course.

Danette:  This is Danette again. 

Theresa:  Danette again [laughter] Sorry.

Danette:  Would it be okay if I -- I probably would have to pay the $250 -- paid the registration when I got the stipend or what? 

Theresa:  Oh, for the stipend? Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That should be coming [crosstalk 00:46:23] . You know what, you should be getting that probably next week anyway, so you should be Okay. 

Danette:  And it should be -- and I would have to pay the $250, right?

Theresa:  Well, I'm going to probably pull that off next Friday, so if you get it done by next Friday, then you can probably do the 2.

Danette:  Next Friday. Okay. Perfect. Thanks. I won't ask any more questions. I'm done asking questions.

[Crosstalk 00:46:49]

Unidentified:  I'm getting a little bit nervous. My last trip to Portland was troubles, hassles. I'm trying to decide which way I'm traveling this time. 

Theresa:  Mm. No troubles. 

[Crosstalk 00:47:14]

Theresa:  Yes, Marcia?

Marcia:  This is Marcia. This is Marcia. I'm just curious. Is the talent show thing no longer part of this? 

Theresa:  Yeah. We didn't get -- we only got one -- nobody signed up.

Unidentified:  Is there a scavenger hunt this time, Theresa, or the --

Theresa:  - We're skipping the scavenger hunt this time. 

Unidentified:  But those are the kind of things, especially those of you who've been to a lot of reunions, let us know what you like and what works well and what doesn't work well, so we can take that into account for future planning.

Unidentified:  Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Theresa:  All right. Well, if you guys have any other questions or anything like that, just let us know. You can email me. If it's Facebook stuff, email Jessica. And if you forget her email, you can email me, and I'll forward it to Jessica. I really want to thank the Alumni Board for -- they've put in a lot of -- we have a hour long meeting every other week to figure this out, plus homework and stuff. So I really appreciate you guys, your hard work on this stuff. I will turn it over to Miss Leanne to wrap up.

Leanne:  All right. I just wanted to go back to -- Theresa, you talked a little bit on the Saturday for lunch, that we're going have an extended lunch break. Folks can preorder a To Go box from the hotel, and it's our hope that we will have a spot designated or picked out where we can direct people to go so that everybody can gather together, puppy raisers and handlers and all of the different participants in the reunion and make it a outside, social, picnic kind of atmosphere. That's the intent that Saturday on lunch. Of course, everyone also has the option to go off and do their own thing or eat at the hotel, whatever suites your plans best. 

Theresa:  Yeah. Thank you, Leanne. All right. 

Leanne:  So with that, I'm so glad that you all joined us and were brave to raise your questions, and I hope that we were able to answer as many of those as we could. 

Unidentified:  Can I ask one more. I'm so sorry. I know you need to wrap it up. But what about the weather at that time of year? Is there any suggestions you can send us for -- is it going to be cold? Is it going to be cold at night? 

Theresa:  That is the million dollar question. It should be beautiful. It should be. It's going to be beautiful. Expect it to be very nice. That time of year is actually really nice on the West Coast, warm in the day and then cool in the evening. But as it gets closer, check the forecast because Portland does get a fair amount of rain. But I am thinking it's going to be perfect.

Unidentified:  Rain jackets, jeans, T-shirts, long sleeves.

Theresa:  Weather has been so crazy lately everywhere. It's really hard. Yeah.

Unidentified:  The attire for there, it's not dressy? It's all real casual?

Theresa:  It's all casual. Yeah. Sometimes people dress up a little bit for the Saturday night thing, but it's not at all a requirement or -- no, just pretty casual, good comfy walking shoes, that kind of stuff.

Unidentified:  Okay. Because we need room for doggie food too. We've got to pack dog food.

Theresa:  Pack doggie food and bowls.

Leanne:  And in the spirit of packing things, I might recommend that everybody throw in their gentle leader. A gentle leader is super helpful.

Theresa:  Thank you. That's a really good idea because the dogs, it's their reunion too, so they're going to want to say hi, sometimes when you don't want them to say hi. 

Leanne: Well, if this group is any indication of how much fun we're going to have at the reunion, I'm really looking forward to it this year. We have a great location picked for you and a great agenda. We are absolutely open to questions and suggestions and ideas. Bring your stories and your tales, and we'll look forward to Unleashed together. 

[Crosstalk 00:53:01]

[End of Recording]