Lemons & Lemonade

Cynthia Deale, Ph.D., is President of ICHRIE & Associate Professor in the Hospitality Management, Western Regional Representative at East Carolina University.
 

The CHRIE conference in San Juan is still fresh in my mind and perhaps it is in yours, too. I came home energized and excited about the upcoming year due to my experiences in Puerto Rico. In spite of some challenging events at the conference, overall I found the meeting to be a positive experience and hope that you did too. I was excited to take part in the conference, glad to reconnect with colleagues and friends, delighted to meet new people and learn new things, and happy to welcome new board members as we move forward with our strategic plan. Highlights of the conference included, but were not limited to, the Career Academy, the Deans’ and Directors’ events, the industry sessions on current trends and social media, and the numerous concurrent paper and poster sessions of high quality.

The Career Academy once again provided attendees with interesting and relevant information that can be used to guide faculty members’ teaching and research efforts, and I thank Rich Ghiselli and his team for this successful event. As the Vice President of CHRIE during the past year, the Deans’ and Directors’ program was my responsibility and they appeared to turn out very well. For example, the session on Wednesday was held at the Universidad del Este and essentially became the first Deans’ and Directors’ CHRIE Think Tank. Omar Pagan-Parrilla, the dean at the Universidad del Este, hosted the deans’ and directors’ event complete with a buffet lunch of delicious Puerto Rican dishes and I thank Omar for his hospitality and professionalism and the faculty and industry members for their spirited participation in the session. CHRIE also worked with our wonderful industry partners and CONPEHT (Confederación Panamericana de Escuelas de Hotelería y Turismo, with assistance from Paul Rivera of the University of Puerto Rico-Carolina) and AMFORT (Association for Hospitality and Tourism Education and Training) for the first time to deliver a lively student program for local university students. I thank the industry participants for conducting that program and for all that they do for CHRIE.

Speaking of giving to CHRIE, I also wish to thank all of the members of the Strategic Planning Committee and others who serve CHRIE in a variety of capacities. These include Evangelos Christou who tirelessly headed the paper review committee and Amit Sharma who chaired the symposium review committee. Without these people and the reviewers, we would not have a program.

I would also like to thank the ICHRIE staff—Kathy McCarty, Kevin Anderson, Amie Garrett Grayson, Sam Kohli, and Sabina Katyal for working long hours to plan and organize the conference and Mpire for orchestrating the conference. Without their dedication and effort, we also would not have a conference. Speaking of dedication and effort, I would like to thank all of our newly elected and newly retired board members for their commitment to CHRIE. My thanks go to Bill Samenfink, Mokie Steiskal, Marianna Sigala, Caroline Cooper, Rich Ghiselli, Rocco Angelo, Lea Dopson, John Self, John Drysdale, Bob Bosselman, Chad Gruhl, Fred Demicco, Randy Goldberg, Alan Tuttle, Amy Hart, Dennis Reynolds, Ravi Pandit, Perry Hobson, Jouni Ahonen, Olgun Cicek, Martin O’Neill, Carl Winston, and Susan Fournier, and numerous others for their service.

In addition, I would be remiss if I did not thank all of our members who attended the conference to present information, to learn, to network, and to enjoy interactions with other educators and industry members. Without our members, we would have no reason to hold a conference.

However, as noted, we have many reasons to hold conferences and as I begin my year as president, I am looking forward to many CHRIE events this year and to the annual conference in Denver in July 2011. Yet before we get too far into the future, I think that we are in need of a bit of TLC as an organization and perhaps a bit of “service recovery.” Many things went very well at the conference—as mentioned above—while other events were plagued with some difficulty. For example, the awards gala was over-subscribed and some folks felt that food and drink prices were too high. I chose to see the crowded gala as meaning that people wanted to be involved and wished to congratulate their colleagues, but there may be other reasons for that situation and as the current president of CHRIE, I am ready and willing to listen to what your concerns, comments, and suggestions are as you look back at our recent conference and, more importantly, as we plan events and develop products and services for our organization in the year ahead. I want you to know that I empathize with you about the gala and I thank those of you who have already brought that situation and additional items to my attention for your willingness to share your thoughts, ideas, and concerns with me. I apologize for any difficulties you may have experienced and will work diligently over this next year to put good ideas into action as we strive to enhance the value of our membership to CHRIE for all members.  We can truly make lemons into lemonade so that things are even sweeter for all of us in our organization.

We have lots of exciting things going on in our organization, from planning enticing federation level conferences and activities to developing new products and services for members. It is an exciting time to be the president of CHRIE and an exciting time to be a member. Please join me as we work together on behalf of CHRIE this coming year!

Email Cynthia at OHALLORANC@ecu.edu.