Monday, October 24, 2011

IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR

My old work-related files documented the fun I had in 1977, causing me to write this story.02/22/18



IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR
 While conducting a course at Scottsdale Community College’s Senior Adult Educational Program called “Reminiscence Writing,” I provided suggestions to class participants to help them get started writing their personal memoirs. “Review old files and documents from your working days,” I would tell them.
 Now I am stuck while writing my autobiography. I can’t seem to drum up any recollection of 1977. I ponder, what exactly did I do that year?  Did I go on vacation?  If so, where did I travel?  What family members came with me? My oldest child, who turned 21 that November, would have excused herself. Her days of riding shotgun in the back of our station wagon with her five siblings were “fini.”
I open a file drawer and withdraw a folder that contains copies of my expense reports while employed by SRP. As I flip through them, 1977 returns to life. Look at the fun I had that year! How could I have forgotten?
The first report covered a trip I took in March to attend the 1977 Utility Purchasing Management Conference in San Diego. Typically, vendor representatives outnumbered utility attendees by a large margin at these conferences and clamored for their attention. The annual conference format began with a cocktail party Sunday evening. On Monday morning, distinguished authorities delivered hour-long talks about significant industry issues such as the state of the copper market. (Yes. Uh-huh. I see.) After lunch, the audience always thinned out as many would chose to play a round of golf or sightsee. Monday evening featured a banquet at the conference center hotel. Tuesday was also a seminar day, but by noontime, most of the vendors had departed leaving a sparse crowd behind.
John O'Malley, Purchasing Agent, and his second wife, Phyllis attended the conference with me this year. They were newlyweds. She was a long-time employee of a local utility supply firm and knew many of the vendor representatives.
The highlight of the conference took place before it began. Certain manufacturers invited their best customers to private dinner parties on the Saturday night preceding the conference. John, Phyllis and I opted to accept a manufacturer’s offer to attend their dinner party held at the famous Del Coronado Hotel. Three busloads of guests arrived simultaneously. A pre-dinner cocktail party awaited us. A pack of hungry wolves could not have devoured prey faster than we gobbled up trays of shrimp and other delicacies while swilling gallons of martinis and other libations. When nothing remained, we staggered up to the domed wooden ceiling main ballroom where we were served dinner of the five-star variety, with more courses than I had fingers to count.
Then with a drum roll, the CEO of this firm introduced his secret performer, the singing/dancing star of both stage and screen, Carol Lawrence. Accompanied by a dance group of six men and a full orchestra, she put on an awesome Las Vegas show, a memorable event.
After the dinner ended, the host company doled out lavish gifts to their utility guests. No doubt they hoped this would influence future purchasing decisions. When I got back to my office, their sales personnel paid me a visit and worked me over; trying to induce me to place an order with them despite the fact they were not the low bidder. That soured me, and I never again accepted an offer to attend their pre-conference dinner parties.
My expense report indicates it cost $300 for me to attend this conference, including four nights in a hotel, airfare, and registration, worth every penny. It made me become an even harder working employee. I wanted to attend next year’s conference!
In April, another report shows that I undertook an exchange program with John Ravera, Materials Manager for Sacramento Municipal Utility District, or SMUD. We had previously agreed to spend a few days in each other’s workplace, hoping to share knowledge and learn new ideas.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with John and his wife. He had only recently assumed this position. Previously he had worked as an engineer in SMUD’s nuclear power plant. I learned quite a bit about his firm, a true municipal enterprise controlled by numerous ordinances.
A month later, he visited me for three days. It astonished him that SRP operated more like a private investor-owned company than a public utility such as SMUD. His organization had to comply with numerous state regulations; SRP had no such restraints. Our procedures were so dissimilar that neither could benefit much from the other. I regretted that he left this position some years later, and we lost touch. I really liked this man.
The expense report shows the trip cost about $200, including $150 for airfare. John arranged for me to stay at a nearby motel that had no amenities but only cost $11.65 per night. I didn’t rent a car as he escorted me in his. The extent of my business frugality knew no bounds.
Upon my return from Sacramento, I flew to St. Louis to meet with representatives of the Peabody Coal Company. They supplied all of the coal to our Navajo Generating Station from an open pit mine located at Kayenta, some 80 miles away. I failed to indicate the purpose of my trip on my report, but I think it had something to do with how they warehoused and controlled parts and supplies for the mine. I know for certain that this company did not invite me to dine lavishly on shrimp while sipping wine, watching Carol Lawrence perform. Despite the absence of such amenities, I am certain I had a good time. I stayed one night, at a modestly priced hotel.
In May, my next report shows that I went to Washington, DC to attend a special meeting of an Ad Hoc Public Utilities Purchasing and Stores Committee. I loved this trip because I stayed at (you guessed it) The Watergate, the locale of the burgled burglary of the Democrat's Headquarters by Nixon supporters. The room rate, an astronomical $47, doubled the cost of any room I had ever paid while traveling for SRP. The room had an odd shape, unlike a rectangle, standard motel room, and the bed squeaked every time I moved. No wonder I only stayed one night.
The Ad Hoc members decided to form a permanent committee, and elected me its first Chairman. This great honor guaranteed I would attend another conference.
The year 1977 would not end. In September, my peer in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Ed Enfiajian, asked me to visit his firm and to submit an evaluation of their procurement practices. I spent three days and two nights on this trip.
LADWP operates in a fashion similar to a federal agency. The number of people employed in their purchasing office overwhelmed me. It took an army of clerks to put Bid packages together as they contained numerous legal documents, including ones to protect them from being sued by minority-owned business firms.
Ed took me to the site of their major AC/DC Transmission Station to see the damage caused by a recent earthquake. I learned from him some of the water history of LA that is featured in the movie, Chinatown, documenting some of the unscrupulous methods L. A. used to acquire water from far away places in the state.
My three-day trip to L.A. cost the company $179. I was a low-cost traveler.
 Later, Ed came to visit me, but he soon discovered that our firms had few procurement practices in common. He envied SRP’s less restricted procurement environment. We parted pals, but did not meet up again.
Years later, he told me that a thief had shot him while he was standing in front of an ATM. He survived, but remained in poor health afterwards.
In September I went to Louisville to chair the first Public Utilities Purchasing and Stores Conference. Our initial meeting drew few participants, but we decided to schedule another meeting in the near future, hoping to increase attendance by arranging to incorporate plant tours of nearby major manufacturers. This trip cost $330, of which $280 went to pay the airfare. I stayed at the Galt House for $27 per night. The bed did not squeak.
I am glad I kept my 1977 expense reports. They brought back specific memories of that year that I had long forgotten. I turned 50 years old that June and looked forward to my future with SRP, hopeful I would someday make it up the corporate ladder to an executive management position. As it turned out, I got stuck on the middle management rung and wound up going nowhere.
 


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