The indelible mark of meaningful acts.By the time I reached junior high school, I realized that playing baseball was Baseball WA is the governing body of baseball within Western Australia. Baseball WA is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation External Links Baseball WA Australian Baseball Federation Claxton Shield | something I would enjoy for years to come, but I would never play second base in the major leagues. And so I was a 13-year-old in pursuit of another dream--that of becoming a sports journalist (a dream I later changed when I decided there was more to journalism than covering sports). I will never forget a gift my paternal PATERNAL. That which belongs to the father or comes from him: as, paternal power, paternal relation, paternal estate, paternal line. Vide Line. grandfather gave me at that time: a portable, manual typewriter typewriter, instrument for producing by manual operation characters similar to those of printing. Corresponding to each key on the instrument's keyboard is a steel type. he'd he'd 1. Contraction of he had. 2. Contraction of he would. he'd he had or he would he'd have ~would bought at a local department store. In giving the gift, he told me, "You'll need this if you're going to be a writer." In fact, that little typewriter took me through numerous term papers, countless sports stories filed with the Lorain Journal in Ohio, and on through the many reports, papers, and articles of my college days. My grandfather's gift was an act of understanding, support, and inspiration that I've never forgotten. I think we all have gifts or bits of advice and other memories that stick with us in that way. As I pondered the messages in this issue of ASSOCIATION MANAGEMENT, I thought about the indelible mark that type-writer left on me and the indelible mark our actions leave on our members, customers, and business partners--positive, neutral, or negative depending on how well we know and understand them and how well we execute those actions. Certainly that's a point with which the authors of "Customers at the Core" (page 57) would agree. So too, I'd wager, would the folks who wrote "Engaging China" (page 62), which stresses the importance of making a sincere and lasting effort to know your counterparts in China before trying to do business with them. Our actions, and the thoughts behind them, really count, don't they? Three decades have passed and I now plunk plunk also plonk v. plunked also plonked, plunk·ing also plonk·ing, plunks also plonks v.tr. 1. away at a laptop Same as laptop computer. laptop - portable computer , but that little portable typewriter is with me every day. KEITH C. SKILLMAN, CAE (1) (Computer-Aided Engineering) Software that analyzes designs which have been created in the computer or that have been created elsewhere and entered into the computer. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Keith C Skillman Editor in Chief kskillman@asaenet.org |
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