Late Night Musings
by Todd Reemtsma, NBS Section Chairperson
Looking (and thinking) outside of the box
It was great to see so many members of our section at Concordia University in Moorhead, MN for the USITT-NBS 2016 Fall Conference. A huge ‘thank you’ to our hosts, presenters, and organizers! The time is always too short.
I want to offer congratulations to the students that were chosen for NBS Scholarships to the 2016 USITT Annual Conference in Salt Lake City! Thank you to everyone who applied, to all the faculty members who encouraged their students to apply and wrote letters of recommendation, and to the scholarship reading committee for their time and effort. Please check out the article in this newsletter to find the list of winners.
In no time at all it will be March and many of us will be on our way to Salt Lake City, Utah for the 56th edition of the USITT Annual Conference March 16th – 19th, 2016. If you are attending the conference, please plan on joining other members of the Northern Boundary Section on Thursday, March 17th, 2016 from 8:00AM – 9:15AM in a room that is yet to be determined for our section meeting. At the meeting we will be recognizing our scholarship winners, holding elections for the 2016 – 2019 Section Officers (see this article for details about nominations), soliciting a host for our 2016 NBS Fall Conference, and coming up with ideas for how we can keep our section so great. If you have agenda items that you would like to see covered, please drop me or one of the NBS officers a line prior to that date.
Lately, another one of the organizations I belong to has been bringing in keynote speakers from outside of the industry at their annual conference. It has been a breath of fresh air in most cases as these experts in other areas offer their experiences and knowledge and encourage a different perspective. All too often we get stuck in the rut of “that’s how we have always done it” and don’t look at things in any other way. It certainly makes sense for most of us to pay attention to the art world for ideas of style and color and texture, but perhaps we should be looking even further for ideas and encouragement. New ideas can be found in forestry, social media, disease control, waste management, and other areas we may have never ventured into for a new perspective on how to take on a new approach to what we do. Let’s read some new books outside of our realm. Let’s strike up some conversations with people with whom we never thought we had something in common. Never stop growing. Never stop being curious. Never stop trying to expand the boundaries of your box.
I hope that everyone has an opportunity for time with family, with friends and some time to themselves this holiday season and look forward to being in touch in 2016!
If it’s not fun, why do it? - Ben & Jerry (of ice cream fame)
Todd