February 10, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

I haven’t made much noise about it, but I’ve been working all year towards something very important to me. And now I have it, which you may have noticed when you see who posted this. I have now graduated with my CTIS!

“Whoa up, there, Tex”, you may say…”What in tarnation is that there CTIS?”. It’s a special designation offered by the American Bus Association called “Certified Travel Industry Specialist”. I’ve taken classes in Customer Service, Business Writing, Advertising and Marketing, Time Management and Financial Documents, and passed ‘em all. Some were great (I still look at the book from the Customer Service class!), and some were not so great, but all were very beneficial to my growth and knowledge of this industry.

Other organizations have their certifications…NTA offers the CTP, SYTA offers their new certification in Student Travel Planning, and there are others. But just as ABA is the top organization, CTIS is the top designation in this field. I would encourage anyone who is truly serious about group sales to consider taking this course. It took me less than one year, and I did learn quite a bit that I’m already using.

The graduation was held on Wednesday afternoon, and was great fun (if a bit crowded…all the past CTIS graduates come to cheer for their new members). We had one of the biggest classes ever (29 of us this year), and it was great to put faces with names, and establish new friendships with classmates we’d never met before (outside of class emails). Can’t wait to be a mentor for one of the new class members.

Ask me about becoming one of the few, the loud, the CTIS Cadre! Once you go CTIS, you never go back….

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February 10, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Wednesday afternoon of ABA featured a second set of sightseeing tours of the Hampton Roads area. I had signed up for a tour on Sunday, but ended up not taking it, so I could make sure everything was ready for the Super Bowl Party.

So I was ready for the tour Wednesday! Emi and I had signed up for the Whale Watching tour out onto the ocean, with a visit to the Aquarium afterward. To our delight, our new friends from the Saturday evening party were going on the same trip (and, of course, plenty of snake jokes were flying around the coach on the way to the boat).

We pulled up to the harbor (three coaches full of eager people), and we were set on getting up front somehow. Everyone on the first boat seemed to go upstairs, rather than out front, but that boat was full by the time we got close. So we got to be among the first to get on the second boat. Great timing…we ended up right up front, and this boat had an extension from the prow out over the water (never learned what that is called). The other boat was flat in front, so we really lucked out! It’s my favorite place to be — way out over the water, with nothing under you but the surf.

Of course, given that it was February, we never saw any whales (or dolphins, for that matter). Plenty of laughter, though…lots of “Finding Nemo” references, and the usual sick humor. And with that, we hit on the second running joke for the four of us. Emi has a gold whale fluke hanging around her neck…Matt got it for her in Hawaii, and she’s worn it ever since. She absolutely adores whales, and has been on many a whale watching excursion in the past.

We made one too many snake jokes, and Danielle had finally had enough. She fired off a comment about getting some “whale tail”, and we were on the floor again. From that moment on, she and Emi were sisters…one with snakes, and the other with whale tail. Kim and I just howled with laughter.

And, as always seems to happen, it worked out great, as Emi DID find some whale tail! At the gift shop at the Aquarium, she found a beautiful glass whale fluke, submerging with a splash! It’s going on her desk, and will fit in perfectly for her. A great fun afternoon, and a very welcome break from a busy week on the show floor.

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February 10, 2008 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

As many of you know, I’ve been working for months on the first ever semi-official Pennsylvania Dine-Around Party. While the state officially sponsors an Operator breakfast every year, we thought it would be fun to put together a special event for Dine-Around evening. The Super Bowl falling on Sunday evening gave the perfect opportunity.

We were able to pull together quite a gang of sponsors, and had invited a lot of Operators. It took months of planning and organization to put together. At one point, during the process, my daughter Bethany came up to me, watched me work on spreadsheets, booklets, and such, and asked “Why?”.

She saw all the phone calls, emails, design and redesign work on the collateral materials, and the moments of frustration when something doesn’t go the way I want it to. She asked what I was paid to do this, and was shocked when I told her I wasn’t getting paid for the effort.Even with the moments of frustration, it’s not all that much work when you love what you’re doing! Putting something like this together was a blast for me…I get to meet people from all across Pennsylvania, I get to plan something fun to do at my favorite convention, and I know that the reward of putting on a great event is so very worth the work that it takes. I guess it goes back to that Anne Beiler quote I used before (read further through the Blog postings to find it, if you don’t know it already). It does help that I’m doing this with (and for) my second family, and that helps spur on some extra creativity. After all, there were plenty of Super Bowl parties during ABA this year. Ours was simply the best one!

Bethany was even more amazed that I’ve already started working on events and ideas for the 2009 convention in Charlotte, and 2010 in Alexandria. Again, I’m doing it because it’s something I love doing (although some of my second family attribute it to utter madness)! We talked about it further, and she understood a little better. But really, it’s not something you understand until you’re involved in it. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything else!

Thanks to everyone who joined us in a very casual atmosphere (which is what everyone said they liked best), and please consider joining us next year, in Charlotte, NC. We won’t have the Super Bowl, but we’re going to have a new event that many people WILL want to join in on. More details to follow…

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