post mortem

[Seth Sicroff]

This is not the post mortem... My mother just left town, and I have a full day of class preps and classes to teach, with more of the same tomorrow, plus a sleep deficit to put to bed, so I'll have to leave you hanging for the moment.

However, I did want to thank all of you for making the event a qualified success -- qualified, insofar as real success must be measured in terms of our next steps, rather than a single day's chatter. And I do expect that the next steps will justify the work we have put into this initiative so far.

At the risk of slighting the many people who contributed to the event, I just want to single out Leo Sanders of ToughPups.com (for his talk on Tourism, for collaboration on the organization and staging of the conference, and also for generous financial support), Nancy Chwiecko (for her talk on Dog-Friendly Housing), and Ken Zeserson (on the travails of TCDOG). Alison Deeb's keynote on dog parks was so effective that there was an immediate call to draft her as a consultant to help push Ithaca out of its undogfriendly rut. Diane West's proposal for a dog park yearbook has great potential, and I am looking forward to starting work on it. Thanks to my octogenarian mother, Dr. Anita Sicroff, for representing the eastern seaboard from Ocean County south (as well as purple-haired ladies everywhere);  to guest of honor Emily Rosenberg who gave us coast-to-coast representation (and for moderating the final workshop on resolutions, organization, and plans); and to Pongkaeo Tangwonglerd, who made this an international conference. And our undying gratitude to Lizz Pratt, for taking minutes.

I will be posting those minutes soon, but meanwhile please send me your notes, evaluations, and sundry feedback. I hope that some of you will write to Janelle Hart and Charlene Stout of the Holiday Inn expressing our satisfaction with the logistical and culinary arrangements.

Seth