Our drill, Chase’s interview, next week

I was on the road yesterday and will be again tomorrow. I drove to Elk City, OK yesterday for a drill in our Emergency Response Procedures. It was quite an experience. We had the city, county and state personnel involved; city police, state police, sheriffs, firefighters, EMS and the local hospital first responders – including a medical helicopter to airlift the injured. The only problem we ran into was the number of amateurs who were listening in on their police scanners trying to scoop the local news.


The county emergency specialist, who was acting liaison in our control center, said the switchboard (911) was having trouble keeping up and every county official was getting multiple tweets. It was a great experience, but it turned into quite an episode. Had it not been for one person in our group who had a direct contact within the local and county new agencies, we could have had a real mess on our hands. As it turned out, everyone involved and those watching from the sidelines thought things went very well.

The Lord told his disciples that there was nothing hidden that would not be revealed. We are definitely in those days. Small town USA has no secrets – only a competition to see who can get the word out first and the worse the news, the better.

Chase’s interview on Monday went well. He will know in a few days if he got the job. I am not sure if he will ever get a job, but I think he could do consulting on how to interview for a job. I think he is in the 10-12 range of interviews he has done. Many turned out well until they looked at his age. I suppose he should have a job before he sets up his Interview Skills website, but not necessarily. How many people do you know that have never done something but will still tell you how to do it properly? Coaching football, refereeing a basketball game, raising children, preaching, the list is endless of persons who have no practical experience yet consider themselves experts in the field.

Tomorrow I will be in Guymon, OK with my direct reports there doing interviews. We have a total of seven candidates. We will interview four tomorrow and go forward from there. We only need one and the situation is not desperate, so there is no urgency except on the part of the contractor that is handling the load in the interim. I enjoy watching people in interviews – on both sides of the table. For the direct reports that I have helped with the interview process, it is difficult to tell who is more nervous, but the experience on the part of my direct reports is invaluable.

Mama and I will be on the road all next week – Decatur, Houston and Milton, FL. (Someone we know lives there.) I probably will not have the chance to write much during that week, but I will try to gather some good material. After all, we will be with my favorite subject matter in the latter part of that week. We will only be in Florida for three days, more or less, and Mama plans on being at the beach part of all three of those days.

She will come back with a sunburn. I will come back with a tan.