The Cincinnati - Hamilton County Community Action Agency Annual Luncheon

I went to the Cincinnati - Hamilton County Community Action Luncheon this morning. It was surreal and exciting and disappointing all at the same time. I'll probably write more about this later, but here are some of my initial thoughts.

The keynote speaker was Juan Williams, and I was there to ask him a question, get a quote, or make some kind of brief contact with him. For those who don't know who Juan Williams is, he's one of the premier journalists in the country right now. He's a senior correspondent for NPR (He hosted "Talk of the Nation" for 2 years) and is a political analyst for Fox News (he's the black guy you might have seen arguing with Bill Kristol on cable TV). He spent 21 years building a massive reputation writing for the Washington Post.

I managed to get there through the efforts of Elissa Sonnenberg, Queen of Contacts. She got me on the phone with Mason Gray, who was one of the committee members organizing the luncheon for the Community Action Agency (CAA).

There was an interesting mix of people there. Some were volunteers with the school children the Community Action Agency (CAA) were involved with, including doctors, teachers, and grandmothers that read with children at the library. The president of CAA, Gwen L. Robinson, was also there and delivered a rousing speech. Jenell Walton, WCPO anchor and president of the Cincinnati chapter of the NABJ, was the EMCEE of the event. There were also plenty of political movers and shakers sitting a couple of tables from me, including a few representatives of the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate, Cincinnati Vice Mayor David Crowley, Todd Portune of the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners, and U.S. House of Representatives Congresswoman Jean Schmidt.

It was surreal. Two days before I hadn't even heard of this event, and I didn't know so many of the city's influential people would be there until I saw them there. And there I was with my cheap blue jean jacket on. As someone guided me to a table, I kept saying to myself, "I should have worn a tie." I exchanged a (very) few words with Schmidt at one point, and I wondered if Jenell Walton recognized me from the Cincinnati ABJ meeting I attended a month or two ago. And that weird inner voice kept going on and on "Get your elbows off the table, man! This one might really count!"

I could go on and on about that odd experience, but for now I'll say two things:


1. I didn't get what I came to get. I didn't get even a brief moment with Juan Williams. I ran out of tape in my recorder and didn't even capture the incredible speech he gave. (I should have expected it to go long and for him to speak at the end. Live and learn I guess.) Even so, I think it was a useful experience. Like a lot of journalists that are just starting out like me, I've never seen Democrat and Republican politicians that I've read about or even written about sip tea together a couple of yards away. I knew that these people were real and human intellectually. But to see them munching on the same gourmet chicken you're munching on... to see them ask for a drink from the same server who just took away your plate - that's a horse of a different color. And if Jean Schmidt or Juan Williams or Jenelle Walton saw me today, I'm sure they wouldn't even remember I was there. Despite my faux pas, for a moment I really could have just walked up to these people like I would a classmate or a professor, even if I felt tiny and unimportant. If a social misfit like me can avoid making fool of himself, anyone can.


2. Stuff like this requires planning and sacrifice. I tried to wedge this in between class at UC and work at Micro Center in Sharonville. Had I planned for it better or been willing to really tick off my bosses at work, I probably could have made much more of an opportunity out of this than I did. All sorts of previously unforeseen things worked against making it a bigger success. The device I was using to record the event was wrong (my digital recorder's special lithium battery had recently gone out and they aren't available in stores - hence the tape recording fiasco). The place I parked was wrong (I was lucky I didn't get a ticket). The clothes I wore tripped me up (that subtle lack of confidence was probably influential). So remember, even when you have short notice, you have to find a way to plan, plan, plan.


~Geoffrey Dobbins
Vice President, UCABJ