Executive Committee Meeting

For the past several weeks, I have been planning and worrying about our Executive Committee meeting. They flew in on the Huntsman jet on Sunday, went to four different locations for firesides; we met all day in meetings. I was at the office by 6 a.m. to make a few changes to my presentation and check that everything was ok.

The meeting went well and seems like a real blessing to have two apostles (Elder Nelson and Elder Ballard) and other general authorities (Elder Tingey who is president of the presidency of the seventy) and Sister Beck (general RS president). We also had the other CES presidents (President Samuelson, President Clark, and President Woodhouse); Elder Kerr, our commissioner; Gary Moore, Seminary and Institute Director; and other commissioner staff (Roger Christensen and Jim Tidwell). They spoke at 4 this afternoon to the full BYUH ohana and encouraged us to support change.

I got home around 6 so it was one of those 12-hour days. They return to SLC tomorrow.

WORK, WORK, WORK

This month has been busy--to say the least--and it doesn't help that I'm awake by 3-4 a.m. thinking about what needs to be done. Occupying my thoughts and time has been the work of our Organizational Design Team (along with Bret Ellis, Steve Tueller, David Lucero, Arapata Meha, and Susan Barton). Lots of hours and considerable stress as we look at how to restructure BYU Hawaii so that it's less costly. We meet about 8 hours/week but are expected to spend 15-20 percent of our time on these activities.

Our Executive Committee (12 members that includes Elder Nelson, Elder Ballard, Sister Beck, Elder Tingey) arrive tomorrow to speak at four firesides on the island and then meet with us all Monday. We had originally been asked to schedule six FHE groups but they were canceled yesterday by the commissioners office. Working with President Wheelwright on the agenda and working with the presenters has kept us busy.

Our WASC accreditation team comes next month--five members will be on campus--which will complete a five year, three phase process. I worked on formatting the 50-page report during the Christmas holidays. Now it's up to the faculty as they meet with the team to share their program outcomes and evidence of student learning.

We have weekly President's Council and President's Advisory Council meetings, as well as monthly University Council meetings; weekly PIRAT (Planning, Institutional Research, Assessment, and Testing) meetings; weekly IR meetings with the student researchers.

I'm team teaching business communications again this semester--it's a highlight for me to be working with the students, twice each week for 90 minutes. The class is totally different from the way I taught it previously with more technology.

I'm also the SIFE advisor and we're preparing for our regional competition the end of March. We have an outstanding president with Al Doan and continued support by alumni and others. Our national conference is in Chicago in May.

Serving as the first counselor in the stake presidency with weekly presidency, twice monthly PEC, monthly bishopric training, and stewardship interviews with each of the Elders Quorum presidents is fulfilling and another highlight. We're preparing for our stake conference that will be held on March 15-16 with Elder Sheldon Childs as our visiting authority.

Serving as a dad (when Megan has time) and to my other favorite daughters is a highlight; Dianna and I always compare notes each day to see if we've heard from them sometime during the day (the "Millennial Generation"). Of course we love our time with Trevor (piano lesson each Thursday), and with Devin and Kyle. Always a lot we could write about.

Dianna and I are looking forward to our travels to Pennsylvania in May and to Australia in July--some fun family events! More as we go along--these are some of the things that keep us busy.

Trevor and Devin and Kyle

We enjoy spending time with the boys--they have such great imaginations and like to use their experiences in travel. We were with the boys at their home the other night while John and Lindsey had an activity. Trevor wanted to play hotel; so when I arrived, he had me wait in the lobby (living room) and then checked me into my room (their room, second door on the left). They had a lot of their toys on the floor so I "complained" that the hotel hadn't prepared the room after the previous guest had left and wondered if he could get the maid to get it ready. He said there was a "boy maid" that would get it ready and I could go back and wait in the lobby. A few minutes later the room was ready and I checked in. Later we sat on the bed and did lots of rides (sounded like a lot of the Disney rides) going up and up and then all of a sudden going fast down the the track and around the curves.

We laughed one evening when he was at our place; Dianna prepared his dinner and then he got to full to finish everything and asked for a box for take home.

We decided that they are certainly getting a fair share of restaurants and travel! Like I said--fun and imaginative.

Devin's attention span is also getting longer so he focuses on activities longer--I enjoy just holding Kyle--and getting some more and more smiles!