FPA Conference Boston

One of our office traditions is to attend the annual FPA (Financial Planning Association) Convention. This year the convention was in Boston MA. This year the conference was marred by one of the biggest stock market drops in history so we had to spend a lot of time on the cell phones to deal with client questions, requests and panics. Breaks, lunches and dinners were mostly spent on the phones. We heard some good speakers and some not so good, but I was impressed by what David Gergen had to say. He has been a political advisor to presidents Regan, Ford, Bush, and Clinton. He talked about the issues and consequences of the current upcoming election. He also said that it was a bad idea to count America as being down and out. It does not pay to bet against America. We are a nation of creative, hardworking and productive people. He predicted we would survive the current problems and come out on top. I realized that that is central to my belief system and I have to have some degree of optimism in the current mess.

In between the phone calls and convention sessions we managed to take in a couple of General Conference sessions including going to Sara's old church building in Cambridge when she lived here, to take in the Priesthood session. While at the Priesthood session we ran into Elder Ayers. He is from Washington now but lived in Gardnerville for a while. It's a small world in the church.

We also took in a Boston Red Socks game. Part of the American League Championship playoff. It was the first time for any of us to see a post season base ball game. There are no fans on earth as enthusiastic and loud as Boston Red Socks fans. The game was an exciting game going twelve innings against the California Angels. We didn't get back to our room until 1:00AM. It was a great experience of baseball, fans, and history in Fenway park. We also took in the Freedom Trail that winds through downtown Boston and passes many Revolutionary War historical sites. North Church where Paul Revere received the signal of the British Invasion, Bunker Hill, Paul Revere's house and others.

Next year the conference is in Anaheim California. That is an easy one for us to go to. After that I think we'll only go every other year.

President's Council meets in Austn

This year's President's Council meeting was in Austin Texas, the State Capital. Pictured below is the State Capital building.


We would work in the morning and then have activities in the afternoon. I chose to go horseback riding one afternoon. After all we were in Texas. I went with Mark Hoover and his wife. The other day I went golfing with Steve Anderson, the National Sales Manager and Mark Hoover again. The golf course took very good care of us. They even brought us chocolate milk shakes on the seventh hole.






Pictured above is the State Legislature room at the Texas Capital.