Yakima

Last weekend marked the second straight year we've gone to Yakima, Washington, as part of our annual Community Meetings. Of all our meetings, this one is without a doubt the most remote, the longest drive, and for what it's worth, the most interesting at least in terms of meeting new Tribal members who've set up lives elsewhere, which of course is most of the general membership.

Yakima is fascinating for sure. As you drive from the Columbia Gorge north and enter the Yakima valley, there almost seems to be a climate shift, as everything gets warmer, sunnier, and slightly humid. As a couple of Tribal members explained to me, the area is vegetable heaven, and they know what times of the year to buy which vegetables. Every major temperate-climate vegetable flourishes here, or so it appears.

Grand Ronde and Yakima have a history. This was where many Tribal members drifted to, perhaps for work, perhaps for other reasons. We've roughly 130 members in this area, one of the greatest concentrations outside the state of Oregon. There are several families who could just as easily enroll in Yakima as Grand Ronde. They are also considered a gorge tribe, whereas we would like to be a gorge tribe.

The attendance this year was smaller than last year, but still on par if not better than Eugene and Portland. Some might say we need to do away with this non-local community meetings altogether. I think we simply need to promote them more, by sending flyers and invitations, maybe even giving out more door prizes. You can announce stuff in the "Smoke Signals", but if you're like me it is not hard to lose sight of something amidst the obituaries, birthday announcements, and other advertisements.

While we might have had only 20 different Tribal members show up this year, I conversed with almost all of them on some level, even just superficially. Since I was one of four Council members, divvying our time, especially during the one-hour meet-and-greet prior to lunch, was not difficult. The breakout sessions went reasonably well, and overall those attending were polite, asked good questions, and inthe case of Council, were genuinely interested in talking to us. The only complaint is that Red Lion, as opposed to other businesses, would not let people take the leftovers home, which is different from the other places we've use to host these meetings. Since less the half of the food we ordered for 80 people got eaten, that is a criticism I agree with.

I hope we don't give up on the Community Meetings just yet. Maybe it was because I had as good a time yesterday as I've had at one, sparsely attended though it was. The people who come really enjoy themselves. Plus I was told "See ya next year!". I am still unsure, however, why some still confuse me with Mark Mercier.

PACT Distraction

Back in my freshman year of high school, I read a book which contained an interesting story. In the early 20th century an asteroid came close to hitting the Earth. It was big enough, I remember reading, to have caused an unheard of amount of destruction, probably killing millions. What I found funny about this story was that aside from the scientific community, and even then probably mostly astronomers, nobody really knew.
Google asteroids heading toward Earth and you'll get a number of interesting stories. Supposedly we might be hit by an asteroid again at some point in the near future. I suppose it is hard to forcast such a thing. What is not hard to do is to be so distracted as to forget how tenuous our existence might be, so enveloped are we with everyday life.
On Friday I drove down to Eugene to hear the oral arguments in a case of significance that has been simmering for years since 2003. The organization People Against a Casino Town (PACT) has filed a lawsuit against the State of Oregon arguing that Indian casinos are a violation of our state constitution. From a legal standpoint, of course it is infinitely more complicated than that, as the 90 minutes of arguments atest to. And this matter has been making its way through the legal system. But if I have to condense my interpretation to one sentence, that would be it. The PACT makes their points here.
We've been monitoring this lawsuit the entire time I've been on Council. The Coos Tribe have been the primary targets of this effort, but if the PACT were to win their suit that would obviously have repercussions for every tribe in Oregon. So for as much of a longshot as this case may seem, it has the potential to pull the rug out from under all of us. I don't believe that is going to happen. Even if they were to win this case I cannot for the life of me picture police and government agents showing up and forcing us to close shop like they did bars and speakeasies during Prohibition. There would have to be some sort of mediation, some middle ground.
We have a tendency to take our sovereignty for granted. So much so, we get sucked into things that in the grand scheme of Indian country and our Tribe are really kind of silly. Some time this next week, members will be getting a large envelope. In it will be a brief letter from our Director of Development talking about potential identity theft, and attempting to update members on an event that took place two years ago, for which nobody is being charged with anything. There will be a 16-page police report that casts suspicion on several people.
I am not sure how many members will care or even remember what this is about. But there will a number who will pack the room Wednesday night, provided they get it by then, demanding action, accountability, and maybe even ask me why I didn't vote to mail out this packet. My reason will be, among others, that we've spent too much time, energy, and money on something that really amounts to mudslinging. That answer probably will not satisfy them.
It saddens me that this will be such a hot topic in the near future, because while some might think the decision to send out this packet will hopefully bring the still-simmering incident to a close, my hunch is the two-year simmer will reach a boiling point, with more heated meetings and accusations flying. I could see this going another two years. I also see it getting uglier, much uglier.
I question the role we play in all this. After six years I think we create more problems than we solve by immersing ourselves in situations that are political and personality driven. Worst of all, this kind of "stuff", informational junk food, distracts us and our membership from the things that matter more, the possible asteroids heading our way-- the PACT lawsuits, the Supreme Court decisions, the things infinitely more important, and relevant.

NIGA

The National Indian Gaming Association didn't impress me much back in February. Then, the conference was held in Washington, D.C., right before that epic snowstorm. I was battling the usual insomnia that gets me every trip east. It was hard to keep focused, much less awake during some of the speakers. And overall, the conference just didn't seem that organized, as some of the speakers talked more about the upcoming NFL conference championships and the upcoming Superbowl than Indian gaming. At least they seemed to.
The NIGA conference this past week, in San Diego, was infinitely more informative. I might even say too informative. I knew it would be interesting when the keynote speaker on the first day was, of all people, NBA legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who entered the convention with BIll Walton, also legendary. Abdul Jabbar was also accepting the NIGA Chairman's Award for his work in bringing basketball camps to numerous Indian reservations. The photo op caused chuckles as Walton stepped in, two seven-footers amongst several Tribal leaders, the tallest maybe six feet tall.
This week was a celebration of NIGA's 25th Anniversary, though only the 19th conference. It was also half conference and half trade show, as the lower level of half the San Diego Convention Center was a cacophony of new slot machines, booths, giveaways, lounge areas, and networking opportunities. I haven't really been to this kind of convention before. The trade show seemed geared more toward casino managers, name a casino department and there were multiple booths peddling some sort of novelty or software designed to make Human Resources and Restaurant management easier. The "bait" in many of these booths were young attractive women, complete with SoCal tans. Given all the older men in suits, that makes sense.
I sat in a number of workshops, most of which were useful, one not so much. Many of these workshops seem like "ins" for the company putting them on. I sat through one on the value of Social media for Tribal casinos. Facebook and Twitter were the focal points, with some recognitionof LinkedIn and MySpace. Facebook totals more than 450 users I learned, with Twitter following behind at 70 million. However, 14 million Twitter users account for more web content generation than all of Facebook. Also, the quickest growing demographic of social media users, over the past year anyway, has been the 55 and over population, who have increased 1000%. Given that same demographic contribute more to Tribal casinos than anything, it is only logical that this company helps marketing departments incorporate social media into campaigns.
The most interesting workshop I attended was the last, and titled "Different Generations, Different Challenges...Dude". It was basically a leadership/managerial course that got into generational differences. I understood Generation X and Baby Boomers, but knew little about Generation Y, the Greatest Generation, the Good Warriors, and the Boomer sub-generation the Joneses. The man hosting the workshop runs a company in Seattle, and although a Boomer, said in all his work Baby Boomers tend to cause more problems around the workplace than other generations, chiefly on account of an unwillingness to turn the reins over to younger generations and not coping well with the proliferation of technology in all aspects of life. Gen Xers, which I am one of, prefer to work unsupervised, don't believe in hierarchies, and were the first generation raised by single moms, which thus created our independence. We also lived through Watergate, IranContra, the gas crisis, Three-mile island, church sex scandals, all of which have made us cynics. Generation Y, they are the chronic texters, the most culturally diverse, and most needing of praise, though money isn't everything. The workshop was, to say the least, fascinating.
There was another workshop that resonated with me, but more on that later. As demonstrated below, I'm starting to use the video capabilities on my phone more.





And if you've ever wanted to see a Cuban cigar made, here you go:

Mounds of Memories

In late 2006 I helped myself to an oak shelf that sat in the Executive Office's meeting room virtually unused. No, I didn't steal it. I just moved transferred the shelf to my own office, because by then an obscene amount of paperwork was starting to accumulate on my desk and table. Rather than buy a new shelf I simply swapped a smaller cherry wood one for a larger oak version. Weeks went by but somebody noticed, and after coming and chewing me out (albeit in a friendly way) a replacement was ordered. So my attempts to save the Tribe money went for naught.
Since then the shelf has become overloaded. I save everything piece of paper, every report, memorandum, etc. possible. Some people think it excessive, and I cringe when watching that cable television show "Hoarders" because if there is ever an office or workplace version somebody might turn me in. But you never know, I always say. Electronic records can be manipulated and conversations, I learned by sitting through some of the Pearsall hearings, can be mysteriously forgotten no matter how important. Hard copies, with my own notes, are the way to go, my proof of history.
I've started making a dent in paper mounds by learning how to scan, double-sided, much of these reports and packets and converting them to PDF's. Thus I now have photocopies of my notes and can scrap the originals. It has been somewhat liberating.
Some people know this but I've requested all of our reports be emailed to me in PDF's, including SMGI paperwork. I download these to my netbook or laptop and scroll through them during meetings. Foxit Reader, a PDF reader that is downloadable for free, allows me to type notes onto the reports and memos. At first I would get a lot of looks during meetings, some guy sitting on a laptop during a meeting, but people are catching on. I take some solace in the environmental part, today's work session packet was 90 pages long. The longest one in recent memory was nearly 150 pages. With nine Council members you can guess how much paper we go through. I am tempted to compute how much the paper costs weigh over two to three years versus a netbook with a 2-3 year lifespan.
Sorting through many of these older packets as I scan them has been akin to strolling down memory lane. I've always considered myself having a good memory. But in looking over many of these packets it is obvious that much has happened that I've almost forgotten. My notes or the agendas trigger floods of memories, some of which must be embedded deep in the back of my mind. It is almost overwhelming.
The agendas will often just list a meeting we had, at what time. Depending on the topic I either draw a blank or relive a session that got very heated. I came across many on enrollment, and I can recall that a crowd of people showed up. I can remember when somebody got upset and stomped out. Some things I can remember I wanted to remember, but obviously did not.
Years ago National Geographic featured on article on memory. There is a woman in California, who now prefers to be unnamed. She possesses an extremely rare condition called hyperthymestic syndrome. She remembers every waking second of her life, of what she has read, of what she watched on television. People thought her a freak or phony, and would harass her to prove her condition wasn't real.
She said in the article it was more of a curse. Not sure if I agree. This job has tested my memory like no other. I would love to remember everything. As I close in on the end of my second term, and who knows maybe even final depending on voters, there has been, as all the notes and packets remind me, quite a story to tell.

Representing

Back in 1997 I was lucky enough to do an exchange program to Ecuador. A by-product of that was having to learn about some South American history while there and in my Spanish classes. Interestingly, I continued to take Spanish upon returning for one final term at the University of Oregon, not wanting to lose my grasp of the language. The last language professor I ever had was Chilean. More importantly, she was a Chilean refuge, having fled the country with her family in the early 1970's when Augusto Pinochet ousted the democratically elected Salvador Allende in a military coup that was backed by the CIA.
Until then, I'd never quite understood why the CIA was viewed with so much suspicion by many Americans, despite being a part of our government and presumably advancing our causes and beliefs. I've read that the CIA supported (though how much support isn't clear) Pinochet out of a fear that under Allende Chile would become another Cuba. Ironic then that Pinochet would become a notorious dictator under whose regime thousands of dissidents and political opponents would be murdered, tortured, and disappear. Not ironic or unexpected is that people would come to be so critical of the CIA after being involved in something so ugly, and according to my old professor, devastating.
I've thought about this a lot over the last few days. Democratic governments are supposed to represent the will of the people, and when you start dealing with cases like the CIA-Chilean Coup of 1973, one has to wonder if we are being accurately represented. I'm sure somebody might know more about this than me and could present a compelling argument to justify what happened. But right now I've not sure anybody could convince me.
One of the main reasons I've reflected on this is because while having lunch recently with a Tribal member and spouse the conversation of this year's Oregon Governor's race came up. I told them we would be meeting with several candidates over the next few weeks who are seeking the Tribe's support, both Democrats and Republicans, and they asked me if they could be allowed to sit in. I wasn't sure because nobody has ever expressed an interest. But then again, how many really know?
Several months ago one of my posts about supporting the Chinook recognition drew some comments. In the past we've received a few comments about our decision to pour money into the 2006 Governor's race. The issue that seems to be a real lightning rod is our strategy to oppose the Cascade Locks casino, which of course puts us at odds with the Warm Springs Tribe, and has even drawn criticism from several of our early Council members who feel we are hurting a tribe who helped us get restored. The problem of course in all of it is that while we have heard from Tribal members expressing discontent, the numbers have been small. But I still can't help but wonder if we need to re-evaluate how we make these decisions, or if we need to keep making them at all.
One thing I've learned is that there are costs to getting involved. Monetarily we've spent millions on our off-reservation strategy. Some would make arguments we've thwarted competition that would have cost us even more. Others have pointed out the collateral damage that is hard to fix a cost to, like souring relationships with other tribes and elected officials.
Economically, times are tough enough to where I think our ability to have influence is not what it was several years ago, and realistically money plays a huge role in creating that influence. Also, the issues are getting cloudier. A candidate, be it Senatorial or Gubernatorial, might line up with the Tribe on one issue but be an opponent on the next. One might oppose off-reservation gaming on moral grounds, which is fine for us, but oppose environmental stances, which isn't fine with us.
This much is true: I'd be darn curious to know where many of our members stand on some of these issues. Thankfully, we don't have anything resembling the CIA. But that doesn't mean we won't make a decision which years later could come back to haunt us.

Coffee Chats

Today and yesterday I participated in series of employee events at Spirit Mountain Casino called "Coffee Chats". These are essentially informal meetings held in conference rooms between management and staff where employees have the freedom to ask whatever they want, to express concerns, and clear up rumors and misunderstandings. There were two yesterday, one in the early morning and the other mid-afternoon. The two today were mid-afternoon and evening. There is coffee, too.
I guess these meetings have been held several times over the past year. Some have told me they can be confrontational at times, and mellow at others. Employees can attend while on the clock, and all attending are given raffle tickets for drawings of prizes that usually go to regular patrons. In this case, those prizes were "rocket grills", which from what I could tell is supposed to be a takeoff and competitor of the George Foreman Grill. Haven't used one, but I can see how they might be handy.
Bottom line is employees are allowed an opportunity to air things out with management, and if they choose can be paid to do so. This has to be a good thing. Personally, I do not ever recall having these coffee chats while being an employee myself, though that was admittedly long ago (2003) and my own work experiences have been mostly pleasant at the casino. Still, I am trying to figure out why there is such a gap between my own experiences and those of people who are drawn by some powerful urge to broadcast their casino workplace struggles at Council meetings or through emails and phone calls to us, like we are the Human Resource equivalent of Don Corleone.
Can't say the two coffee chats I attended provided many answers. For one, most of the workers said nothing. Two, if between these four meetings maybe 100 employees chose to show up, it's hard to take comments and questions as fairly representing any general sentiment of the roughly 1600 workers at Spirit Mountain. Three, most of the questions were innocuous and readily answered. I would be curious to know how the employee surveys play out.
Regardless, they were interesting to sit through, even if some of the faces, and complaints, were familiar.

Team Building

We had a meeting today with our Human Resource Director who came to feel us out for whether a team-building session would be appropriate. Those who were present, all six of us, agreed to give it the old college try, though clearly there was some skepticism. So over the next two weeks we are to complete a questionaire that will attempt to profile us in hopes getting a starting point on how to proceed.
This kind of stuff has been made fun off often in popular culture, including a commercial with the gecko from Geico. I can see why. I am not sure how old these kinds of exercises and workshops are, but my guess is probably a few decades, just young enough to be part of the generation gap(s). Nonetheless, I find it fascinating.
Years ago I took a personality test with the help of a behavioral sciences book. I came from a personality profile called "The Champion", but my score was on the cusp. I could have easily been "The Healer". Titles aside, the profile as read was uncannily accurate. My personality loves championing causes, prefering to see the big picture but overlooking necessary details and having a harder time with follow-through but always eager to brainstorm. There were other qualities too, but those are what I remember from almost a decade ago.
I think having our personalities objectified and classified so brazenly bothers people, because in this age we aren't supposed to stereotype and everybody is unique, like snowflakes. That might account for some of the skepticism exhibited today. But that doesn't change that there are patterns of human behavior that are prevalent across time, cultures, religions, and races. There are differences, for sure. But above all, there are enduring similarities.
Some of my co-workers' concerns were that as a group we are too political to be helped by what will probably be a half-day workshop. People aren't going to change their politics. By "politics" what I gathered was meant was sabotaging, backstabbing, undermining, rumor-spreading--all the unsavory things we hate but accept about modern day political science. There might be some truth to that. Personal agendas and vendettas certainly exist, but good luck getting people to admit it. And if we're not going to be completely honest in an exercise like this, how effective could it be?
We won't really know unless we do it, is my take. Plus I think individually we will all take something away from it. Some will just take more than others. But I think if Obama and Republican leaders are willing to sit and talk about differences, can't we? After all, we fancy ourselves as being different from mainstream politicians. Now is our chance to at least try and prove it.