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For First-Timer, CAMEX Was All About People
03/20/09
I spent a good part of my first few months on the Publications Department staff at NACS hearing about CAMEX, getting advice about CAMEX, and finally receiving marching orders for CAMEX. I feel I was as well prepared for my first time as I could be and, in all honesty, it really was about what I thought it would be: one great trip.
I'd like to think that's saying something since I realize I'm one of those guys who have been lucky in career choices. Those choices have allowed me to do some pretty interesting things over the years, such as cover the Super Bowl, and I can honestly say I leave work most days thinking, "They actually pay me for this?"
But CAMEX was really something special. It started with our arrival in sunny (but somewhat chilly) Southern California. Now is probably as good a time as any to let Rochelle McCoy, book department manager, LBCC Viking Bookstores, Long Beach City College, CA, know the cold I promised to take back to Ohio with me took a bit longer to arrive here than expected, but it did finally return.
Members line up for the tee shirt exchange during the Opening Night Pep Rally at CAMEX 2009 in Anaheim.
Three members show off the shirts they received in the swap.
Another thing I was told was that memories would be created during my stay. The one that captured the CAMEX experience for me had to be the Tee Shirt Swap at the Opening Night Pep Rally. You see, we kind of figured maybe 50 people would participate. We were more than a little wrong.
Reports vary, but the number of store members in line to swap shirts had to approach 300 for what felt like hours, even after more NACS staffers rolled up their sleeves to help the overwhelmed Publications crew originally slated to man the tables. When we finally got to the end of the original line, it was re-forming for members to pick up their new shirts.
But here's the cool part.
Everyone was patient and appeared to be having a good time. It may have been the chill outside and the fact that the swap tables were inside, or that the beverage area was nearby, but this long line, which could have easily turned angry, stood patiently and members used the time to network with their neighbors.
There was also one member who returned and nicely told me what she really wanted was my tee shirt instead of the one she had just received. Mine was a pretty cool black tee with The College Store magazine emblazoned vertically on the front and supplied to the NACS Marketing and Publications Departments by the good people of My U.
I didn't catch the woman's name, but since I was wearing the tee over my regular shirt (remember the nip in the air), I figured "Why not?" So I shrugged, took it off, and handed it to her. I made two more shirt trades before I encountered a fellow who told me he'd given his tee shirt back. He said it was pink, but I'm guessing his 6-foot-4 frame had as much to do with the return as anything. So, I handed my latest shirt to him, figuring it was the least I could do considering how patient everyone had been.
There was more good cheer Saturday at the Book and Author Breakfast. I showed up and volunteered to help, getting the duty of directing members to the coffee. I got teased a little and dished it out a bit as well to a lot of great people as they went through that door. That's were I first ran into Rochelle, who was carrying breakfast in one hand while working a crutch with the other, which began a couple of days of good-natured bantering back and forth.
I must admit I missed the tear-jerking speech by Jim Sheeler, author of Final Salute. I didn't plan on leaving just then, but nature has a funny way of being insistent and then that got me helping the NACS events staff hand out books to a line of people that went from single digits to hundreds in a matter of seconds. It was another chance for impatience, since the program ran over its allotted time and many members had educational sessions to attend, but there were just as many who appeared more than happy to pick up their favorite title and then return for the signing after their session had ended.
Speaking of the educational sessions, they were informative and lively. Now, I'm willing to admit I really don't have much to compare them to, but I thought the presenters were very knowledgeable and helpful, particularly the volunteers who led some sessions.
This brings me to the point to all of this meandering.
I used to think the people I wrote about for the sports section of a small-town newspaper were about as good as it gets, but they were nothing like all of you. People like Rochelle, and NACS President Vicki Benion, Jim Williams, general manager, The Duck Store, University of Oregon, Eugene, and his lovely wife, and cartoonist Jorge Cham at his vendor booth, and all the people at the Book and Author Breakfast who had to go through one door with their breakfast since the other was jammed…well, you get the drift.
It was the wonderful people—members and vendors—who made this a week to remember for this first-timer.
—Dan Angelo
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