Wow! Did Arizona show up in Phoenix? Heck yeah! We had to bring in more tables and chairs to accommodate the crowd. Scott Hair kicked things off by introducing everyone to the Soapbox. If you have been reading these blog entries, then you know what I am talking about. If not, the Soapbox is here for anyone to get on if they have something that needs to be heard by the masses.

Kent Hudson, SchoolDude's CEO, got everyone in the right frame of my mind to roll up their sleeves and find solutions to the challenges everyone is facing in the world of educational facilities. He talked about key success concepts including documenting and tracking the work you do as well as marketing your department.

Data speaks volumes about what M&O Departments do on a daily basis and helps communicate that to the school board and public. If you don’t have data, how can you make the right decisions? In bad times when they are looking to cut everywhere and you have to be able to justify your resources, staff, and budgets. It makes getting into that mindset all the more important. You can argue with opinions, but you cannot argue with statistics.

We’re loaded up with coffee and grits (Grits in Arizona? YES!), and already rockin it out. And the day has just gotten going! By the end of the day, everyone here should be equipped to Get Tough and Get Going. Survival Mode has kicked in here in Phoenix, failure is not an option.  We will have much more about the Phoenix Survivor Tour stop throughout the day. Stay Tuned SchoolDude Nation!