Meeting Topic: Reactivating the Kansas City Heartland Section
Moderator Name: Thaddeus Swann, Chair of Section
Speaker Name: Samantha Potter & Bill Mullin, Tres & Sec of Section
Other business or activities at the meeting:
Stated mission: To connect and educate audio professionals for great sound in Kansas City.
Probed into the interest of each attendee. Compelling questions were posed. What does a successful section look like a year to 2 years from now? How does the section make a greater audio recording and live sound scene?
Areas for determining small Special Interest Groups include: Recording, Live Sound, Audio for Video, System Applications/Design, Learning Center of Excellence and AES community advancement.
Meeting Location: Johnson County Communicaty College Audio Arts Lab
Probed into the interest of each attendee. (a 50/50 mix of students and professionals) Compelling questions were posed. What does a successful section look like a year to 2 years from now? How does the section make a greater audio recording and live sound scene? How have you grown within AES in that period? What have you become? Reverse engineer our way to these pictures.
Determined areas for small Special Interest Groups to include: Recording, Live Sound, Audio for Video, System Applications/Design, Learning Center of Excellence (intra-AES assistance; greater school-to-street synergy), Networked / IP Audio, e-Sports / e-Gaming and AES community advancement.
Additional delivered message
When you heard that AES is a good place to network, did you think, "oh maybe I can find someone who can help me get ahead, after all it's not what you know but who you know". That is BS.
If networking is a means to use someone, it is false. It is not being true to yourself; flawed, limited and just trying to grow. Every professional at any stage is in the same situation as the student, because we never stop being students. It IS what you know and the using it to help others.
The best way to be successful is to get involved and contribute. Success is building a portfolio of responsibility and trust. What initiative do you take to go the extra mile for someone? Responsibility is simply saying "if it's going to be, it's up to me". Upon accepting layers of responsibility, you begin to build a bank account of trust. When people know they can trust you for delivering responsibly, you have real value. And that value is a tradable means to attain what you want and need to survive and thrive.
NETWORKING IS THEREFORE NOT A GOAL; IT IS A RESULT
Attendees have been encouraged to find a place to belong and contribute within SIGs.
Written By: Bill Mullin