PYM’s Annual Sessions is officially underway as of today with the start of our pre-sessions spiritual retreat this afternoon. Our PYM Sessions truck has been unloaded at the College of New Jersey and our golf carts are out ferrying staff to prepare all of our spaces.
This year will be easier for everyone since check-in for both our Residential and Day Commuters will be at the Brower Student Center – right outside our plenary space. There is a map on our website that shows where everything is. The visitor parking lot and lots 3,4, and 5 are all fairly close to Brower.
The launch of Sessions also means the launch of Slack, an instant messaging app that’s constantly lighting up staff cell phones. It also means away messages on phones and emails, empty Friends Center offices, and lots of report writing, packing, sourcing of key documents, and convening of committees and volunteers.
Friends who have been to Sessions previously often find PYM staff, cell phones in hand, sending out a Slack message on their phone. If you wonder what we are doing, we call this “slacking.” That means we are messaging the entire staff community for help in getting a golf card for a Friend, looking for a presenter, solving a tech problem, confirming a meet-up point, checking on someone needing medical attention, or looking for some important materials.
Slack is the communication thread that ‘makes Annual Sessions go.’ It’s become our go-to problem solver, because it instantaneously taps into the collective knowledge of our entire staff community.
Bottom line – if you find yourself needing a golf cart to ferry you back to your room – ask a staff member to “send a slack…”
