The Salad Bowl Became a Salad Spinner

(recorded May 18, 2026)

Episode Sponsor: PowerGistics

Join Marc, Rachel, and our guests:

Josh Kesecker, ACPE Board Member and Technology Director at Wallowa County ESD

and

Chris Rowbotham, Director Of Technology at Siuslaw School District 97J

_________________________________
We chat this episode about BelieveIT—the ACPE 2026 conference, recapping the fun, the quiet moments and heavy work, the laughter, activities, presentations, community, treehouses, and so much. We also welcome Chris Rowbotham to the PluggedIn mics after months of "stealth Chris" on each episode. Marc's fault.

Cory Horton is not on this episode, but is the reason we had so many beautiful stories to tell in this post-conference episode. We love you, Cory! THANK YOU

*Oh, and sometimes, you know, you just want to like chillax and crush your opponent. —Josh K

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

All right. Well, here we go. Chomp, chomp chomp. I know.

SPEAKER_08 0:03

Hi, Rachel. Hi, Mark.

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Welcome to our first episode after uh our conference we had at the beginning of May. That was super awesome and super epic. And I know we'll get into some awesome guests today, but to kind of oh, I thought you were putting on aviators too, but apparently not. But uh just as a reminder to the folks who couldn't make it this year or just any of our newer listeners, our conference theme this year was Believe It. We had a very heavy Ted Lasso theme in it. Tonight's sponsor happens to be one of our diamond sponsors, which we are so grateful for. So, so grateful for the just the support that they give us and the really fun activities and cool spaces that they set up. And it just so happens to be the diamond sponsor I got paired up with. Um and go, if you don't mind, would you bring I sure will? And there she is. Uh and I just before we let her talk, because I'm gonna keep talking, it's been a minute. Um the the greatest thing about this whole thing was I was like, oh, Christine, our first call is like, I think everyone's gonna do like soccer, and Ted Lasso and you immediately were like, Yeah, I don't think we're gonna do that. And I was like, perfect. What are you thinking of doing? And I'll let you give us a quick, quick hitter there, Christine. Uh, and then tell us about your company and your support of ACPE.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Sure. Well, thank you. I'm so excited to be on. And honestly, I'm still in a bit of a glow from ACPE. So I guess, yeah, history of how we got to a space cow theme. Um, y'all probably heard that we're from Wisconsin. And I have actually kind of a couple of ways to where we got to the cow. Kind of the the short version is you know, Wisconsin is the dairy state. If we were a country, we would be the fourth largest exporter of cheese, hence the the cheese head, which for all of you that are not watching, I actually am using it to prop up my microphone here. So cow, we've embraced the cow in in many ways. We came to the Space Cow theme, in part inspired by I love sci-fi, and I have not seen the newest season of paradise. So no spoilers there. But it was, it was you, Mark, that introduced me to that show. Uh, I love sci-fi, super sci-fi fan, and um, it just felt like it made sense to uh bring a bit of the mysterious Pacific Northwest beauty into uh our typical cow theme. We bring Bessie with us all over the country. This is definitely the first time that she's ever tried to be abducted. So that's kind of where where we got the the space cow thing in.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Also, if anybody missed it, can I interrupt real quick? Christine, what company are you with?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Oh, right, yeah. Powergistics. That's right. Hi guys, I'm Christine from Powergistics. And that leads me to the charging cart colloquially, or at least regionally around here. The the computers on wheels, the carts on wheels. Uh that's like the cow. And oftentimes cows are big and bulky. So um that also connects with it as well. Some parts of the country get it in, you know, immediately. Um, some parts of the country, which I was a little surprised that there weren't as many um folks that got that immediately in your guys' area. Uh, they just thought we were being silly.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

We called ours cows a long time ago. I don't I think it's maybe just because we kind of moved away. We started moving into the one-to-one, and maybe we started calling them less cows. Not less cows, but cows less. Sorry, but anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Continue.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

No, that's fine. I guess I could kind of like so power gystic's like our story. I like to tell stories, and I think our story is a really, really awesome one. So we are a metal manufacturer, first and foremost. Um, and it started all the way back in 1870. So it was the great-grandfather of our current owner who emigrated here from Wales, and he had an apprenticeship in blacksmithing. Um, but he actually had to walk 34 miles to borrow a hammer so he could forge his own hammer to start his very first business. And that was blacksmithing in Columbus, Wisconsin, just about like a mile away from where we currently are. And back then, this is not a joke, but they their main business line was the iron cores of wagon wheels. They teamed up with a carpenter, and at at basically at some point, they're, you know, kind of making the full carriage, I believe. So total cool background in metal making and our current owner, you know, fifth generation. I mean, he has an industrial design degree. He's got a background in human-centered design, like how to really create products that are really user-friendly for people and kids. And we had uh a neighboring local IT director who knew our owner. And in 2012, he was like, I don't like these carts. I've got this idea. I want to make this idea happen. And so he came and they collaborated. And at the end of the day, the first Power District tower came out of that and it evolved a lot. I think there actually are quite a few districts in Oregon and Washington that like might have been a little bit early adopters back when we could only wal mount. And since then we've upgraded and now we have retro kits where you can get wheels on most all towers. And I'm really excited that we now have a tower hinge kit. So if you still want it to wall mount, but you're sick of taking it on and off the wall to get to those cables. Now we have a kit that will work with any tower we've ever made that can like allow the tower to swing open and access all the cables. Which by the way, can I just say plugged in as the podcast? I love that because I talk about cable logistics.

SPEAKER_09 5:38

Yes. Plugged in.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 5:41

Oh my gosh.

unknown 5:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 5:43

So if I Christine, if I understand correctly what you just said on the retrofitting, is so like a lot of people have these hanging on the walls, well, bolted into the walls, hopefully. And now they don't have to buy a new unit. They can put a wheelbase on the wall mount. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Yeah. So any towers after like midway through 2016, um, any anyone's manufactured after that can take a roller kit as well. So you can convert and convert some of the older stuff into newer carts. Um so, and we can also do like um power supply retro upgrades as well. So everything about kind of how we've done things is from the mind of an IT director, he was he always says the kiss, like the keep it simple, stupid, like try to do everything easy.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Can you show us your demo cart?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Or are you talking about this guy? Oh my gosh. Yes, here's my demo cart.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

That's real size, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

It is so tiny, right? We have the tiniest footprint possible. Absolutely footprint. I'm sure you can tell. And this thing actually does beautiful. So, for all those that that are not watching this, I'm holding a uh a Lego version of our tower. This is the core 12 or core 24 uh cubed, and it's got the lovely door that it can be locked, but you can still see if the devices are inside, and all of the fun colors, which do act as a classroom management helper for the teacher. And the colors are just fun and bring joy. That's actually a real quote from someone in Texas. Putty.

SPEAKER_09 7:17

The old ones were putty, that putty color.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

I love that example. That is like you should just take that on like work visits with you and show everyone that this is your cart. And I mean, okay, so serious question here, Christine. When will you have all the pieces cataloged that are needed to make that?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Uh as soon as I actually do it.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

You actually did this yourself, which is amazing. It's amazing. And so, with that being said, I think that ACPE should buy a whole set of your cart Legos, Rachel.

SPEAKER_09 7:44

I like that idea.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Just took a deep breath. She was like, oh man, what does Mark do?

SPEAKER_09 7:48

No, no, no. I like it. That was like a like a contented sigh.

SPEAKER_03 7:52

I think that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_09 7:53

I think so too.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

We keep like straying, but uh, I do want to share when I first met Christine and how this all came to be. We were at a different conference in California, I think, and we were meeting and we were chatting about your company. And one of the things you said it was a metalworking company, and that you make custom propane truck parts and carts for laptops. Maybe it was your boss who had business cards for both, like the propane trucks and the carts, which was so weird. And I loved it.

SPEAKER_09 8:22

Okay, Christine Mark is clearly not Midwestern because when I hear that, I'm like, makes total sense.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

I mean, I get it. I get it. Total sense. But it was just funny to me. It just took me like totally by surprise. But we did talk about ACPE quite a bit, and I was like, you gotta come to this conference. And we got you in last year with another vendor, I think. And then just she snapped up a diamond spot, and it was just so good. And we we we love all of our sponsors, in particular, our diamond sponsors who make the conference really what it is.

SPEAKER_09 8:54

I agree. And I always think think that Christine has been with us since like forever. And with the past two years, Christine's like, this is my second, this is my first year. I think we knew each other in a prior life. Yeah. Christine, we are so grateful for you and Powergistics as an ACPE sponsor and partner and friend at these conferences. So glad that you had fun planning, and we hope that we'll see you next year and can't wait to see what Christine's creative brain cooks up.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

I don't know how I can top this one.

SPEAKER_09 9:26

That was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

You know, well, it will be marked. I'm gonna give you some ammunition, so it'll be good.

SPEAKER_09 9:32

Yes. Okay, Christine, have a wonderful evening. We know it's already late where you are, and appreciate you being with us on this episode of Plugged In. Just before we brought Christine on, I was putting my glasses on, which now there's gonna be a reflection the whole time. I'm glad that most people just listen. But I always it's when we start recording that I notice, like, oh, I didn't like I didn't pull my hair to like not alfalfa underneath the headphones and was like having to squint at the screen. I just have readers on, but for some reason at night on these recordings, it's easier with the blue light blocking glasses.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

Well, you could have got a visor. Did you get a visor?

SPEAKER_09 10:06

I think I did get a visor, but I honestly haven't unpacked my bag yet. Well, it's been a busy couple weeks.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

I got it.

SPEAKER_09 10:15

So yes.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

Well, it was a super fun conference. Sorry, I'm just chomping away on some licorice in your ear, but that is kind of like a big thing.

SPEAKER_09 10:20

I'm surprised that you still had some Twizzlers left.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

I know. I had a giant tub, and that was the hit of the tree house that I had was all of the licorice. It was really quite delightful. Okay. So before we get into our guests tonight, Rachel, is there anything we need to talk about?

SPEAKER_09 10:34

So I think for our plugged-in segment this evening, we keep it short because I want to bring our guests on. And I have like funny things for you in the next episode, and I didn't have a chance to finish them before tonight. Um but two round ball things.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_09 10:47

One is that I think the power of the ACPE community is um pretty strong because Christo Fernandez Football is life from the Ted Lasso series was actually signed on El Paso. Uh he's in Texas.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

I saw that he's on a Texas team.

SPEAKER_09 11:04

Yes. Yes. So and I just thought that we were the positive energy in the universe, all concentrated around Stevenson, Washington and sending sending it towards sending it towards El Paso. And then second is it's the Spurs versus the Thunder.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 11:22

It's so good. It's so good. And the current update as we sit here this year.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

Remember the old Seattle Sonics?

SPEAKER_09 11:27

Okay. Uh yeah, I know that was kind of heartbreaking. It is uh five minutes left in the fourth quarter, and the Spurs are up 89 to 84.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 11:37

And uh Wimby's just a treat.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

Okay. Well, I've been watching Running Point on Netflix.

SPEAKER_09 11:42

Running Point.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

I actually just finished the two seasons. It is a basketball comedy with Goldie Hahn's daughter. What's her name?

SPEAKER_05 11:49

Kate Hudson.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 11:50

Is it Kate Hudson?

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Yeah. Yeah. Good job. Good job. And it's about her as sort of a Paris Hilton type daughter in a family that owns a basketball team in LA. It's supposed to be like the Lakers, kind of. And she ends up taking over as president of the team for her brother, who goes to rehab, and she crushes it. And it's really it's really a sweet story. There's like fun stuff in there. All right. So yeah.

SPEAKER_09 12:15

I will watch for that one. I'll watch for that one. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

Well, do we want to bring our folks out?

SPEAKER_09 12:20

So I'm gonna bring out the first guest.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_09 12:22

And that's our fellow board member Josh Kessaker, who if I'm counting right. This is was this Josh? And we'll bring Josh out to ask him this. I think this was Josh's first conference as a board member.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

I believe so. Uh that's right, Rachel. This was uh my first uh conference on the board.

SPEAKER_08 12:41

Welcome, Josh. And you survived. Good job, you. It's thank you. Long days, full hearts.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Late nights.

SPEAKER_08 12:50

Late nights.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

But it's rewarding too.

SPEAKER_09 12:52

It is. And then Mark, I'm gonna have you introduce our surprise guest just to hear you say his name. So bringing out from backstage.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

From Suislaw, is that where he's from? It's coleslaw, something like that, right? I think it's Christopher Roastbottom. Nailed it.

SPEAKER_07 13:12

How'd you like that timing? I was waiting with my like finger ready.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

No, hello, Chris. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Hello, Chris. You've been a constant source of amusement on this podcast.

SPEAKER_09 13:24

People have been waiting 20 episodes for this moment.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

To show you, I can say Chris Robotham. Wait, did I screw that up again? Did I did I screw that one up again? You almost got it. I mean, we're trying. Chris Robotham, thank you for joining us on the podcast today. Uh, I just want to share a real quick story. I was telling Nicole, my wife, right before I came on the screen. I said, Oh, we've got a couple fun guests tonight. One is the guy that I butcher his name every episode because it's really funny. And I said, He I have so many fun stories about you, Chris. I'm gonna save them. But I go, he's the nicest guy. He's just the nicest guy, and he just smiles and he laughs. And I'm glad that you take it so well. So thank you.

SPEAKER_09 14:09

And so Josh.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

I was a teacher. Remember, I was a teacher.

SPEAKER_06 14:12

I taught you. I mean, I know my students butchered my name left and right. So I'm I'm used to it. It's all fun.

SPEAKER_09 14:21

Well, we appreciate your um good grace as we you became our our invisible guest for many podcast episodes in a row. And this is where Josh, I actually think you and I are just gonna sit here quietly for a few minutes because I actually want Chris and Mark to talk a little bit about the music connection and the people in their life and the power of middle school and high school band. Is that okay if we just turn it over and really talk about, like in a meaningful way, the connection between the two of you that predates ACPE and this silly podcast?

SPEAKER_03 14:52

I mean, I had never met Chris before ACPE, so that's that's the truth. But Chris, we're we were having lunch. Were we having lunch? We I think it was the first year at Schemania. Yes. Or was it at the mountain? I think it was at Schemania. And you I think we introduced ourselves and I said something about uh Sayus Law and that I know that there's the big forest, and my family has a place in Pacific City, which is right on the edge of that forest. And and then you said you were a teacher, and you said you were a band teacher. And I said, Well, that's interesting. My dad was a band director in Oregon for 40 something years and did lots of, you know, he's the president of OMEA and all that stuff. And then I what did I did? I said, Maybe you know him, his name is Dick Elliott, and you're like, I know him. Take it away, Chris.

SPEAKER_06 15:38

Yeah, I did know your dad. He adjudicated my ensembles many times. And what I loved about your dad was he got straight to the point and told us what we needed to do to be better. And I always took those words to heart and really looked back at the things that were said, and we would talk about those things as the band and figure out okay, next time we perform this, or if it's next year, these are the things that we need to strive to be better at.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

He's 83 now, and I think my mom has begged him to stop clinicking and adjudicating, more for the fact that I don't think he can stay awake when he drives across the state, because you know, he gets like that. But it was just such a fun thing. I called my dad immediately and was just like, You won't believe this. And he's like, I remember Chris. I remember working with his bands, and just it was such a neat, neat thing, and was just so happy to make that connection. I would, I know that we're not getting too far into the music thing, Rachel, even though music is a big part of plugged in. I want to share my favorite memory of Chris, and he already knows what it is. Uh-huh. Last year, not this year's golf tournament, but last year, it's walking only, right? So it's a total mess. And I'm trying to get people out on the course, people are just wandering off. And we didn't have anybody starting on holes five, six, or seven because they were the furthest out. And we had people on the putting green and on the other holes, except for five, six, and seven. And I was in a cart and I flew off to go all the way around the course to make sure all of our sponsors had stuff at their booths. And I find Chris out at hole number five, all by himself, just standing there with this bag of clubs.

SPEAKER_05 17:13

The vendors were there.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

But yeah, well, you your team was not there, Chris. No, and I stopped and I was like, Hey, what are you doing? And you're like, I'm on hole five. And I said, No, man, no one's on hole five. Like, I think you're on putting green hole five. The look on your face was just like, I think you were smiling, and I was like, I was like, get in the cart, Chris. Just get in the cart, stuck you in the cart, and we like flew back to the pro shop, and then I deposited you on the putting green. Yep. Which was I was like, Did you run out there? I don't know how you made it out there that fast. Like it was amazing.

SPEAKER_06 17:49

It was a lot of fun running, walking with those clubs. I didn't even have the clubs on a cart, I was just tearing them all the way over there.

SPEAKER_03 17:56

I mean, it was I couldn't believe there was somebody out there that was like, what happened? So good. But also, near and dear to my heart, you wore Oregon gear all conference this year, which I loved. So good. So good.

SPEAKER_06 18:09

I did, and then I realized what state we were in and how many people probably didn't appreciate all the different uh variations of the Oregon football jersey, but it's all good.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

I mean, I got my master's at UW and I'm still a duck at heart.

SPEAKER_09 18:23

So was your um bed short sheeted every night when you went to climb in bed, Chris said the housekeeping staff and their ribbon.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

I'd be willing to bet that half the people that work at that resort are from Oregon. They just come across the bridge.

SPEAKER_09 18:36

Probably.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

So anyway, sorry, that's my fun for tonight. I get to make fun of Chris and I did. So there we go.

SPEAKER_09 18:43

So, Chris, we really are so glad to why don't you tell us a little bit about how you made it from teacher, teacher, band director, maybe a little bit of crossover with tech at the beginning, and now you're a director. And I also think you might have a job change coming that is public enough to talk about on the podcast.

SPEAKER_06 19:00

It absolutely is, because I'm doing that job right now. Oh I will be more than happy to talk about it. So I started after University of Oregon when I got my teaching credential. I went to Vale, Oregon, not Vale, Colorado, Vale, Oregon. Yep. And I taught for uh three years, did K through 12, mostly 6 through 12, but I did have to drive up to a little town called Willow Crick, and I taught a little general music class to that to that school. So that was my first experience with education, and I couldn't have asked for a better place to start my career because the people in Eastern Oregon are so kind and so helpful that I was really just embraced as even from being from the western side of the state, I was embraced right away, and they really helped me kind of get my foot in the door, learn a little bit about classroom management that they don't teach you in college. They try to teach you, but until you actually get into your own space and really handle your own classroom management, you don't really know what questions to ask, and you don't know what you don't know, is what one of my professors would always say.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

So you were basically in Idaho. Very close. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I had to look it up on the map. Even being from Oregon, I was like okay.

SPEAKER_09 20:15

I moved here sight unseen 20 years ago now, and have spent time in Vale and Ontario and a lot of the districts in the past decade. Is Vale close to where the covered wagon is for the Oregon Trail? What?

SPEAKER_06 20:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 20:30

Yeah, as you're heading into the Maohears. Okay, that's what I thought. It's nearby there. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 20:36

Yeah. So after Vail, I got the job with Sayus Law, and I was band director for 12 years with Sayuslaw School District, teaching middle school, high school band. I had seven ensembles, taught over 150 students a year, and we've started really making some success in the last probably three to four years of my of my position. And then actually the last time, and this is really hard to say, the last time I conducted was actually at Oregon State and the Oregon State Band Festival. So we finished that festival and we qualified for the state championship without performance. And it was probably one of my best ensembles, um, top to bottom, and we just really had a great set. Things were really happening. We got on the bus to go back to Florence, and I got the call from the superintendent, and he said, You need to get back here. I was like, Okay, well, we're on our way back. He's like, Well, so you know, the country's basically shutting down. Okay. So, and then, of course, distance learning and all that stuff happened. There's a lot of doomsday about what band programs would look like during the COVID, with all the COVID air particles and all the scientists saying that this is what this is what you can't do, this is what you can do.

SPEAKER_09 21:50

Um, Chris, there's lots of spit floating in the band room.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

I really want to show the pictures of the horn covers. Those were killing me. They were very

SPEAKER_06 22:02

Those killed me. Yeah, that was really bad. But in the basically in the summer of the pandemic, the superintendent called me up and said, Hey, I might have to put you into an elementary classroom. Or I would love for you to become our technologist to basically help us bridge instruction in technology. Because I was already kind of doing a little bit of technology even at Sayusla. I taught a Viking Tech class where we were doing like hacker high school and some different things, just kind of teaching pen testing and kind of stuff like that, just for fun. But yeah, um, when he offered me that instead of teaching in an elementary classroom, not music, I absolutely went for that because I don't know a lot about teaching elementary school. And that sounded a lot more fun to me. If I couldn't do band, I wanted to do something else that I enjoyed. So I became the technologist, and then 10 months later, our replacing director that was going to be replacing the retiring director just resigned suddenly. 10 days before we were putting in a district-wide IP phone system, and it scares scares away the most hardy of tech. I was given the keys to the switches, and I logged in, and nothing had been configured for the IP phone system. So I had 10 days to basically get everything worked up. But I will say Noctel, which is who we went with for our phone project, their team was awesome to work with, and their CEO, Corey Corey Shrewth, was amazing to work with and really helped me get all that lined out. And we had a successful rollout, and that's how that started. And then a few months later, I was named the director of technology. And and then five years later, Brandon over at Lane ESD had a job opening for this new position called the Technology Operations Manager for Lane ESD. And I applied, and now I'm currently in that position while finishing up everything with Sciuslan, getting all the transitional work done, which is a lot, it's really hard.

SPEAKER_09 24:01

I bet. Congratulations, Chris. Thanks. And I'm so glad we started with what journey you were on to get here to this podcast, to get to technology. And it seems like it was meant to be from the beginning. So happy to have you with us today.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Yeah. So happy to be here.

SPEAKER_09 24:17

Yeah. Yes. And for letting us take your name in vain.

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 24:24

Um a number of times the past 18 months. Uh Josh, so you are, I think, one of our first callbacks. So, Josh, will you introduce yourself for those listening who may not have heard one of my favorite episodes, which was Chasing the Grey Line with you and Dr.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Joe Morlock about surfing the gray line.

SPEAKER_09 24:43

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Made us sound way cooler.

SPEAKER_09 24:47

I did like that type. I I have a lot of fun making up the titles, and that's one of my favorites, even though I didn't remember it correctly.

SPEAKER_02 24:54

So I'm Josh Kessaker. I'm the technology coordinator up at Willow County ESD, and we're very small and rural, so we're kind of like a district office providing all those kinds of services, services, but for all of our four little districts out here in the middle of nowhere. So almost as remote as Vale.

SPEAKER_09 25:13

Almost. Actually, in some ways, more remote. Depending how you look at it. Still beautiful country, though, there as well. You have Wallawa Lake, Joseph, which is if you have not, if you've lived in Oregon or Washington for a long time and you have not been to Joseph, Oregon, I highly recommend the very long drive to get there. It's stunning the entire way there and um just a really peaceful spot to spend a weekend or more.

SPEAKER_02 25:37

She's always looking for excuses to get out here.

SPEAKER_09 25:39

I am. We host ESD CIO meetings in Joseph whenever I have the cast the winning vote. We'll have to do that again soon, actually. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

So Well, all right.

SPEAKER_09 25:51

All right.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

Okay, so we get to recap the conference, right?

SPEAKER_09 25:55

We do.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

And we have a third board member on us with us tonight, and that's Josh. Josh's first conference as a board member. Even though the first, when you know you're going to become a board member, you are at a conference, but you're not officially a board member, but you kind of are a board member. So it feels a little weird. But yeah, this is your first official uh conference as a board member. If I mentioned it before, the theme was believe it. Rachel and I have our Believe It gear on. Josh is wearing one of our new shirts with just the standard ACPE logo. Chris is not wearing anything.

SPEAKER_09 26:28

There's no uniform required for these, Chris. And in fact, usually I'm racing to the computer from my workday in a button down. So you are welcome here.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

But honestly, just a terrific conference. I think that we put it, it's the conference was awesome every single year. This is my 20 okay. If I count the year that it was canceled, I haven't missed one. Even the remote one I presented at online. It would have been we didn't, if we count the canceled one, 25 ACPEs.

unknown 27:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

For me.

SPEAKER_09 27:02

In the um canceled it year, we had the Was that the online year? Yeah. We had the like premise. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

Yeah, we did a tech levy presentation. So yeah, I guess that that is officially 25 ACPEs for me. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 27:17

Um it's when we started Discord that year, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

So I mean the the organization has been through quite a bit of change. I remember what it looked like my first one, where it was just in the Mallard's room in the Mallards building, that Chris never actually got to experience because the roof was falling in that year. So we didn't actually get to go in there. It was just table set up like a bingo hall, a karaoke DJ, and a bar. That was it. That was it. It amazing. It was super fun. And it just has gotten so much better. Uh, I will say, at least I don't know how you, Josh and Rachel felt. I worked like we put a lot of effort into this year. It's like a lot of sweat into this year that we haven't in the past, I think. At least I was running around like crazy and being told that this is your responsibility. And I said, Okay, I will try not to screw it up.

SPEAKER_09 28:09

And Josh, you did an amazing job capturing footage of ACPE attendees that folks will see on the YouTube channel in the days and weeks ahead.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

So I had never seen Ted Lasso before. You know, I don't have Apple products and subscriptions and things. And so I I didn't have the framing behind all of it. But the keynote was great, but also like I just running around one night after dinner, grabbing random people as I could. I took some quick little videos, and it was it was very fulfilling to listen to people's experiences at the conference, their favorite bits, and you know how it affected them, and there's some really good stuff there. I I had a lot of fun doing that.

SPEAKER_09 28:55

I'm excited for people to see it. I got a little sneak peek the past couple evenings.

SPEAKER_02 29:00

If I could ask Chris those questions and see, okay. All right, go for it.

SPEAKER_09 29:05

Here I'm muting myself.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Okay. So, Chris, what was the best thing you learned at ACPE this year?

SPEAKER_06 29:14

The best thing that I learned which was how to which golf hole to start on. Yes, but honestly, it was probably a little emotional because probably one of the things that I learned most was that we don't always know what our colleagues are dealing with personally. There was a moment, of course, during in the keynote where we came up and we said we said that phrase and one of our colleagues said something that was that really hit me. Yeah. Yep. I almost I was gonna bring that bracelet too. But I didn't. Um she's actually one that's in our district area and and I really want to go out and try to make sure that we're we're touching base and you just never know what what people are dealing with and that and for her to have the strength to say that in front of that entire room. Wow. I think ACPE has really made that space available to where people are strong enough to just say how they're feeling, versus trying to put on a face about how everything's great and I'm just connecting with everybody and making everybody see how awesome I am and how many great things I'm doing. It it's not it's not like that with ACPE. This is really an organization that we feel safe enough to just let everybody know how it is that we're feeling. And when we reach out for help, we know that somebody's gonna be there.

SPEAKER_09 30:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

You were gonna say something, Rachel.

SPEAKER_09 30:36

Oh um, I do have something that'll hold it for later. I'm gonna be let Josh continue asking questions.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Well, spoiler, I know the answers to some of these because so Chris, did you try a dance or karaoke song?

SPEAKER_06 30:49

I did. He's always out there cutting the rug. I was pulled I was pulled up on uh Earth Wind Fire Tune. Nice. Yep. And what kills me is I'm I'm a trumpet player, so I was actually thinking about the notes because usually I'm up on the stage playing all the trumpet lines.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

Well, I think we have a goal for next year. I think uh maybe you bring your horn. Oh gosh. There's quite my dad, you guys can play trumpets together.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Musicians in the group.

SPEAKER_09 31:17

I bet we have an ACPE band.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

They could that'd be fun. I'm sure we do. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I don't claim that at all. But is there a vendor or solution you were looking for this year?

SPEAKER_06 31:26

You know, with my new position, I was just trying to figure out which ones that Lane SD is a part of that I wasn't with Sayuslan. Get around and introduce myself as hey, I'm Lane SD's new technology operations manager, and I just want to get to know you and know what you're doing for them, and if there's anything I can do to help. So specifically, gosh, uh Syscloud, I think, is one that Lane ESD uses that I introduced myself to. And there's probably a bunch of them that are my head is so full right now with information.

SPEAKER_03 32:01

It's a drink from the first it's a throng when you go through that gold the gold showcase hall. It is like people have been just chomping at the bit to get in there, and it is packed.

SPEAKER_06 32:14

It's I guess I do have to say one. I better give a shout out to Nathan Facchetti at C VE, otherwise he'll kill me. Sayuslaw or Sayuslaw is a customer of CVE. We've been doing a bunch of stuff with him for E-rate. Nathan's a great guy. I've I've known him for all five years that I've been in this position.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

It's been a couple decades, I think, for me. So he's he's been around.

SPEAKER_09 32:35

And both years, I think. Was CVE out on the pavilion this year also? Yes. Yes, and last year they were just I just remember the CVE group last year when we did the hustle being there. Um yeah, just I mean, it's a it's they're a great group to have out on the pavilion with us on karaoke and dance nights.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

And the yeah, it was good. Were you there for the trivia? Did you have a worst or best question that uh drove you mad? That was hard, man. Right? Trivia was just the final question. I was like, you've got to be kidding me.

SPEAKER_06 33:05

Well, yeah, nobody got the final question. The first round I didn't even know what the heck they were asking.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

We were all just guessing it. Who knows? There were so many cryptids.

SPEAKER_06 33:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

The Mothman.

SPEAKER_06 33:15

So round two, we got it was the music one, and we did pretty well around the table on the music. But then it was whatever the third round was, I don't even remember. It was hard too. And we we went all in on 20 points and ended up in negatives, so which was fine. It was fun. The pizza was great, the host was great. We were all just having a good time. Perfect.

SPEAKER_09 33:37

Yeah, that trivia group.

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Uh it gets bigger and bigger.

SPEAKER_09 33:41

Long tenure of really great trivia nights.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Okay. Do you have a particular ACPE friend that you meet at the conference that you don't currently work with?

SPEAKER_06 33:50

Well, I spoke a lot with Jeff Gibbs because we were doing our uh our presentation together. So we kind of just said, hey, are we ready for this? Sure. We just looked at the slide deck before and go to go to town on it. And I was speaking with uh a couple of colleagues um at Junction City School District. I mean, I was I was talking with a lot of a lot of people just trying to especially help some small school directors out with some ways that they can possibly push some initiatives through their leadership team that I've been successful at Sayus Law doing.

SPEAKER_09 34:24

You know, I don't know if we've done uh small schools well, we've done some round small schools round tables in the past. Okay, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 34:32

There is a lot in common for those smaller schools.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Yeah, I run a session every year. In fact, if I could just keep the one that was the one that that I uh ran, that was small schools.

SPEAKER_09 34:43

Small schools, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 34:45

Many hats, one head.

SPEAKER_09 34:46

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 34:48

Was there a vendor or solution you wish was there? Trying to think if we have any sneak some vendor questions in with all the good feels.

SPEAKER_06 34:57

I think it would have been fun getting uh case 12 tech talks crew over to ACT. Hey, hey, hey, what I know would do.

SPEAKER_07 35:04

I'm in favor of that. I was one of their earliest consistent fans. And they're just funny.

unknown 35:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 35:12

Not saying that you aren't funny.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

Wow, man. Just keep digging that hole deeper.

SPEAKER_09 35:17

Shout out to Mark, Josh, and Chris for keeping us entertained. Different Josh, Josh Gessiger, and Mark, Josh, and Chris. Yes, keeping us entertained. And really some episodes, especially cybersecurity, uh, the past couple of years that have been really key to understanding and learning.

SPEAKER_03 35:35

And their names are Josh, Mark, and Chris. Yes. I literally thought you were talking about us.

SPEAKER_09 35:40

No.

unknown 35:42

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

Okay, cool. Thanks, Rachel. Uh, what's happening right now? Our audience may have detoured as well.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

I I did not either.

SPEAKER_07 35:52

That's funny. Because all I kept seeing was Treehouse Guy, whatever his name is.

SPEAKER_05 35:57

Okay. Thanks.

SPEAKER_09 36:00

I'm gonna clip this and we're gonna LinkedIn it with our friends at K-12. Josh, Mark, and Chris and K-12 Tech Talk, uh, especially that Dr. Scott Elder recap after the Albuquerque cybersecurity incident a few years ago. I still use the clips that I made in my SoundCloud so that they're ready to go for the superintendents. Still use that episode all the time. Lots of esteem for the K-12 Tech Talk group. Not Mark, on the other hand.

SPEAKER_03 36:29

Not this Mark, Josh and Chris. Let's just about that one. Okay. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_09 36:36

Oh, that would be a fun collab though, to get them out to an ACPE.

SPEAKER_06 36:41

We get to see them at Coastan and a few other places, but Yeah, they don't make it to the Pacific Northwest, so it'd be fun to have them up.

SPEAKER_08 36:48

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Maybe.

SPEAKER_08 36:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

Hey, this is our podcast.

SPEAKER_08 36:53

That just so happens to have a Chris Mark and Josh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:57

Just so you know, I shouted out, plugged in at Jeff and I's session where we were talking about so you're the new IT director. Now what? I said, hey, shameless plug for our podcast plugged in to stay connected and plugged into what's going on.

SPEAKER_09 37:15

We should actually have a new director of marketing. We do. And I actually like that idea for an episode. For new. Yeah, you're a new tech director. Okay, Josh, any last questions?

SPEAKER_02 37:27

Yep. Okay. How was your game of golf? This is a perfect segment.

SPEAKER_06 37:30

It was not great. And I think Rachel actually has evidence of it not being very good. There was that was a terrible putt that she she was there taking video of. But she didn't post it because she says she's only posting the good stuff, but that was awful.

SPEAKER_09 37:44

My promise to everyone is that I only post things that like where the ball sinks.

SPEAKER_06 37:50

Yeah, the ball did not sink.

SPEAKER_09 37:51

No shanking.

SPEAKER_06 37:53

That was really everybody. The soccer ball, however, that was fun, but oh my word, that was hard.

SPEAKER_03 38:01

You should have seen the first designs that we made for those rings. They were like eight inches wide because it's what we could fit in the printer without doing it in pieces. That was really, really hard. Like really hard. And then we found a pattern for an actual foot golf like ring that you could put out there. But again, that was the last question, right, Josh?

SPEAKER_05 38:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:22

Okay. Great segue into golf. I kind of wanted to run through what we got to see for the Wednesday. I thought we could like kind of chronologically go through this. Is that okay? And I'll just kick it off since we're on the topic of golf. The golf tournament was awesome. We started an hour earlier this year, and it was well worth it because everybody was done in time for lunch. And we had a sponsor on every single hole this year, which was terrific, and they really got into it. I think that the line-wise hole was the back-off hole where they just talk smack to you while you're swinging your club.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Which was absolutely hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

Now, do they pick these things or do you give them a couple?

SPEAKER_03 39:01

They got to do whatever they wanted. So they some people had little golf okay gimmicky games. Jeez, we had the foot golf hole, which congrats to Mac for hitting a 15-footer. Oh, yeah. That was really not easy to do. Like at all, not easy. What was the other thing? We did the fling golf. Yeah, we had the fling golf hole. I even saw somebody grab a fling golf stick to play the whole round as fling golf. So like awesome. But it just was a it was a fun morning. Like the weather was nice. I think everybody had a great time going around golfing. Yeah. And then the we got to use the resort's six-seater golf cart, which by the way, doesn't fit on the path very well. You have to really think about your turns.

SPEAKER_09 39:43

It was not Mark's favorite.

SPEAKER_03 39:45

I I my arms were sore by the end of that one. But no, uh, tons and tons of fun. Uh, just loved everyone who was golfing.

SPEAKER_09 39:52

As a spectator photographer, I think the hole that you haven't mentioned that is probably the one that will live on an infamy was Steve Langford.

SPEAKER_03 40:04

One minute, please. I have it handy.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

I was just gonna go dig it up on Discord.

SPEAKER_06 40:10

He fell over a few times. We had to pick him up. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

Well, there was two, right?

SPEAKER_06 40:14

Mark made the shot.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

Right. I'm the only one who made the butt through through his mouth. But uh, okay, give me one second here. Anyway, we had two of them, and uh, for those folks who didn't make it this year, Steve Langford from Bieberton was our president, and I contacted Corey, who is our conference organizer and executive queen of all things, and said, Hey, Corey, how much money do we have left in the golf budget? Because I want to buy something. And I was able to buy this. If you're on YouTube, you can see it.

SPEAKER_04 40:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 40:47

It was a three foot by three foot picture of Steve that we cut out a little thing underneath his underneath his mouse. Uh, and so we put that one on a green, and then the other one was on the putting green, and uh, it was absolutely hilarious. It was such a funny, such a funny thing. And they went, I know at least one went back to Beaverton School District with Mac.

SPEAKER_06 41:10

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

And I think he's sending it places around the district. So that is like Steve could not stop talking about it. That was really, really one of the funniest things. So next year's tourney, uh, we're gonna keep taking this less seriously and see what kind of fun stuff we can come up with next year. So I didn't see how the rest of the lawn stuff went. I did get a request to get croquet back, like a real croquet tournament. People really like that.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

So I played uh cornhole out on the lawn games a little bit, and I didn't get to the disc golf course this year because I just didn't have the time. We set up the fox hunt while you guys were golfing, and we had some difficulties with that, but it turned out okay.

SPEAKER_08 41:54

So what would but what would one of those difficulties be, Josh Kessaker?

SPEAKER_02 41:58

I forgot like an early one. I left things back at the office and forgot some components that were kind of critical. So we a good segue. We seg we added another fox hunt. So we still had one that you could pick up from far away, and you just find the one, and it was kind of easy. And then the other one was we had these three tiny little micro ones uh on different frequencies to try and like collect all three, and they had different little hole punches on them to give more of a challenge for some of the folks who wanted a challenge instead of like found it, you know, first find, first find. There were some really go-getter experts out there, so you know, but um so I forgot one component from that fox hunt, and I forgot the actual fox or the other fox hunt. Welcome to being on the board.

SPEAKER_09 42:48

If you asked me, if you if you put a microphone in my face, Josh Kessaker, and you said, Who's the least likely person to forget something on their way to ACPE? It would be you. So I was chuckling for like a full 36 hours.

SPEAKER_03 43:02

Who's the who's the most likely?

SPEAKER_09 43:04

Mark. Um every single other board member, I'd be like, oh yeah, including me, the one that I would say, oh no, Josh has it all organized. It's in, you know, fishing tackle boxes and all ready to go. And I saw that in the Discord too.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

There will be a list next year. There will be a spreadsheet um that will highlight in colors as it gets completed for next year, because that will not happen again.

SPEAKER_09 43:30

To be fair, you brought a lot of things with you. So not only are you still leading the fox hunt, which is I really was hoping that I would have my operator or my tech.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

We're gonna do a test session next week.

SPEAKER_09 43:41

I know we are, but I'm gonna have mine before then. I think we have requirement changes coming in June. So ish.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

I mean the questions are all published and they're answers.

SPEAKER_09 43:50

I know. I know. So I'm gonna get there. We had some unexpected things this spring and I was really hoping.

SPEAKER_02 43:54

You don't need your license to go looking for the fox.

SPEAKER_09 43:57

I know, I know. And and but you You also did these amazing cribbage boards and brought a number of other things with you as well.

SPEAKER_02 44:05

So they sell out at the store? They did on day two, and uh all I have left are the prototypes now. And as as a commission, uh I guess I'll have they there were a bunch of people didn't know they were available and wanted them, so I think we should make some for next year too, don't you think? I agree.

SPEAKER_09 44:24

I think so. Yeah. They're so good. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

This isn't the final one. The final one has a slot that holds all the things and a sticker and those were in the store.

SPEAKER_06 44:34

See? It's the best quote of the stuff. My wife and I play cribbage. I would have grabbed one.

SPEAKER_09 44:42

Yep, it was really good.

SPEAKER_02 44:44

You know, next year, I guess. Next year. I'll make another batch. We'll we'll have some fun.

SPEAKER_03 44:51

We'll have them in the There's a quite the cribbage group in ACPE, you know. Uh I think you guys thought I was crazy when I was like, I think we should have cribbage boards in the store. And I knew they would go. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_09 45:03

And Steve Langford and a few others are making these really impressive carved wood ones as well. I went to celebrate, if it's okay. I went to celebrate that the library became the card room. And I think Josh and I both got to spend a half an hour or whatever there with the group, and this year it ended up being Magic the Gathering in that room. It was peaceful but also intense, I think is the way I would describe it.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Yeah, because I mean, like when the gold sponsored thing's going on, like that's a lot of input when you're trying to like squeeze between people and get your tickets and in and out and trying to make the and sometimes you know you just want to like chillax and crush your opponent.

SPEAKER_09 45:47

You nailed it. I was like, how do I describe this? It's uh you walk in and it's just got this this like sense of calm and presence, and at the same time, what Josh just said, also like pretty intense battle. It's just very quiet, less quiet than the gold choke.

SPEAKER_02 46:04

Which is probably good because there are ratings for decks. I didn't know how it all worked, so I don't have ratings on my decks because I'm not that experienced. These guys were serious. Yeah, and it was a it was a really I it was they're loaning each other's decks to each other, like oh here, play my play a good one, you know.

SPEAKER_09 46:22

Yeah. It was it was really great to just spend some time in that space. Really glad that we now have an a room that I think is already on the schedule for next year as the card game room again. Anybody want to guess like what my favorite evening activity was?

SPEAKER_03 46:38

Well, we had other lawn, we had other lawn things, Rachel. We had the five games the walk. I mean, shout out to Kevin whose job was to count the number of people that left was the same number that came back.

SPEAKER_09 46:49

We did lose someone one year. This is why this has to be true at the old place.

SPEAKER_03 46:53

That's all we ever talk about is the same number comes back as the same number that left. Just count.

SPEAKER_09 46:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 46:59

We can have some fun with that. Yeah. Uh but it looked like they had a good time.

SPEAKER_09 47:05

They did.

SPEAKER_03 47:05

I'd see them in the golf course the year before, but I didn't see anybody this year. So I don't I don't really know what happened.

SPEAKER_09 47:11

Yeah, I caught them on the path a few times. And some wicked fast runners. And then people having a lot of fun strolling and and walking and laughing and talking.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

It was it was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 47:22

Some folks really enjoyed the cardio jam. Was that Wednesday? Yes. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you for Melissa for the store too, and the whole Inner Mountain group who are incredibly awesome. But yeah, thank you for the cardio jam, Melissa.

SPEAKER_09 47:35

Wednesday morning, and then the Wednesday sponsor sessions, and then into Wednesday evening.

SPEAKER_03 47:40

Which is always fun.

SPEAKER_09 47:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 47:41

Again, that gold, the second those gold doors open, I think people have been waiting for so long that it's just the sensory overload space. Josh is absolutely correct.

SPEAKER_02 47:50

But I really like the gold sponsors because that's where the new people are, right? And they bring things and you can like get your hands on stuff, and you don't have another opportunity. You gotta you gotta get them all, see all the new things, try out the cases and the gadgets and the widgets, you know, and get all those tickets and stuff in that one session. So it's intense.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

I since being on the board, I find that I don't have that kind of time like anymore for the gulping. It's so hard. Uh I really envy everybody else. I'm like, I'm with you. I I they were there, really? I didn't see them. Oh, yeah, you walked right past them five times. Oh.

SPEAKER_09 48:29

Some of my favorite tech finds, and I am grateful for all of our sponsors, but some of my best tech finds have been in the gold showcase. It's uh it is a unique group of companies that come together, and the new ones are always like, whoa, at the end of it. And uh it's unlike the daytime kind of more empty vendor halls at some other conferences. And uh yeah, and just really great, like like really interesting vendors that are trying to find their their spot, show up at that night.

SPEAKER_03 49:02

And we have quite a few vendors who really like the gold sponsorship level. I mean, they make a note of getting it every single year. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

I was surprised because I've started you know going to some other events elsewhere, and ACP's ruined them all for me. Thanks for that. And like the gold sponsors only get that one night, but it's just like rush hour the whole time.

SPEAKER_03 49:27

Yeah, it's crazy. You hear it all the time. It's not just our community that says I'm gonna brag about us now. The vendors say it all the time. They're like, oh my gosh, this is our favorite conference of the year, because they get to enjoy it just like we do, and they feel like they're part of the community too. It's uh it's awesome. So Wednesday night we went into the platinum diamond, then, which was epic. I mean, I'm gonna ask the three of you what your favorite thing was in the diamond, the diamond rooms. I know what mine was. Pretty easy. Rachel knows. Okay, we have pregnant pause here for those listening.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Well, I I ran around a lot, so I didn't actually get to spend much time in every platinum room. It was Patrick the hugging dog.

SPEAKER_04 50:09

Oh P.E.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

HPE had a service dog that was a hugging dog, and he was the sweetest, fluffiest thing in the world. Wait, my dog didn't hear that, right? I hope not.

SPEAKER_09 50:22

And then they also brought stuffed versions of Patrick the fluffiest, cuddliest dog in the world.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

My dog's baby.

SPEAKER_09 50:29

And our Discord dogs of ACPE channel is filling up with photos of ACPE dogs with Patrick.

SPEAKER_03 50:37

And Patrick, they were also giving away a children's book of Patrick that Patrick would sign with a paw print on the back of the book. I had one and I got one of the very last copies, and then I think one of the reps from OETC was very sad that she didn't get a book, and I don't have kids. And I said, You have children, right? And she was like, Yeah. I was like, please have my book to take to your kids. Patrick, we run into Patrick again. No, all of our diamond sponsors were epic. Our platinum sponsors were epic, our gold sponsors were epic, but uh just a huge shout out to our diamond sponsors who put a lot of effort into the rooms and making them what they were. You know, we had a couple of new diamond sponsors this year, and I think that's a big adjustment. The expectation of what is supposed to go on in that room is high, and some of them are long time, long time sponsors. Big shout out to ACT for their the maze pub was awesome. It was so cool.

SPEAKER_09 51:32

They had merch and everything. It was I love that we pulled off a maze pub for the Ted Lasso year.

SPEAKER_03 51:38

I mean, I thought OETC's locker room thing was awesome too. Yeah, like it was terrific and just a really neat space. Again, Powergys was our sponsor tonight, and they went a completely different route with aliens, and then we fogged out the room, and it was a hit. It was, it really was.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

There were some I wanted to visit, and the it was so packed and people like spilling out the door and everything. I'm just like, well, I'll try again later.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

Yep. No, I mean we had a miniature golf tournament. Uh, I think that was Pacific Office Automation. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 52:08

It's AI photos where you it took a picture of you and you could put yourself in some kind of scene. So I was wearing an Oregon jersey, and I just put put my hands up like I was catching catching a touchdown. I said catching a touchdown at Audtain Stadium, and it it did it was super awesome.

SPEAKER_03 52:26

I thought the food was good this year. Snacks are always important, like hugely important. And then I did not get to see any of the karaoke, so please take it away, Rachel, Chris, and Josh. I usually sing.

SPEAKER_02 52:39

I learned a huge bummer strategy, actually. If you get there early when not everyone else is gathered, you have less of a crowd, you have your free pick of the songs and things. So that was kind of fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 52:54

I came around the corner and I'm like, who's singing? Who's like who sounds like Johnny Cash? And I got closer to the stage. Oh my gosh, that's Josh.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

I think it was actually It was Neil Diamond Sweet Caroline because I figured everyone would join in on the da-da-da, right?

SPEAKER_09 53:15

Yes, it was great. Chris, did you get up on karaoke?

SPEAKER_06 53:19

I did not do karaoke, but next time I'll have to.

SPEAKER_09 53:22

So karaoke from hell. Like if you are going to do karaoke, I have a shout out for karaoke. Scotty Mack, Scott McDonald, Ben Lapine, very dedicated every episode plugged-in listener. Scotty Mack and I did karaoke together.

SPEAKER_03 53:38

And what did you sing?

SPEAKER_09 53:39

We sang Codachrome by Paul Simon, and we killed it.

SPEAKER_03 53:44

Uh I don't know that song. Can you sing it for us, Rachel? No pressure.

SPEAKER_09 53:51

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school.

SPEAKER_03 53:57

I still don't know that song. Keep going.

SPEAKER_09 54:00

I'm so embarrassed for you, Mark Elliott. Seriously, one of the best songs ever. So Scott's team got uh, I think seven phones out taking video. So we'll have to get some footage. Good job, Scott McDonald, and karaoke from hell. If you're gonna karaoke, this is the way to karaoke. Thank you, karaoke from hell.

SPEAKER_02 54:18

It's it's great. They they jump in. You're not you're not not alone. You have like help.

SPEAKER_03 54:25

Well, like, you know, if you've karaoked a few times or a million times, it's karaoke. But when you karaoke with a band and the power that comes out, like just the pure volume, it's different. It's just different, and it's so fun. It is really amazing.

SPEAKER_09 54:40

And one more shout out, uh, Luis and Cynthia from uh Hillsboro doing uh I Want You to Want Me. It was so good. And the bass player, like it's so much good on karaoke night, and then DJ Joe picks up for the uh second half of that, and then we migrate and mo meander over to the tree houses where Mark killed it as well.

SPEAKER_03 54:59

It was a lot. I was exhausted. Yes, I started way too early because I tested the music, and one of the vendors under the tents, I turned it off, said no, keep playing. So I just kept going, and for a good hour and a half I played EDM yacht rock, which was so fun. It was great. The first night was all remixes, and second night was just all house music kind of technoy stuff. But I it was a new setup this year, way better. It we definitely wanted to bring a little more light into the the path.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

It was great.

SPEAKER_03 55:37

Yeah, so we were around the brand new uh fire pit. We had light poles down there. I know some vendors took people and opened up their tree houses where people were hanging out there. I looked, I had the tree house that was right by the tennis courts, and I stepped away from the decks for one second and looked down, and I think there had to be 12 people sitting around my fire pit. I didn't even know they turned it on. So that was cool.

SPEAKER_09 55:59

It was very cold on Wednesday night. So we actually both nights, that fire pit was a really great spot to get warm.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

Who knows what the hit of Wednesday night was at the tree houses? Rachel does when the sprinklers went off. Oh yeah. Started to soak everybody.

SPEAKER_09 56:14

Can I add to this part?

SPEAKER_03 56:15

Yes, please.

SPEAKER_09 56:16

So I had walked away for a little bit, was helping somebody get back up towards the lodge. So on my way back, I'm like, wow, in the 10 minutes that I've been gone, it cleared out. So I get closer and I realize everything is soaking wet. So then I start walking to figure out what's going on. There's a salad bowl, like a decent-sized bowl, turned upside down on top of a sprinkler head, not hurting the sprinkler head, it's pretty tall. And uh, but it has like handles on the side of it that are carved out. So they've got it upside down over this sprinkler head. So I'm imagining I don't know the story at that point, but I have an idea of what happened here. And so the kicker was not only was the salad bowl or the ice bucket or whatever it would be upside down on top of this sprinkler head, they had put the edge of the Adirondack chair up on top of the salad bowl because I'm imagining that the salad bowl became a salad spinner.

SPEAKER_07 57:11

They thought that they would put it on the sprinkler.

SPEAKER_09 57:14

I just I'm surprised that Mark could not hear me laughing through his headphones uh 50 feet away on the deck. It was it was so entertaining to reverse engineer that the sprinklers must have come on at midnight. That would have been around.

SPEAKER_03 57:28

I mean, it was everything I could have imagined. You know, DJing off the treehouse deck where you could overlook everything was awesome. It was just so cool. It was such a better setup than we've had in the years past. And you know, we're just we've been tweaking it little bit by little bit, and I think it that was uh that was good. Um, and then the second night, uh, the new rep from Parent Square. The second I started the music, she put on the second set of headphones. And by the end of two and a half hours, she was basically she'd never touched decks before. Uh her name was Eliza. Eliza. She was doing it by herself, which was very cool. I love to play on the decks. I actually love more to teach people how to do it. It is one of my favorite things.

SPEAKER_09 58:10

So and it was well done. Thank you for that. Yeah, I did love the yacht rock night a lot because I just kept chuckling at the um playlist you had uh woven together. It was perfect way to honor President Steve Langford. Yep, yacht yacht rock uh prototype, extraordinaire. Sherry Reinhardt got him a white denim jacket two years ago for rocket. He's just yacht rock walking.

SPEAKER_03 58:35

Yep. Hope you enjoyed it, Steve. It just was so much fun. Yeah. I uh I I don't think I've ever been more busy. I want it was it was super fun. And a big thanks to our tree house sponsors because you were up very late and you were hosting folks until very late. I know the second night, I shut things down around 1 30, and Rachel was like, I looked up and your tree house was dark. I was like, because I went to bed. I was tired. And I think you guys said there was at least a hundred people left, like still going.

SPEAKER_09 59:04

Yeah, it was actually it was about two o'clock or two hundred? Two o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 59:10

Oh wow, okay.

SPEAKER_09 59:10

It was a full night and lots of fun. And thank you, Mark. It was a blast with a lot of stress and a lot of pressure, and it was brilliant.

SPEAKER_03 59:18

I loved it. So hopefully we get Julia back next year. I want to do one night. And I have a plan for that night. I haven't shared it yet.

SPEAKER_09 59:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 59:25

But uh I'll do one and Julia can do one. I think that's a good one.

SPEAKER_09 59:28

Because next year is your conference.

SPEAKER_03 59:29

Next year is your conference. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 59:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 59:33

I'm gonna be busy.

SPEAKER_09 59:34

Yeah. Okay, and so then we we wake up, like even those of us who like pick up cans and things like that, and then get to bed, and then we're back in the morning for breakfast and sessions. Does anybody have a session that they want to highlight? Yeah, I would probably say there were a couple of sessions.

SPEAKER_06 59:49

MESD did their AI policy session about kind of how they grew into the policy, and they had a great slide deck that I'm taking back to Lane SD that just kind of gives us some different ideas about how to get some kind of policy written for AI. Because that's definitely a big thing that everybody's trying to figure out now. And then also Libby and Mark did a really good job with the with the STPC data destruction, kind of telling everybody how to how to handle the exhibit Ds correctly. And now since I'm the Oregon State Alliance lead for STPC, I was sitting in just kind of supporting them. Yes. And Nate and I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_09 1:00:25

Thank you for taking that on, Chris.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:26

That leadership on Nate had a great session on open source Intel uh and how to safely navigate. He has a oh there's a project that will crawl the dark web for you and watch for things like some certain services do, but you can like do your own recon. And so he kind of walked through what that looks like. So that was good.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:47

Was that the Robin yes thing?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:50

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:51

I will mention that we had an awesome keynote. Matthew Mergin was terrific. I think Steve did a great job picking an inspirational person who had quite a story who was on our pre-conference episode.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:03

Yeah. Appreciated the message and also the use of repetition and a little bit of humor. And the thing that I have focused on, and I've talked about it with a few people post-conference, is Matt nailed this idea of when someone tries to tell us that I matter, Rachel, I matter, you matter, someone's telling me this. My immediate thing is, oh, thanks. And let me tell you about you. And so my challenge the past couple of weeks has really been sitting with instead of just reflexively pointing it back, pausing and sitting with it. I think that is the harder part for me, at least, than sharing my appreciation and how much people matter. And then that we all matter, this love for ACPE that Mark always says it so beautifully, digging in on our own selves and sitting with that, actually recognizing ourselves what other people are trying to tell us. It was very powerful.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:04

You know, I reflected on that too a little bit. I love to recognize people for what I really admire in them. And just like you, Rachel, I don't like getting it myself. It's difficult to take. And what I've been reflecting on is how much I enjoy giving it and how much that person probably also enjoys the same thing that I enjoy. And it puts a little bit of a different perspective on taking a compliment because the last thing they want is for you to deflect it, you know. And uh it still is difficult, but it that's just been something I've been thinking about quite a bit. And Matthew really brought that to light. It was an excellent keynote.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:41

Agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:42

Okay. So then we moved into Friday. We had a few more sessions on Friday. How was breakfast, by the way? I never made it. It was good. It was bacon. The food was, yeah, the food was always good. It's always good. They do a great job. I, you know, that's the trade-off is I, you know, Rachel and I stay up late, and I think you did even say, or maybe it was somebody else who was like, I'm not making it to breakfast. I skipped lunch.

SPEAKER_09 1:03:06

I made it to breakfast the first morning. I wasn't there in time for bacon. So the next even though it was three o'clock climbing in bed, I was there for bacon.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:14

I don't know. Is there anything stand out, Josh, Chris, Rachel, for you guys on Friday? Sessions.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:19

My team ran some sessions. I was very proud of them. They were terminating wires and they had a little competition. It was skills-based and a lot of fun, but uh more importantly, it was all them. That was very fulfilling for me to watch.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:34

Jeff and I had a lot of fun with our so you're the IT director now. What? It was awesome. It was really good. It was well tended. We had the CEO of CoSin there. He actually came up to me. He was like, Hey, just so just so you know, we have an early CTO program. Like, I gotcha. I went through it. I graduated from it. And I had I had a whole slide basically dedicated to everything COSIN. He's like, and thanks for all the shout-outs. Didn't realize we had a COSIN fan over here that's just gonna load up everybody about COSIN.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:04

Thank you, Keith, for coming and giving a message. Yeah. Scholarships is what we put the new board members on because it's a great way to get your feet wet with the committees. Plus, it's one of the most fulfilling things you can actually do. We give a significant amount of money, I would say, out for high school seniors who are going on to some sort of post-high school education. I've been on that committee before, and the stuff that these kids do is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:31

Yes. And you'll be able to see them all on the ACPE website.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:36

I'm thinking back to when I was on the committee, how many times we had students from rural districts that said, I wanted to learn more about programming. I wanted to learn more about cybersecurity, I wanted to learn more about robotics, and nobody offered it. So I did it. I made it happen in my district. And it just was such a dedication. Aside from how brilliant these kids are, like, I didn't feel smart. They're they're amazing. Just such an awesome thing. So it was so great to honor a bunch of high school students. And I mean, just a huge shout out to all of our attendees who help make it a it's a fun conference because everybody makes it a fun conference. Can I give one quick shout-out, real quick? I know I've mentioned her, but our typical graphic designer resigned their position this year. So thank you to my assistant, Brandy Sorum, in the Olympia School District, who did all of our graphic design work. You can see the logo here. Rachel's got it on as well. She did a fantastic job by getting the scarves. If you didn't see the scarves, that was how could you not see the scarves? The scarves are terrific. She designed the scarves for us, she did the logos for us. It was just uh a great job. So thank you, Brandy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:05:42

Thank you, Brandy. Yep. So I thought I would weave us out earlier in the episode, Mark. You were like, Oh, there was a sorry, one more thing.

unknown 1:05:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:49

We've mentioned her name a thousand times.

SPEAKER_09 1:05:51

Oh, I'm gonna go out on that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:52

Oh, okay. Never mind. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_09 1:05:54

So earlier in the episode, you said, Oh, you were gonna say something, Rachel, and I said, No, I'll hold on to it. And I've been holding it. Holding on to it this entire episode, unless Josh has something to add.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:03

We didn't mention mentoring. Emily and Jeff started this little mentoring program of matching folks up, and it's been going on throughout the year. They had a little meetup after lunch on Wednesday.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:15

I had both a mentor and a ment and I menteed someone. So it was a lot of fun. We played Pictionary between the two groups of people that were there. Emily made cookies for everybody, and Josh made these really cool I'll let you explain them.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:30

It's a mentor chip because it's a homage to the old poker chips that we used. And you can turn it into a mini badge and light it up if you want. Or it's just, you know, it's got their logo on it and everything. And then there was um lapel pins too.

SPEAKER_09 1:06:46

And you know, women in tech had this amazing huddle always in the moose room. So much great stuff that uh it it is hard to capture it all in an episode. A number of years ago, when I was in like year 13, 14, 15 of my career, a few of us started looking around at each other who had been in Oregon IT managers together or ACPE together. And even though ACPE is only once a year, we have a very active email list. And then we added Discord in 2020. 13 years is the people that you started kindergarten with and graduated high school with. And even though we don't hang out every day together physically, a lot of these relationships, to me at least, feel as close as those people that I graduated high school with after going most of our school career together. And for Mark, you said 25 years. This is what I clued in on early, right? 25 years. That's lifetimes of friendship. That because ACPE, when we're together, is a unique conference experience where there is a lot of intentional making space for people to be able to connect. I think it is, I think it's okay to have been together and to feel that like what's so unique about it, what's so special about it? And it is these long-term relationships. And in our current generation, the person who is really helping us facilitate growing into this lodge, growing into this space and making sure that all of Mark's wild ideas get taken care of.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:20

Is Corey Horton. She's so sick of me.

SPEAKER_09 1:08:22

And and and Corey's become one of us. So I know we must we sound cheesy, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:28

Major thank you to Corey. Thank you to OETC for the work that you provided us for this conference. So, like I said at the Friday business meeting, I don't know why anybody allowed me to be president. Like that's the craziest thing that anybody's ever thought of.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:42

We are excited to see what you're about to bring.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:45

I'm excited. I want this to be the culmination of 26 years of ACPE for me, I think will be my goal. I'm honored to be the president.

SPEAKER_09 1:08:54

I can't wait to hear more about it. If there's going to be a um journalistic news source that you tease out uh hints about next year, I hope that it is right here on the Plugged In Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:03

I think we've already started.

SPEAKER_09 1:09:05

And I'm gonna take us out on one of the things that you're welcome. I did not belabor, but my goal for Mark's 26th year and year of president is that the electric slide is even bigger. And whatever dance Mark decides that we should learn and do as a community, Mark is out there on the dance floor with us. And with that, everybody. Bye.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:27

Bye bye.