Military Officers Association of America Career Networking Fair-- in a hurricane

[Nords]

MOAA has scheduled their annual meeting (months in advance) for this week-- right in the middle of Hurricane Sandy.

I can understand that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to line up the logistics, and VIP speakers have committed their time months in advance. To have Sandy thrashing about in the middle of all this planning must seem like an unmitigated disaster. Because, well, it's a disaster.

I'm a member of MOAA's Linkedin group ("MOAA Career Networking") dedicated to helping veterans network their second career. Its director puts out the policy and the advice for using the network (and MOAA's other resources) to market themselves to employers. It's a closed group (member requests only) but here's his latest announcement at http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?v...BjLE28YyDIxcyEO7_TA_giuRN#commentID_101774823

MOAA's Career Fair Checklist
Despite weather concerns, MOAA's annual Fall Career Fair is being held as scheduled on Tuesday, October 30 at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington. Events begin at 8:00 am with three timely pre-career fair seminars: Working a Career Fair; Interview Surprises; and Federal Job Search Strategies. Our 51 companies will begin meeting with candidates at 9:00 am and a military spouse-focused seminar addressing professional development strategies for spouses seeking to enter or re-enter the workforce, or step-up to their next professional opportunity, begins at 10:00 am.
Ample covered parking is available at the Sheraton National and shuttle service departs the front of the Pentagon City Ritz Carlton twice hourly at 15 and 45 minutes after the hour, for candidates preferring the Metro Rail option.
Remember: Bad weather means more opportunity for serious job seekers.
[...]

My impression of the Wash DC weather forecast for this period is 6"-8" of rain with 60kt winds gusting to 80. But I'm 5000 miles away from that time zone. Is that what those of you in the DC area are hearing?

"Remember: Bad weather means more opportunity for serious job seekers."

Are these the kinds of employers you want to meet? Hiring managers who expect their future workers to brave life-threatening weather to conform to the pre-arranged schedule?

Are these the kinds of candidates that hiring managers want to sign up? People who have so little disregard for their own personal safety, let alone the common sense to stay in out of the rain?

But maybe I'm over-reacting. Talk me down. Show me the Arlington weather forecast and explain to me how MOAA's meteorologists have better judgment than the National Weather Service. Reassure me that this is going to work out fine.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

I frequently go to that area. I will be no where near there during this storm and expect that they will cancel. If they don't they would be negligent, IMHO.

 

[FUEGO]

Hope nobody is taking the planning on taking Metro Rail or Bus service to the career fair.

Metro system to shut down on Monday - The Washington Post

I figure a lot of the recruiting firms will cancel. Others just won't be able to get there due to flight delays and cancellations or transportation closures in other cities (like NYC or Philly).

I'm far enough to the south of DC where all we have had the last few days are a lot of fast moving clouds and misting. It finally rained a little last night. Although the local radar was showing a huge wall of rain about 40 miles from us, and the rain just stayed there for a day or two, so they probably received many many inches of rain.

I walked with the kids up to the store on Saturday and they said "It feels like the beach here" Wind and humidity I guess??

 

[Walt34]

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClic...te=all&smap=1&searchresult=Arlington, VA, USA

I think they're nuts if they go through with it.

 

[Nords]

MOAA tweeted about 10 minutes ago:

MOAA ‏@MilitaryOfficer
Due to #Sandy, the #MOAA Career Fair has been canceled. Please visit Careers : MOAA for future dates and information.

They haven't set another date yet.

I think they're going to quietly let that Linkedin post get submerged by new threads.

 

[braumeister]

But their annual meeting is still being held as scheduled. Tough bunch, even if the recruiters wimped out on them.

 

[Nords]

But their annual meeting is still being held as scheduled. Tough bunch, even if the recruiters wimped out on them.

I wonder how many of the speakers will show up. There's a mighty fine line between obstinacy & stupidity, and I'm a living example of that. At some point even the Marines will realize this isn't worth the risk...

MOAA needs to think about another question, too: how many diesel generators does it take to run an annual meeting?

I just hope that nobody associated with any of this function gets hurt (or worse) trying to do their job. That goes from VADM Ryan all the way down to the guy who has to show up to wash the dishes.

 

[braumeister]

Meetings aside, some things are still considered important enough to defy the weather.

As Hurricane Sandy intensifies, guards continue to watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

[Purron]

Just one more reason I'm happy to be retired. My old agency came up with plenty of lame brained ideas like this and stuck to them even when it became obvious it was stupid to do so given current circumstances.

 

[mickeyd]

Reassure me that this is going to work out fine.

Don't know about you navy types Nords, but a bit of rain and wind has never slowed down any gathering of army war fighters. The MOAA folks will be fine.

 

[Gumby]

Don't know about you navy types Nords, but a bit of rain and wind has never slowed down any gathering of army war fighters. The MOAA folks will be fine.

We Navy types, being finely attuned to the vagaries of wind and weather, will have retired to the nearest pub, with a warm crackling fire, a frosty beer and amiable female companionship. We'll hoist a glass to you ground pounders -- out in the rain, alone.

 

[Purron]

Here's the thing - non essential events like this should be cancelled during a disaster. Why give the first responders more to deal with? Unless you're helping deal with the problem, stay home and get out of the way of those that are.

I don't think you over-reacted Nords. It was stupid of them not to cancel when it became apparent how bad this was.

 

[Nords]

Don't know about you navy types Nords, but a bit of rain and wind has never slowed down any gathering of army war fighters. The MOAA folks will be fine.

We Navy types, being finely attuned to the vagaries of wind and weather, will have retired to the nearest pub, with a warm crackling fire, a frosty beer and amiable female companionship. We'll hoist a glass to you ground pounders -- out in the rain, alone.

Conversation with my spouse in early June 1991:
Me: "Hi, honey, we just pulled in to port. Howzit?"
Her: "Where are you, Singapore?"
Me: "Subic! The crew asked the CO for liberty here instead."
Her: "Are you nucking futs? You know there's a live volcano erupting less than 25 miles north of you, and a tropical storm forming out in the Pacific?"
Me: "Oh, I've heard about that! I'm sure they wouldn't have let us pull in here if they thought there was going to be a problem. There's several other ships here too. Gotta go, I need a real shower and a massage!"
The rest of the story, if you haven't already heard it:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/ever-had-a-close-call-41784.html#post772480

I only needed to learn that lesson once. When they say that the weather's gonna suck, then I'm only going there if it's a mission vital to national security.