Flash Nano 8 National Days

 

Apparently, November 8 is
National Cappuccino Day,
National X-Ray Day,
and National Saddle Hunting Day

Write a story inspired by one of these.

Boy was this a hard one. I didn't come up with what I'm about to write for Flash NANO until 3:28 in the morning during a potty trip.

Jody was dressed corporate today. Her high heels hurt. She missed her normal work clothes, jeans, a sweatshirt and sneakers. Today all the staff had forsaken comfort dress for the corporate look. They had a potential new member coming in.

 

Jody checked the conference room. Coffee and tea were ready. One end of the table was covered with different breads, pastries and a cake that said Welcome Association of Small Bakeries (ASB).

 

Jody was CEO of the Association for Associations for National Days (AND). Their mission was to help different associations plan, publicize and run national or international days for whatever. Her biggest selling point was that having her staff do it all meant that the event didn’t take away the association’s regular staff. Plus, the member could take advantage of AND’s resources and expertise.

 

Normally Jody or her VP went to the potential member for the sales pitch. She suspected that the President of ASB wanted to come to Boston more to see his daughters who were students at Boston University and Northeastern and this was a good excuse.

 

After the deal was signed, an AND employee went to the client and stayed there for weeks and months of planning. They stayed until afterwards to measure the results and hopefully sign a contract for the following year.

 

Most meetings with headquarters were done by ZOOM, saving huge months of time and money outweighing the disadvantage. ZOOM didn’t allow for handshakes or observation of body language.

 

Jody’s phone rang. It was from Paul, who was assigned to promoting National Fly Fisherman’s Day. As a fishing lover, he was a natural to spend the time in Montana. Jody was afraid he’d want to move there permanently. He’d found a girlfriend. “Good news,” he’d said. “CNN is going to do an entire segment on fly fishing on the day. The CEO is beside himself with happiness he’ll not just be on national but international TV.”

 

Jody congratulated him before hanging up and ran through the presentation one more time. She always tailored the presentation to potential members. It covered planning, publicity and social media, budgeting, gaining company sponsorships, and several statistics tailored to the potential member’s field They even offered lawyers to help with contracts and security at events to prevent shootings as part of their package. The worry about a shooting usually was the clincher on the sale. A stats slide was to show that AND had expertise in the member’s area.

 

Getting a new member was always a challenge and fun. What wasn’t fun was the problem she  had to deal with later. The Cat Owners Association was threatening to pull their membership. They thought the Dog Owners Association had much better results for their national day than they did. What Jody couldn’t say was more people liked dogs than cats.

 

Outside the conference room, she heard her staff welcoming the potential clients.

 

Show time, she thought and opened the conference room door.

Note: Visit https://dlnelsonwriter.com