Rowan’s mother, Shirley (herself a beautiful genius) is a first-generation, born-in-the-U.S.A. Chinese American and a physician’s assistant. Rowan’s father, our son Kevin (also a genius) is a computer engineer. Rowan’s grandmother, Shirley’s mother, who emigrated from China, lives just blocks away.
Rowan will obviously be multilingual, but they aren’t taking any chances. Shirley speaks to him in Chinese and English. Kevin speaks to him in Spanish and English; his grandmother speaks to him only in Chinese. Gail and I? We’re trying to teach him to say “Y’all.” With that combo, how can he not be a success?
What does all this have to do with aviation? Well, we did fly to Boston, and that’s a good enough connection for a new grandfather who wants to brag.
After the visit, I went to Hershey, PA for the 31st Annual Airport Conference of the FAA Eastern Region. The Hershey conference was terrific. Roughly 700 airport people enthusiastically attended a wide variety of presentations. The conference is a Penn State outreach program in a joint effort with the FAA Eastern Division. That’s a good arrangement, as it allows FAA folks — like division manager Bill Flanagan, in this case — to work at their jobs while details are arranged and carried out by Penn State.
The luncheon speaker that day, Paula Hochstetler, president of the Airport Consultants Council, gave a wonderful speech. I’m always impressed with anyone who agrees with me on anything, and she agreed with me not once, but twice. First she cited an article by Leigh Branham in Airport Consulting magazine. Branham, founder and CEO of Keeping the People, points out that most people who leave a job do it for many reasons that come before pay. I’ve always believed that, but never had the statistics to back it up. Branham has them. He reports that “in 88 percent of voluntary turnovers, some factor other than better pay was the root cause.” He goes on to provide seven of the primary “other” reasons and to explain how to handle them.
Second, toward the end of her presentation, Hochstetler said, loudly and distinctly, “We look forward to joining with you as we sort out how best to serve our ultimate client, the traveling public.” (Italics added.)
Y’all, we have come a long way since the days when more than one airport told me that the airlines — not pax — were their customers.Hochstetler, a charming and obviously brilliant person, has made it all okay.
In the words of Brother Dave Gardner, “Rejoice, dear hearts.”
