5/19/2009 Tech Valley IMA

I returned from my vacation and gave an after hours tour to a Professional Group - Tech Valley Institute of Management Accountants. While my non-paying job is a DE Docent (a Destroyer Escort Tour Guide), my paying job is as an Accountant. I've been a member of the local IMA Chapter for about 20 years. The Official IMA tour group was 20 members, but we expanded the tour with 5 or 6 people hanging round on the pier. The weather was fantastic. And, in my opinion the tour went great. I think Tim should promote more professional group tours. Instead of starting during the day, professional groups typically have to start after work (at 4-5).

A regular Slater tour starts with a short video about WWII, U-Boats and Destroyer Escorts. For the IMA group we aired a new video profiling the USS Slater as a museum in Albany, and volunteer activities. This video profiles the museum and the educational outreach. This was the 1st time I saw this video and I was impressed. It was a professional job done by the local public TV Station (WMHT). The Video noted that the USS Slater restoration effort involved over a million dollars in donations and 250,000 volunteer hours. What it didn't note (and I think it should have) was the number of annual visitors (approximately 20,000); the number of veteran group reunions (I'm guessing at 20); and the number of memorial services and military ceremonies hosted (probably 10).