Meetings, Meetings And More Meetings

Every now and again, meetings of West Islip's many civic groups overlap and lead to either a difficult choice of which to attend, or in the case of a recent Monday, attend back-to-back meetings.

February 22 was a particularly busy evening: a 6 p.m. West Islip Summit Council meeting at the high school; 7 p.m. at the American Legion Hall for the West Islip Chamber of Commerce meeting and also at 7 p.m. was a presentation on the topic of cyber bullying at the high school.

I'm fortunate to have the services of a freelancer, Ariella Monti, a talented reporter and writer who also provided WestIslipTribune.com's coverage of the West Islip Summit this past October. She was at the high school reporting on the cyber bullying forum.

But this is not about a meeting schedule, but more about what happens at these meetings. With most civic group meetings, a small gathering of well intentioned local residents gather with the admirable goal of improving some portion of life in West Islip.

At any of these meetings, it can be a challenge to stay on topic and that unfortunately leads to these meeting running longer than they should. Personally, the most frustrating part of these meetings are the side conversations that inevitably happen.

At the recent Chamber of Commerce meeting, which featured an informative presentation about the on-going problem of heroin, one member in the audience asked the speaker — a narcotics detective — what progress have we made in the fight against heroin over the past 50 years.

What? Fifty years?

While I won't debate the merits of the question here, this to me was an example of someone awkwardly trying to make a point without really having a point and ultimately wasting valuable meeting time. But that can be the challenge of running and sitting through a civic group meeting. It's important for meeting attendees to bring up issues, and in order to do that, we sometimes have to sit through a question or two that might not be exactly on point.

A Glimpse Inside Miss America

I have to admit I've never been much of a fan of the Miss America pageant. Despite having more than 50 very attractive women on stage in one place, it was not something I ever really cared about.

This year, however, was different. As editor of WestIslipTribune.com, it was easy to pay attention to the national competition because of Jen Corey, a West Islip resident who in the summer of 2009 was crowned Miss D.C. As a student at American University in the nation's capital, Jen was eligible for the Miss D.C. competition.

At the competition held Sunday, January 30, at Planet Hollywood Casino & Resort in Las Vegas, Jen finished in the top-10, a wonderful accomplishment. Although I must admit that I thought given her performance in the talent competition, singing an opera piece, and the fact that is she quite attractive, a top-5 finish was in reach.

But following Jen for the past several months also proved to be an interesting experience for me. In my two decades as a journalist, working for various community newspapers, trade publications and now as owner of WestIslipTribune.com, I've been fortunate to at times attend events, go interesting places and meet some famous people.

Seeing Miss America in person at Planet Hollywood, while the event was aired live to 3.5 million viewers on TLC, was cool. It was interesting to see how well choreographed a live show can be done, the interaction between the show's producers and the live audience, and overall just how smooth the program went.

I was also fortunate to obtain a media pass for the event, which allowed me to sit closer to the stage and share a photographers row with Reuters and AP along with others. Talk about camera envy!

But with Miss America now over, I've returned to our little corner of the world to again focus on what's happening in West Islip. I'm guessing there won't be a swimwear portion at the next board of education meeting.