Q&A (September and October questions)

I’m so sorry I didn’t post these earlier. Here are the questions from September and October. As always, I don’t answer all the questions, and many of you share ideas for products, which I don’t respond to but do forward to the appropriate departments.

Happy reading!

Did you go pick Shanna up from her mission?

No. For those who aren’t aware, sometimes parents and/or families of missionaries will go pick their children up in the mission field when they complete their mission. We asked Shanna if she wanted us to do that, and she said no. She said she’d rather come home, settle back in, and then return to her mission after that adjustment period. We’re hoping to go back with her to Spain sometime in the next year, and we’re already looking forward to meeting many of the wonderful people she met and spending time seeing some of her favorite areas of Spain.

Do you own a houseboat?

No, we don’t. We are members of a time share, so we own a specific time period on a houseboat every year.

How much work is it for your family to go on the Lake Powell trip?

It’s actually not as much work as you might think because we’ve gone so many times, we have it down to a science! It’s one of the easiest trips we take! We have the same routine, the same menu, and pretty much the same activities every time we go, so when it’s time we just pull up the Lake Powell list on the computer, print it out, and make assignments.

Of course, we finesse it now and then when we discover something that works better or something we like better, but we just update our list and so the next year we’re all ready to go.

Wondering if it would be possible to digitalize some of your designs so we can make them in quilts? I know it has nothing to do with stamping, but Stampin’ Up! images are so pretty I would love to see them on my quilts. Does that sound do-able?

Thank you for your kind words about our artwork. That’s a great idea but not something we’re looking at right now. We do have the Big Shot and the die cuts, and many people use those tools for quilting.

Where did you find the PJs with owls on them for the Advisory Board? How are Board members selected?

I don’t purchase the PJs; it’s been a tradition for the Advisory Board members to purchase them for our My Favorite Things night, and they graciously gave me a pair as a gift. I think they found them online, but I’m not sure where.

We look at a wide variety of criteria when we’re choosing board members, including geographical location, level of activity, involvement in their business, etc. We strive to find a nice balance of longevity with the company, approach to doing business, and things like that. We don’t necessarily always choose our highest-achieving demonstrators, but we certainly are looking for demonstrators who are actively involved in building a business, so they understand the challenges our demonstrator base experiences as a whole.

A few of you asked additional questions about the Advisory Board. Some of them choose to share their status as Advisory Board members quite openly, while others are a bit more private. Of course, anyone who went to convention knows who they are, and it’s not hard to find out who is on the board from year to year. However, it’s our policy to protect the privacy of the Board members on our end, so I won’t mention anymore about them, other than I feel privileged and honored to work with the fine women who have served on this Board throughout the years, and I am so grateful for their hard work, commitment, and insight.

Any hope of your past vintage stamps returning?

The only time we have brought any retired stamps back in the past was to celebrate a milestone anniversary. We just celebrated a significant 20-year anniversary, and while we are looking forward to our 25^th, specific plans are still far in the future, so I can’t make any promises. . . .

What do your family members (daughters, SIL, siblings, parents) do at Stampin’ Up! Or what have they done in the past?

Wow, at some point in time family members have done just about everything, from placing and picking orders to answering phones, and from creating projects to planning events. They’ve worked in product development and scheduling and . . . well the list goes on and on. My family has been—and continue to be—very supportive of Stampin’ Up!

What does Stampin’ Up! do with the rubber that is recycled?

We donate all the rubber that is recyclable to an organization called Courage Reins (a group that provides therapeutic horseback riding experiences, along with other equine-based activities, for people with disabilities). Courage Reins, in turn, sells the rubber for a reasonable price for playgrounds and other similar uses.

Would it be possible for SU to be more proactive about accommodating the deaf and hearing-impaired demonstrators by providing captioning and/or scripts for webinars, audio and video training without us having to ask for it every time?

I have asked our corporate communications department to look into identifying this type of information for our deaf and hard-of-hearing demonstrators. Thanks for the suggestion!

Can I borrow/rent Mom Pat?

No way! She’s mine—and my sisters! I laughed when I read this, and so did Mom Pat. We all have so many things on our to-do lists that we will keep Mom Pat busy for the foreseeable future.

How many years did it take Lisa Fast to reach the million-dollar milestone?

I should have mentioned that, huh? She has been a demonstrator for thirteen and a half years, and what is remarkable about her achievement is that she reached this milestone while raising a family (which many of our demonstrators do, of course) and running a day care business as well!

What was on the M&M’s, the brown T-shirts, and the banners that were shown for the Lisa Fast celebration?

The M&M’s had Lisa’s name and One Million Dollars; the brown T-shirts read, “Congratulations, Lisa Fast, One Million Dollar Achiever”; and the banners also said Congratulations.

Funny that you don’t know what HGTV is, especially since I just watched you on that very channel (a DIY segment of “Scrapbooking with Sandy Genovese”).

That is funny. I haven’t done a DIY segment for many years, and I’d completely forgotten they were associated with HGTV. 

Our First-Ever Europe Convention--A Success

We arrived back in the States last night, home from our first-ever Stampin’ Up! convention, held in Frankfurt, Germany—and it was delightful!

I don’t know how else to describe it. From beginning (helping the staff set up and prepare for the convention) to end (saying good-bye to many demonstrators and employees I’d gotten to know better), I enjoyed every minute!

Our staff was much smaller than at a US/Canadian event. Only a handful of employees from the home office flew over, along with most of the staff from our three European offices. We worked side by side to get everything ready, and I loved the opportunity to put faces with names, and meet some of these wonderful people for the first time. How blessed we are to have such great people working with us in Europe!

After spending a whirlwind couple of days in preparation, Sterling and I returned to the hotel and actually giggled in our hotel room as we heard the familiar sounds of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators coming together for convention. It doesn’t matter if we’re in North America, Australia, or Europe, the sounds of happy women gathering together for a few days of stamping, playing, celebrating—and likely escaping from the demands of home?—are the same. And it’s wonderful to be part of that.

We had about three times the number of demonstrators we had at our first convention in the United States 20 years ago, but it was still a very intimate event, with plenty of opportunities to chat. Probably one of the things that stood out most for me was that, even though we had three different countries and three different languages represented, there was an overwhelming feeling of unity and kindness. I teared up more than once as I watched demonstrators cheer for each other, laugh with each, and support each other in their shared love of Stampin’ Up!

I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about the language barrier. All of the Main Stage presentations were done in English, with translators sitting in the back providing translation in French and German. Individual classes were presented in each of the three languages.

But I found that the language wasn’t a problem at all. Many of the demonstrators knew enough English that we could carry on a decent conversation. And even when we didn’t know the exact words, there’s something about sharing the language of stamping that brought us together. We hugged, we smiled, we looked at projects, and we communicated.

In addition to the abundance of fun and support, there was an abundance of inspiration. I’ve actually started stamping birthday cards today (I send Stampin’ Up! employees greetings for their birthdays) for November, and I’m basing them on a Workshop Wow I saw at the convention.

I do want to share a few of the projects that I showed on Main Stage. I won’t show them all—there has to be some perks for attending convention, you know. But here are a few that I hope will inspire you.

One thing I feel badly about is that I didn’t take any photos. I had my camera with me the whole time and completely forgot to take it out, I was so busy! We had some camera and video people there, but I forgot that they weren’t from the home office, and so I wasn’t able to just call and ask them to send me a few of their photos. We’ll eventually get the photos they took, but it will be too late to post here, and I’m so sorry! I’d love for you to get a feel for the beautiful venue and, even more important, the amazing people!

As we said good-bye, I was impressed with the genuine feelings of love and concern I saw. It reminded me of the early days of Stampin’ Up! when we were small enough that most of the demonstrators knew most of the employees, and vice versa. In Europe, that’s the case—employees and demonstrators know each other, and if they didn’t before convention, they do now! What a wonderful feeling to be part of that again!

Over all, our Europe convention exceeded all of my expectations. That doesn’t mean we can’t improve—there’s always room for improvement! (And we do have a list of things we’ll do differently next time.) But overall, I was pleased and delighted and returned exhausted but happy!  

Heading to Frankfurt

After a way-too-short one-and-a-half hours of sleep last night (had to get my convention project done!), I am heading off to our first-ever European Stampin' Up! convention. I'm tired but psyched! I can't wait to spend some time getting to know our European demonstrators a little better and celebrating their outstanding accomplishments! 

In the meantime, I'm hoping to post one Q&A blog while I"m gone (keep your fingers crossed that I'll have time), and hopefully I'll also find the time to announce the winners of October's So Shelli Creative Challenge. 

This convention is a very exciting milestone for Stampin' Up!, and I can't wait to share my experiences with you when I get back! And now I'm off! I sure hope I get the chance to sleep a little on the flight over. . . .

A Happy Treat

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. Mine was great! I spent the entire day playing with my sister Leslie--she got to spend the weekend with me! Woo hoo! She’s been cooped up in her apartment (in between regular visits to the hospital to check her levels).  But she came to our house on Friday, and she got to stay until today.
 
We’ve had a fabulous time today. We stayed in PJs all day and played in my stamp studio.

I spent some of my time working on the Halloween album I started a few weeks ago for Shanna’s Happy Halloween Homecoming party. I thought my Halloween treat for you would be to show you a few of the pages.  

Just an FYI: The inspiration for these pages came from the Advent calendar featured as our art show project in the October 2009 Stampin’ Success.
 
Enjoy! 

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween at the home office yesterday—the first Halloween festivities I’ve been able to attend in I don’t know how long. And all I can say is I hope to never miss another one. It was so much fun!

We have all kinds of activities, including a coloring contest for employees’ children, a pumpkin carving contest, a baking contest, and—of course—the traditional costume contests. We shake it up a bit, however, by having individual costume contests as well as department.

I love it when people get into it. And this year there were plenty of people who took things seriously—very seriously! We had several departments who worked together as a team, coming up with incredible ideas. The first-place winner was our product design and illustrators team, who dressed up as characters from Alice in Wonderland, complete with a full-scale flower garden and tea party!

Second place was our design department, which featured a Zoolander theme; they even put on a complete fashion show for us. (And can I just say there are a few of our photographers who have no shame! You know who you are! I couldn’t pay my husband a million bucks to put on the show you did!)

Third place was our marketing department, who entertained us all with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, complete with a chocolate fountain and an Oompa dance. Wonderful!

And get this. Our finance team even participated, complete with tattoos and full biker attire! Loved seeing these people, who are so often perceived as boring and a little strait-laced, get into the act.

We also had a group of Mac make-up artists (our concept artists) and food icons (our electronic demonstrator support, who dressed up  the Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger, the Morton Salt girl, the Pillsbury Dough Boy, the Honey Nut Cheerioo Bee, and the Sun Maid Raisin girl).

And a lot of other employees dressed up individually as well--I can't even begin to name them all. I didn't get pictures of everyone, but I got a good sampling.

We also invite employees to bring their kids for an early trick-or-treat experience. The mostly younger children (dressed in their costumes, of course) wander from cubicle to cubicle, and many of the employees have candy to give them. It’s delightful to see these youngsters so enthralled with everything they see going on around them.

Most of the festivities took place around lunchtime, when we also hosted a soup bar (nothing is better when the weather is cold outside than soup, right?) and provided other tasty treats.

I realize it probably wasn’t our most productive day in terms of work done, but I did see people eventually settle down and I know deadlines were met and things were accomplished. And I’m a firm believer in working hard—and playing hard. We don’t play a lot around here, but when we do, we do it right!

I ran an errand this morning, and went to a store where a sister of one of our employees works. She told me that her sister had taken a lot of pictures yesterday, and she was showing them off last night. “I looked at her pictures, and listened to my sister talk about how much fun she had, and I wished I worked at a place like that!” this girl said.

Now that’s what I like to hear!