Full Speed Ahead

It was another intense day in the classroom yesterday. It started off with the announcement that one of the couples in the class tossed in the towel and left as it wasn't for them. It still leaves 7 couples to go forward in the training session. It is totally sales oriented which is why the program was shortened from 4 weeks to 2 weeks. All of the operations portion was eliminated and will be left to the teams to learn "on the job" when they return to their Communities. Sales is not a comfort zone for many people, so it is scary enough to have all this jargon and technique thrown at them all at once. Throw in the uniqueness of the industry and one can see why people move on to different jobs.

The classroom is very comfortable and is located in the clubhouse portion of the Community complex:

I took these shots during our morning break and below is a view of the main entrance which is directly across from the (above) clubhouse:

It was sunny and a little breezy yesterday which is always a welcome change in the Northwest.

The class is filled with role playing, computer software training and strategies designed to generate leads for prospective residents. We are all overwhelmed by the amount of information being given us, but we are all hoping that it will "click" and become easier as time goes on. The attendees are a very friendly group with varying backgrounds and ages. Most of them would probably be in their 50's is our guess.

Today's class will be held at the hotel as a result of the clubhouse being booked for an event at the Community. That means we all can dress casually for one day and put away the dress shirts, ties, heels and business attire.

The homework assignments are time consuming, leaving little time for pleasure in the evenings. That has been further complicated with computer problems where most of the attendees have not been able to change required passwords as a result of bad settings in the "loaned" computers' firewall. Ours is one of the few with proper settings, so we have been able to keep up with the assignments. It still makes for a long week.

We are still enthusiastic about the direction we are taking and hope that it continues throughout the training class...