Networking

Did you know that most people living in the United States say they selected their church because of the networking possibilities? Gimme that old time religion and how bout them Giants?

I’m not at all sure this is the best way to find a place to contemplate your relationship with the universe or even your place in the PTA, but that’s what the polls say and I’m guessing they spent a lot of time and money to find that little factoid out.

Now I don’t know about you, but I am just not the joining type. Could be I had a terrible childhood and it scared my delicate psyche, could be the phase of the moon, could be I’m just peculiar, but I don’t do collectives, okay, I do do collectives but not well.

And it’s not that I don’t find large groups of people fascinating, some of them are and some of them aren’t, it’s just the whole bunch thing sends me screaming for some space.

Now I know people who will not get in an elevator. They are convinced that if they do the walls will close in on them like one of those horrible traps Ming the Merciless set for Flash Gordon in the serials. I know writers who make their characters share this elevator panic. Truth is everyone at one time or another has been on an elevator when it jumped or bumped and it felt for a second like the damned thing was going to stop between floors and trap you like a rat.

(I’m thinking being trapped in an elevator is a lot better than being trapped in a sinking ship or a crippled airplane, forced to land on a peak in the Andes where you will suffer from frostbite, boredom and eventually eat your fellow passengers unless they eat you first and you know how bad that is for your cholesterol, human beings, as the talking heads are so fond or reminding us, have become so obese and you are supposed to watch the amount of fatty food you take in because it causes all sorts of terrible problems, like high cholesterol, diabetes and the heartbreak of psoriasis. But in an elevator someone is sure to come along long before you start munching on your pals and strangers in that elevator so aside from the panic attacks the lack of a bathroom, getting trapped in an elevator isn’t all that bad, when you think about it.)

So it’s common for people to have fears about elevators but not so common for people not to like groups. Okay, the Republicans don’t like a bunch of groups, undocumented immigrants, liberals, intellectuals, artists, Bohemians and Presidents, but that’s not likely to bother anyone who is an artist, right?

So here’s the deal, networking is the way most things in this country get done, ninety percent of the jobs are found by networking, ninety-five percent of all vendors depend on networking to supply their clients, ninety-eight percent of all business depend on networking to spread their good works far and wide so if you aren’t out there doing your best to rub elbows with all of those other potential networkers you’ve missed the boat!

Now I might have mentioned I come from Texas and in Texas grown men don’t touch anyone unless, A) They don’t have a gun, B) They are getting ready to slap the sand out of someone or C) they are playing a team sport.

So you see there are legitimate reasons why my elbow rubbing skills are unpolished. But that shouldn’t stop you. This is Oregon. I’ve seen people I don’t even know give hugs to people I would worry about if they were handcuffed to a police cruiser. And networking takes a lot less intimate contact than hugging.

Why network? Because you can’t be everywhere, it’s that simple. There are people who travel to Portland, Salem and Eugene every week; they know things that isolated in Coos Bay/North bend we’ll never find out.

I hear Yvonne Ousely has pieces in the OSU Ancient Americas show, suppose she knows a thing or two about both primitive art and weaving? I’d guess so, but to know for sure you’d have to ask her. She happens to know a pretty good artist, Michael William Ousely, local star painter and man about town. Guess what, you could get a double dip by talking to both of them at the same meeting and maybe exchanging success stories. People love to talk about successful folks, especially artists.

Archi, yes, that Archi, the one who decides if your submission to Expressions West is going to get passed on to the jury or tossed in the bin because you didn’t read the prospectus and submitted your images on 4 X 5 slides and no one wants to deal with a slide the size of home plate and besides the prospectus specifically said disk submission and now you are out of luck except Archi will probably be nice and let you fix the problem or at least won’t toss your submission in the bin without warning, that Archi had a birthday, (Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you…), and everyone came out. Were you there?

If you were you had a chance to network with your peers while paying dues to the Imperial Omnipotent Stomper and eat some pretty good grub, artists in Coos Bay/North Bend seem to be awfully good cooks, and all for nothing except showing up.

Sure there was a lot of talk and the place was packed and no one spent a bunch of time with any one place or person, but that’s what makes networking so important, it doesn’t feel like a plug, it doesn’t take a lot of time and it may not do a thing…right now.

But it will some time when you least expect it. All you have to do is do it.

Oh yeah, about those elevator fears, make sure the person you get on with is smaller than you, that way if you have to eat them or starve they won’t put up so much of a fight you’ll be too tired to enjoy your meal.