So, it’s been more than a month for Arizona Keough and what has gone on… well, a few things.  It’s best to explain them using the following list in roughly chronological order (oldest to newest):

Launched the new Warbirds Unlimited Foundation website at www.warbirdsunlimited.org.

Handled all PR and advertising for the Wings Over Anzio event at Falcon Field.

Was laid off from my job on March 28th as Associate Director of Marketing at Daniel Webster College (along with just about my entire department).

Went through a few weeks of worry, dispair, and self-doubt (see above).

Turned 30 years old on April 24th

Started working as a weekend news editor for the Aero-News Network (www.aero-news.net) with hopes for a more full-time position soon.

Joined and became hooked on Twitter (see my sidebar for the latest).

Launched a Google AdWords campaign for Warbirds Unlimited Foundation… and still fighting with it.

Attended the Planes of Fame Airshow in Chino, CA for the first time ever… marking the journey to “warbird mecca” that I have been waiting nearly 20 years to do.

So now I have pretty much caught everyone up on what is going on.

As you can imagine, the third list item pretty much has knocked me on my butt for the past month or so.  I can’t say I was surprised by it happening as the change of leadership in our department was far from friendly, so we all knew that something was up.

 

The biggest thing that impacted me was how it was handled.

Basically I, along with four others, were laid off en-masse within an hour on a Friday morning.  Within an hour, the entire operations staff of the marketing and PR department was gone… including the marketing director and the PR director.

No going away parties were held… no teary goodbyes… no best wishes or hugs from friends.  I

And thus ended my ten year relationship with the college I grew with, graduated from, and had supported with every fabric of my being.  The hours I officially worked for the school were trivial when compared to the whole picture of volunteer hours I spent on school activities, the never ceasing positive promotion I gave for the school, and the goodwill I attempted to pass to my fellow alumni who had less rosy thoughts of their alma mater.

I fear I am joining them.

I have heard from few at the school after the 28th.  I am fortunate to have some good friends from within that have kept in touch… but the reasoning why such a catastrophic layoff happened has never really been explained.  Our performance was up to and beyond the standards that could be expected for a department our size… and we hadn’t had any huge blunders or anything either.  Our quality was up to snuff and our knowledge of the DWC product mix was as high as you could expect.

Were we not moving fast enough?  Were we scapegoats?  Were we the casualties of personality clashes?  I’ll never know I fear… so I’ll just move on.

Of course, moving on hasn’t been exactly easy either.

Summer gas prices are worrying all segments of the aviation industry and as a result, many companies are cutting back hiring until Fall.

Airlines are also on shaky ground… mergers, bankruptcies, etc.

All pretty much spells a soft job market out here in Phoenix for aviation folks.  It’s been tough.

I am fortunate to have a lot of great people in my network who have helped me gain some freelance work and even a great aviation journalism gig… so that helps make ends meet for now.

Otherwise, the time off has been good… I have been able to pay attention to my personal needs for a bit, have done some exploring and traveling, and even have gotten to play house-hubby for a time. 

I tell you, I have a lot more respect for homemakers now!

So that’s about it from this end… here are some photos of recent happenings to let ya’ll know I am still fat and happy!

Up front in B-25 Barbie III for a ride.

 

At the controls of the B-36 Peacemaker in Tucson (HUUUGE!)

Scott and I with the old PBY-5A that used to be in Geneseo, NY in Tucson.

A photo I took at Chino of B-17 Fuddy Duddy and B-25 Photo Fanny (I grew up with Fuddy Duddy in Geneseo)

The group of Warbird Information Exchange (WIX) members meeting up in Chino.  From www.warbirdinformationexchange.org.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 5:21 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.