Inner Workings

Happy Friday, kids. It's Board Meeting Friday so big things will be happening in Irish Fest land this morning. Since these board of directors meetings are closed affairs and steeped in mystery, I'd imagine you'd be interested to get a glimpse inside the inner workings of this, the apex of leadership here at KCIF HQ. I have a few minutes before we begin, so I'm happy to oblige.

We meet at 7:00 AM every other Friday typically, and every Friday in August if needed. These early morning meetings present their own problems - work schedules sometimes shorten meetings, it's hard to find an open liquor store, etc. We meet around a huge conference table made from the melted down promo CDs sent to us by various bands, high on the 37th floor of the Irish Fest Building in downtown Kansas City. As staff house boy Brian McCarthy silently fills glasses and places the week's agendas at our places, we don our ceremonial cloaks and horned hoods (see illustration) and take our seats.

Each meeting begins with the reciting of the Irish Fest oath and the ceremonial drawing of blood from whoever was last to arrive at that morning's meeting. Keli gavels the meeting to order and we begin. First on the agenda is usually a motion to impeach President Ed Scanlon. After Vice President Ed Follis' motion is narrowly defeated, we move on to the rest of the days business. And what a smorgasbord of topics it is! Sponsorship updates, logistical discussions, budgetary concerns, site layout plans, insuranzzzz...oh, sorry, I drifted off there for a second. As you can see, it's an exciting scene. Little wonder that so many aspire to reach this lofty perch.

Discussion can get heated as you can imagine, with however many of us there are...8 or 9 maybe...all shouting to be heard, banging shoes on the table, throwing punches, swinging broken beer bottles. We lose more board members to those beer bottles. One of our board invariably ends up in frustrated, convulsive tears, (I won't mention who, but his name rhymes with "Blarney"). Anyway, after an hour and a half, two hours or so of this, the day's business is finally completed. With a final motion to impeach President Ed Scanlon, we adjourn and head to Kelly's Bar until remembering that it's only 8:30 in the morning.

I hope that this little look inside the inner workings of Irish Fest has been enlightening. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to head up to the 37th floor for the opening ceremonies. I don't want to be late. I hate that blood thing.