Adam called his mom, and she explained to him that she will make necessary arrangements to be there, but dad wouldn’t be able to come with her.
The problem that I had faced with was that there was no provision made in the teaching system at all the teaching institutions for somebody to cover a parttime professor if he or she cannot teach in case of an emergency. The only way I could have had a day off if any other parttime professor was prepared to teach my class.
I used to teach two classes on Monday, one at UNLV and one at the University of Phoenix. It took me forever to get in touch with almost every parttime professor at both institutions and finally I got two folks agreed to teach my two classes while I was going to be away. I promised them to return their Favour whenever they have an emergency like mine’s.
Lynda was gone to Ottawa, and I called her to let her know that finally I got both classes covered. The wedding was on Sunday, and I had managed to get a flight booked to come back home on Monday as I had another class to teach on Tuesday. Travelling was a very time consuming experience as there were no direct flights available between Ottawa and Las Vegas.
I taught a class on Friday night and left directly for the airport after 8:00 PM with the flight schedule at 10:30 PM. I needed to change a couple of flights but got to Ottawa on Saturday morning. I had told Adam that I am so sorry that I would not be able to join any other activities or formalities before or after the wedding as I needed to be back in Vegas on Monday. Adam had a bunch of rooms reserved in a hotel across from NAC where my relatives and Lynda’s relatives stayed.
We took our families out for supper on Saturday night and had a nice time.
Jenifer was gone to stay in Fairmont Chateau Laurier with her friends as they had planned to come directly to where they were getting married.
Lynda and I had a room in the same hotel where our families were staying. Most of my night I spent gong around and talking to different relatives as I hadn’t seen them for a while.
If I remember correctly, everything was organized by the wedding consultant, and everything went as planned. Right after the non-religious wedding ceremony, we moved into a different hall where drinks and a kosher buffet was organized with plenty food which everybody enjoyed. Then speeches started which lasted another couple of hours. Before we moved to the dancing hall, everybody took a little break to move around and talk to the people.
Adam had invited some close friends who also working with us for a long time. He had also invited some clients who we did business with. I took a little break to go chat with those folks then Lynda showed up. She said let’s dance as Adam decided to dedicate his first dance to your favourite song – What a wonderful world (Louis Armstrong).
I apologized to those folks and went along with Lynda to the dancing area where people were dancing and joined them.
Lynda and I were immensely impressed with the way Adam had arranged the wedding. I left first thing in the morning on Monday for Vegas. When I got home there were two messages on the phone – one from the professor who was supposed to teach my class on Monday and another one from the coordinator at the University of Phoenix. It was too late to call anybody, so I decided to go to bed.
The next morning, I got up early and went to the clubhouse to do the exercise and swim. When I got back, I had another message from the professor.
I decide to call him right away. He was very apologetic that he had some kind of emergency in the family, and he was not able to teach the class for me.
I told him not to worry but I worried that the call from the coordinator could be a bad news. However, there was nothing else I could have done given the fact that I wasn’t going to miss my son’s wedding. In any case, I called the coordinator and the first thing he asked – how was the wedding?
I said everything went just like a clock.
He said unfortunately things didn’t go here just like that. He said the professor didn’t show up and 55 students were stranded with no direction. Some of them walked to my boss’s office and complained to him
I said there’s nothing I can say to explain the situation, and I don’t want to blame Fred as he had a family emergency.
He said unfortunately my boss was so upset that he decided to teach your class for the rest of the year, Mir.
I said in other words, I am fired?
He said I wouldn’t exactly call it a “firing” as it’s not based on your teaching capabilities as we know that all your students like it dearly.
I said I don’t blame you and I am also glad that your boss decided to teach the class as I know he’s indeed a better teacher than I ever be. We disconnected our telephone conversation on a positive note. He had also said if you decided to teach here again or want to use me as a reference, please let me know.
As soon as I put the phone back, it rang, and it was Lynda who wanted to know if everything is fine.
I decided not to mention to her about what just had happened to me simply because I didn’t want her to worry about anything.
After a couple of weeks after, I had a call from the president of the organization which represented the interest of the minority groups in the casinos. She said to me that she met with a group of people including the president and vice-president of the company which is interested in marketing an automated purchasing system which will help casinos to save some time and energy to deal with all their purchasing requirements. She said she doesn’t know too much about the system, but she thought I could be some help not only to make her understand what they were trying to accomplish but also to explore the possibilities of utilizing my services.
I asked her why they approached her.
She said they were told that she represents the black folks who work in each casino.
She also said that when she mentioned to them my background and qualifications, the vice-president of the company expressed interest in meeting with me.
I told her that I am all for that. She gave me the information to get in touch with vice-president, and his name was Larry.
To make a long story short, I met with Larry briefly to understand what they were trying to accomplish and how I can be of any helpful.
I learned that they had an automated purchasing system which was being used in other states in various industries, and they wanted to work with the casinos to learn how they can modify their current system to suit the purchasing processes in a casino environment.
Based on my previous experience working in various industries, I knew that an automated purchasing system automates the entire procurement lifecycle through features like electronic purchasing requisitions, automated purchase order creation and dispatch, automated invoice matching and payment processing. Typically, this system must be supported with a vendor management system.
I told Larry that I will brief the president about their objectives, but she would like to know how her organization can help you folks.
Larry said they are looking for some help to get a couple of casinos lined up to let them work with them to document their current procedures and processes with the possibility to used them as pilot projects.
The time I left the meeting, I made sure that Larry understood my situation. I had no position or authority to influence the decision to work with them. However, I assured him that I will make sure that they understand what Larry was trying to accomplish.
After the meeting I went directly to meet with the president.
We took our coffee and sat in the boardroom to go over the details which I had learned talking to Larry.
In the end she asked me what the major benefits of an automated purchasing system are, Mir.
I said the major benefits could very well be summarized as:
- Increase Efficiency;
- Reduced Errors;
- Improved Compliance; and
- Real-time Spending Visibility.
She said perhaps it’s worth our while to help them get connected with the right casinos to work with, what do you think, Mir.
I said, I totally agree with you.
She thanked me for my time, and I left her office.
