John, as to your questions on business meetings.

We should have 2 large business meetings per year.  These meetings would include all of the business units under you.  The meetings should occur sometime during the 1st Qtr and 3rd Qtr ( March and July).  The meetings should be held in Houston at offsite location (Woodlands etc.).  That would allow those coming into Houston to plan other meetings in the Houston office if needed.  The first of these meetings would be to present each business unit plan, market strategy, target markets, product and service offerings and address any and all questions. The idea would be to discuss specific ideas and directions and not have a vague " we are going to work hard" type of agenda.  The primary objective would be to set, early in the year, the right track for success.  The 2nd meeting would be an update and re-setting of direction as necessary.  The agenda would be as follows

Day 1 - Wednesday morning.  Open for travel, individual meetings, golf, any other activity
	Wednesday afternoon. Business presentations
	Wednesday evening. Dinner and activity .  Buses to Dave and Busters, Night golf tournament, motivational business speaker, group bonding.

Day 2 -Thursday - business presentations throughout day with group activity as discussed above in evening (do not have afternoon activity, stay focused on business presentations).  Golf, etc will be before and after business agenda but not during.  

Day 3 - Friday - open for return travel, individual meetings, group activity.

Alternative: The second meeting could be held in a location other then Houston.  Perhaps one of the regional offices or a central location that could offer a unique group activity such as whitewater rafting, paint- ball, sailing, gambling, mountain climbing (even though you are not a bid for mountain climbing), Climbing Mt Hood in Portland could be a great thing for the group to do.

2.    Other then the meetings discussed above each region ( East, West, Canada, other) should have QBR's.  These do not need to be full day sessions.  Half days should be enough.



Just some random thoughts,

Frank