This past Monday, all of our branches were closed for a federal holiday but we were still hard at work. It was Connections and Directions, our yearly all staff conference where we talk about new developments and have a bit of fun.

After an exciting entrance with the U of M marching band, the “pep fest” at “Sunrise High” was underway. This meeting gives us an opportunity to hear the state of the company from the various departments while also getting on the same page about the next years' plans.

While a lot of the business side is what makes many people groan when they hear the words “all staff conference” we try to break that with a lot of fun to make our conference easier to attend. We gave everyone a chance to step back into high school with lots of spirit activities, voting for superlatives, and like we mentioned earlier, a marching band.

With our company spaced out among the different branches, we don’t get a lot of chances to interact as an entire team. Every year we get a chance to vote for the employee of the year in what’s called the “Sunnys.” After people nominate their coworkers the top five finalists are chosen, videos are made featuring the finalists. Everyone gets to vote and we hold an awards program at the conference.