Official Member of the Academy...

So I've always wondered who makes up the academy for those award shows, and how does one become a member of that academy? Well the academy that I am talking about is not the one for TV, but rather the "Best of Bauer Academy". I recieved an email from corporate asking me to serve as a member of the Academy that will be choosing the recipients of all the Best of Bauer awards this year. For those of you who don't know, our company gives out annual awards to the top 20 stores, as well as individuals in the field and at corporate who have produced outstanding results for the year. They then send these peope on an exclusive 4 day trip to somewhere wonderful. Being how I have been employed with the company for almost 15yrs now (they didn't count my 18 month sebatical against my time) and being that I have been a former recipient of the "stine awards" as we called them in the old days and also a former Best of Bauer store manager, they felt I was qualified to help determine what it takes to win the awards and who should be chosen. It really is quite flattering to think that someone in Corporate still knows my name. So on Friday the 21st I get to sit in on a 4 hour conference call(ugh! I always hated those conference calls) to cover all the information and to begin reviewing the nominee information this far. The best thing about it...they are even going to pay me to do this!! Hmmm...I wonder if the recipients will give an acceptance speech and say "I'd like to thank the Academy" for this award? Unlikely...but I can always dream that I will be of such importance. Maybe I'll push for the Academy to be flown in to actually present the awards and thus being able to join in on the exclusive trip...yeah that sounds good. Okay maybe I'm overshooting my importance here a little bit. At any rate it is an honor to be a member of the Academy.