Atlanta is one of my favorite cities to visit so when I was invited to attend an Army Family Action Plan (AFAP) conference there this past week, I jumped at the chance. Not only is AFAP one of my favorite programs of the Army, but the location of the conference was ideal for me.
AFAP is an Army program which gives a voice to both Army Soldiers as well their family members. The issues are collected at each installation and are pushed up to the top leaders of the Army. The conference I attended this week was the mid-level AFAP conference. It’s a very professional and team-oriented way to decide on what issues should be prioritzed. The origins of AFAP dates back to 1983 when it was started by Army Spouses. We were in meetings all day (8-4:30) but they allowed us free time during the evenings which was perfect for me since my friend, Dave generously picked me up every night and off we went to dine and shop.
During the conference, I met intelligent and passionate representatives from all across the U.S. Our group of 13 had a variety of ranks from a Private to a Major as well as a couple of spouses. One of my favorite people at the conference was a mom of a Private out of Ft. Hood. I met her about 10 minutes after checking in and asked if she wanted to join me for a late lunch. We hit it off famously and ended up spending a lot of off time together. She’s a real go-getter and shows that the Family Readiness Groups can certainly gain a lot of insight from the inclusion of extended family members. When her son was deployed to Iraq, she started “Operation Pillow” in which she sent 1,200 pillows for his entire Squadron! She was very inspiring and my hope is we’ll keep in touch.
At night, I went into town and enjoyed some of Atlanta’s delicious restaurants. Dave rightly suggested a gem of a restaurant called The Flying Bisquit ~ very yummy especially with their offering of a variety of vegetarian choices.
It looks like I got out of town just in time yesterday. My flight departed at 3:00 pm and later that evening a big storm blew through causing a lot of damage. The damaged area is where I spent most of my evenings. Talk about good timing!
Displaced Beachbums 
I’m back. 🙂 It did turn out to be great weather, although I was actually wishing for rain because Georgia is in an extreme drought right now. We had a blast. 🙂
Actually, I attended UGA from 94-96 (and one of the major reasons I applied to grad school there was because Andi said it was such a great school – remember Andi? 🙂 ). I went back a few years ago when one of my professors retired, and so this was probably my third time back since living there and working at Swissotel with you. We were gonna make time to visit Lenox mall and see our old stomping grounds, which aren’t even Swissotel anymore, but it didn’t happen.
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Erin ~
Is it your first time back in Atlanta since you moved away? If you’re going to have extra time, you could give Dave a call ~ he knows all the fun places to eat/shop.
HAVE FUN!
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I also have good timing (I hope), as the professional organization I’m in is having our national convention in Atlanta next week! The forecast looked like rain, but as long as there are no tornados, I think we will have so much fun! I can’t wait!! Sorry our trips didn’t happen at the same time…
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Marilyn ~ that REALLY bums me out! I would love to have met up even for a few minutes. From now on, I’m sending you my travel itinerary next time I fly, JUST IN CASE 😉
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I was at Hartsfiled on FRI!
Flew out at 3PM as well, DAMN!
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I was wondering if you made it out! I turned on the news when we got home. I hope you at least had some warm weather while you were down south.
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And to think I was worried you were buried to your eyeballs in a snow drift – tornado never crossed my mind! Glad you got out in time and it sounds like you had a great time in Hot-Lanta! 🙂
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Oh my goodness…I was cringing when I read your post title and hoping that you weren’t in Atlanta for the tornado. (130 mph winds hit downtown??? Crazy!) I’m glad to hear that you missed it. That city sure does have good shopping…my favorite was the Perimeter mall. (although the Lenox was good for window shopping…:)
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