January21,2008, Chevy Chase, Md.

Routines and customs bring me great pleasure, as I mentioned before.  Thursday night we had Kennel Club.  The event occurs once a year, for those agents who made Top Dog ten times in the year.  It sounds as if we are all fools.  But really, this is the real deal and actually is the hardest ticket in town, to get to go to Kennel Club. So here is how you get invited.

When I was a new manager, in 1987, I wanted to do something to say thank you to the agents who were working very hard, so I started Top Dog Lunch.  I took out for lunch the agents who had three transactions that month.  We went to a new restaurant every month, and of course the group was different each month, but it was fun.  Kind of silly, but fun, and the agents appreciated the gesture.

A couple of years later, Eleanor Balaban, one of the agents on the E.&O.Committee (Efficiency and Organization Committee) suggested that there should be something for those agents who have made Top Dog lunch every month.  It is very difficult to do  as an agent every month.  We committee discussed the question and we decided to hold a dinner in January every year for those agents who had made Top Dog ten times in the year, for the agents only.  In addition I ordered gold dogs, so be given to the agents at what we called Kennel Club.

The first event was just like magic.  They were not aware of the dogs, the dinner was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown,  and the food and ambiance was wonderful.  It was a very special event the first year and it continues to do so now.  This was the seventeenth Kennel Club, and the agents love to be invited. This year we had 38 agents qualified for Kennel Club.  For me this is one of my very favorite events in the year.  It is so festive and joyful an event.

Now the real question to ask is...when does a custom or routine become a rut?.