Inspiring - The Inaugural Canadian Sidney Hillman Award

I had the honour of attending the inaugural Hillman Prize Canada presentation ceremony held at the Steam Whistle Brewery tonight. And I found it a very inspiring event, as well as timely.

The Sidney Hillman Foundation was established in 1950 in honour of Sidney Hillman (the founder and president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America). This American award has been handed out annually to recognize outstanding achievement from "journalists, writers and public figures whose work fosters social and economic justice". The list of previous winners is impressive; Woodward & Bernstein, Cronkite, Bill Moyers, far too many amazing journalists to list.

Thanks to the work of Alex Dagg (Canadian Director of Workers United) and Bruce Raynor (President of the Hillman Foundation) the first Canadian Hillman Prize was awarded tonight. The photo is of Mr. Raynor speaking to the approximately 100 invited guests. I only had my iPhone, so the quality is what it is.

The winner was Steve Buist from the Hamilton Spectator for his "Code Red" piece on the social fabric of the city of Hamilton and the impact of financial imbalance between neighbourhoods. Working with Neil Johnston they were able to map a number of health characteristics and illustrate them on an interactive map. One startling fact that was exposed: a 21 year difference in life expectancy from one end of the scale to the other. A generation lost, within a thriving city in a first world country.

There was also an Honourable Mention award given to the team of Tyler Walsh, Helen Fallding, and photographer Joe Bryksa from the Winnipeg Free Press for the newspaper and video pieces entitled "No Running Water". Their in-depth coverage of the effect of very limited running water in First Nation communities is both shocking and telling. It caught the attention of the judges who requested that an Honourable Mention be awarded.

I know I've talked about being a journalist (and I did cover events in the mid 70s for the Midland Times in addition to my cycle racing coverage) however my current thoughts of being a sports journalist covering bike races feels very small compared to the importance of the commentary presented by these talented individuals. I take it as inspiration, and look forward to seeing what I can do with it.

Thank you, Sidney Hillman.

Thirty Years

Thirty years ago today a guy by the name of Doug Clark put me on the payroll of IBM as an employee. I hear he will be at the party on Wednesday, I'll have to both thank him and tease him about that. That leaves the "plus four days" as my remaining time in Big Blue.

Thirty years is a long time, and it has me thinking about my father. He's been dead for over forty years however I remember when he had his thirtieth anniversary with Ernst Leitz Canada. In those days, a gold watch was the norm and I still have my father's. I will be taking it in to see if it can be restored, meanwhile here's a photo of it.

A final week, and then...

I spent the past couple of weeks winding things down, transferring "stuff" to people who might be interested in it and throwing out the bulk of it as it was only of interest to me (who needs a memo from 1982... don't ask why I kept stuff like that). It was quite a trip down memory lane and reminded me about a few of the things I accomplished and a few of the people I hadn't thought of in quite a while.

So now it's done, I really don't have much left to do at or for work. The meetings I have left are all social rather than business and the hardest task I have left is thinking up something to say as a farewell. I'm sure I'll need to say something on the 23rd (sounds like the party will be well attended). I am also looking for the words I want to use in a final e-mail. I've got a week to work out the kinks in that.

The other email I'm working on is the invitation to add me to various cycling websites and magazines as a photojournalist. That will go out this weekend, hopefully I'll start getting some interest. To date I have had 2 very interesting offers including one that will take me to the Tour de France in July... I very much hope that works out.

I have been asked if I've started using a different unit of measure for my remaining time and I suppose I haven't. It's still days and lunches. I have 5 more working days, 3 lunches planned and one open invite I will set up on that final day. What has changed in my planning. I have a trip to Asheville, North Carolina in mind to test out the camper and test out the legs riding in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Andrea is very excited by the prospect of getting in some early training, and the only challenge is which bikes to bring (trying to resist the urge to bring both road and mountain bikes). I expect it will be very easy to fill up my time, perhaps the unit of measure will be open days on my calendar?

I posted a question to a mailing list I belong to (for Vanagon owners) about good places to camp around Asheville and was thrilled with the response, good thing I have some time to go through all the info and pick where to camp. Curtis Creek and Davidson River camp grounds sound like good candidates (free camping always sounds good to me).

Re-branding

The road to this next chapter has been an educational experience... some aspects have been years in the making. One example of this thought is "Studio f/Stop", the name I picked to explore the world of photography for a second time. I've decided it was worth exploring. And that it's not worth keeping.

My original thought was simple... I know I will have a focus on bicycle races and yet I don't want to have a business name or website that limits me to that. A few people were very much a part of that discussion, it was good and useful and I have tried it for over 2 years. I wasn't confident enough to think my name could become a "brand" the way that Graham Watson is (and the select few who are active in this niche). I now think that name -- my name -- is an important part of what I'm trying to accomplish. people will like, dislike, admire, hate, and all the other possibilities. They will all be art critics, of my art... so I may as well put my name on it and get credit and criticism as it gets dished out.

nextchapter.kraikerphoto.com is part of this. And as of today (well, yesterday since I'm writing this very late) studiofstop.com now points to kraikerphoto.com. Later in the year I will drop the studio f/Stop domains entirely.

I am curious though... do people look around for other sites? I have a different thought when it comes to "kraiker" and so there is a kraiker.ca site that is very bare and yet very personal. And when I save on the charges for studiofstop.com should I use that to fund peterkraiker.com so it's not taken by someone else?

Where to draw the line...

Travel... not yet, "just" planning time

I am busy at work winding things up and down, transferring what I think is important to the people who will carry on the work I've been responsible for. I'm actually very busy with all of that, and I'm sure the next 13 days of work I have left will go by very quickly. I'm also getting a lot of lunch invites, which I'm sure will help that along!

Meanwhile, I'm working on my plans for next steps.
Step 1: get through to March 25th and complete all the tasks that need to be done.
Step 2: get a-hold of various people to see what business opportunities exist. I will start setting a schedule based on who is prepared to pay me to be "wherever". So far the best offers I have are in Europe,  perhaps Babe will get a European sibling...
Step 3: arrange to get Babe out of storage, I will want some time to drive and confirm everything is working right. So a couple of weeks of little trips while I wrap up things from IBM
Step 4: a trial run... a few days of travel, to make sure I've gotten all the kinks out. I'm sure there will be things I need to get, or want to adjust. I haven't tried packing for a trip like this since I took canoe camping seriously and that's been quite a few years.
Step 5: a multi-week trip, fit in around when I get steps 2-4 done. My target for this is May 1st. I've always had a soft spot for May Day since spending it in Oberquembach with family (Uli in particular). That's a story I should write... very very special to me.
Step 6: apply lessons learned, adjust the gear and packing as appropriate. Fix anything that isn't ready for an extended trip.
Step 7: see how step 2 is going, and get ready for something big. I imagine 3 months, perhaps longer. And that's where all thoughts of planning fall apart... I don't know yet what this step will actually be.

I have places all around Canada and the States in mind, if there's an opportunity or invitation. I do have invites to stop and visit along the way, there is something about the VW / Vanagon community that amazes me (yes, another blog entry for that on another day). Driveways to "camp" in, beers to celebrate with, suggestions on local hidden gems. I look forward to having the time to write what comes to mind and what is offered.

It will be interesting to see how this loose plan works out... I'm certainly excited at the prospect.

T - 22, the word is out

Rumours were spreading since I started telling a few people about my impending change and a couple of things were waiting for it to be "official".  Now those are set in motion.

The first being the invite email that my friends are waiting to send out. They had booked the party room at our favourite pub (Willie Stouts) the same day they heard and have been busy compiling mailing lists of people I've worked with over the years... there are a few!
The other is that I will need to get a big bin to put stuff in that I'm sure no-one else will be interested in. I have documents dating back to 1982 with names on them of people no longer with IBM and a fair number no longer with the living. I couldn't start on that without people asking so now that it's been announced I'm able to get started. I'm curious how much (or how little) will be of value to anyone but me. And I'm curious what few things I will keep as reminders.

For me, the joy of the job was the people I had the good fortune to work with. People like JDH, "Oggie" and Mark for example... all dead a number of years, all very influential in who I am now. And Denis, who is just too smart for his own good. Rick, Johns (JPC & RJC in particular), Jackie, Peters (SIS seems to have had a lot of Peter's over the years), Hec, JD, Crash,  and just too many to mention. Then there's the lunch gang who have played Hearts on and off for over a dozen years. And these are just the people directly involved in the little corner of that big multinational corporation; the early days of VM and messaging, TOOLS disks, through to the current collaboration suites has brought me in touch with folks like Chess, George G, Thorsten, Larry, Gregoire and many talented folks.

I'll leave off with that for now, just getting started thinking about people! I'll mull over this thread for a while... and look forward to seeing some of them at this party I've been invited to.

T -24, lots to do

March 1st, my last month of working for IBM has begun. It's a very liberating feeling.

And a little overwhelming.

I have lists of lists of things to do between now and the 25th and seem to be adding more to them at a rate that's faster than I complete them. Many of them are cleaning up, some are downsizing. And making travel plans... that's a list I'm enjoying.

Working on this blog enough to be satisfied it will work for me when I set off is one of the completed tasks though, I think it's ready for prime time. And I look forward to improving my writing skills, the technical documents I've written for work compared to the articles I wrote for VeloNews or PedalMag are worlds apart and I found it quite a challenge to bridge that gap last year. Another part of the adventure...