Anynymous said:
Let's talk about Family Days. Seemed very successful to me. +15K in attendance - don't have the history, but I have heard it was a record. Are LLNL employees proud of what they are doing again? Looked like everyone pulled out all the stops for this one - well with the exception of O&B. There seemed to be lots of O&B folks doing all the hard work, but there wasn't much in the way of demo's - even the heart of O&B (B511) was closed!! The rest of the Lab deserves a big round of applause!!!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
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I don't know anyone who participated in our area. It looked like a big celebration for NIF, but the rest of the lab just yawned and went on- business as usual...
I contributed to at least five Family Days during my career at the Lab. After preparing our exhibits and cleaning up, I'd walk around the Lab (the bikes had been pulled in for maintenance) Friday afternoon and view displays to catchup on what other areas were up to. Computation (Bubbles! Excuse me, the Cray-II), Material Fab, Inertial Confinement Fusion, Magnetic Fusion, ME, EE, The Models (Fat Man, etc.), Environmental Restoration, Security... Then I'd draw up a plan to take three sets of guests (AM/PM, Sat/Sun, Group 1: South Main Gate to East Gate -- Group 2: East Gate to South Main Gate, plus do a stint as a volunteer) to showcase the best the Lab had to offer. I was a sick puppy, wasn't I? I had enthusiasm.
Unfortunately as a retiree, LLNS neither notified me nor invited me to see what the next generation had to offer at Family Days '09.
From my perspective, the Lab has unfortunately lost its soul.
The numbers of attendees at the family days, the pride that I heard from employees and visitors alike, the hushed whispers heard in the Teller Conference Room of the hundreds of visitors passing through it, etc., etc., are severe counterpoint to much of what is expressed by a few here. Could 15K smiling attendees at a well done open house actually be the wake depicted here? Pride is alive and well at LLNL, regardless of the doomsayers.
I don't know any who even cared..
I guess the general premise of this blog is negative and so we should expect that most of the comments would be negative. Family Days was a genuine success. You can't deny the number of people that showed up, including the large number of LLNS employees that had to bring in the visitors - random people just couldn't stop by for a visit. While NIF was the "crown jewel" there were at least a dozen other facilities that were open. You can't deny the lines of people - these weren't actors - these were real LLNS employees and their families and friends. I don't know how someone can say "the lab just yawned" or "I don't know anyone who even cared". They obviously didn't attend.
I enjoyed it and so did my family.
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