The Road Leads Home: Why "Local" Matters Most

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tonya J. Long (00:00):
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(00:30):
Hello everyone and welcome to aremote edition of RESET with
Tonya.
I am here at Half Moon Bay,very near Mavericks, where there
are tricky waves and we've hadtricky weather this weekend as
we have celebrated the end of aterm for the Airstream Club
International President, EricMcHenry.
Yay, it's been a big love festwhere everyone has celebrated
what Eric stands for.
Eric is a tech veteran turnedcommunity builder in an

(00:55):
environment that brings togetherso many different people who
have a love of travel, adventureexperiences, have a love of
travel, adventure experiencesand, in my four or five years
doing this, a ton of diversitywithin the cultures that are
represented.
You'll find tech retired CEOsand you'll find people who grew

(01:15):
up on farms.
Yeah, All coming together.
And I think that is what hasmade Eric remarkable in this
journey is that he has broughtto bear.
He brings together theresources and the people to do
things with the community andfor the community.
So I am thrilled to have EricMcHenry today on RESET with
Tonya from Halfling Bay.

(01:36):
It doesn't get much better.
It is gorgeous out here it is.

Eric McHenry (01:39):
It is.
I did a bike ride up on thebluffs earlier today and just to
be able to relax and sit on thebeach and read a book.
It was absolutely wonderful andto come back here with my
friends, right.

And I think there was a map at some point.
Yes, and you said earliertonight this isn't camping.
This is not actually camping,it's socializing it's community.

We're outdoors, we have that sort of the that call
it the wanderlust.
You want to move and we're like.
Next time I see you, I don'tknow where it'll be.
It won't be in Half Moon Bay.

No, I think it's going to be down near Los
Angeles.
It may be.

yeah, I remember the last time I saw you was
probably up in Lake Tahoe it wasprobably in.
Tahoe, that's the magic right.
You bump two weeks and it's.
Where else can I get this?

Yeah, yeah.
And this community, I say, isfamily.
A lot of people here are alittle older, they have a little
more flexibility with theirtime and their, and for the
people who have children, thosechildren have moved on into
their adult lives and so peopleare, I think, really tight in
the Airstream community becauseit's their new version of family
that they don't have to put upwith every day and wash laundry

(02:45):
for.
They get to show up atbeautiful places like Half Moon
Bay, yeah, sort of family.

It's your neighbors back in our parents'
generation where you knew yourneighbors.
You go two blocks away toBobby's house and Bobby's mom
cooks you dinner each day,overnight.
It's a little bit of neighbors.
It's a little bit of family, alittle bit of travel to
different places, experiencingtogether.

I love it.
I love it.
So you are just now retiredfrom this role.
Funny, what word do you?

use.
My term is over.

His term as international president is over.
Yeah, we are grieving that onour West Coast side of the
international region, if youwill.
But before your three years atthe helm of ACI, you had two
robust careers.

Yeah, at least I worked in a bike shop.
I used to race bikes when I wasa kid.
Then you had three robustcareers.

But you spent 25 years at Hewlett-Packard, left
Hewlett-Packard as a generalmanager of a division and I
think by then it was Agilent.

Yeah, vice president, general manager.
Yeah, we had a nice sizebusiness, half international,
domestic, love it, classic yeah.

So you were there 25 years and then you did 17 as
the head of, as the cio of thecity of santa rosa it's wine
country up here.
So what?
An hour and a half north of thebay area, that's correct.
That's home for you when you'renot out traveling because you
travel quite extensively.
So you had these two reallylong-term careers.
Yeah, this podcast is abouttransitions and RESET.

(04:22):
It's and it's trying tonormalize that we all transition
and change things and normallywhen we change, life gets better
and change shouldn't be fearedideally.
So what helped you understandfor both Hewlett Packard and
then for the city of Santa Rosa?
When did you start to feel andknow what gave you the signal

(04:43):
that it was time to move on?

It was a long time with Hewlett-Packard and I
started in Silicon Valley and wejoke about it.
We said when the gods stillwalk the earth Because Hewlett
and Packard would walk throughthe lab.
They woke up here we're bitchesand I was electrical engineer,
computer science background,soldering and doing firmware and
code and stuff and it felt likea family.
Back in the days of 80s it wasa family and you thought you

(05:14):
worked there for a and back inthose days Hewlett Packard we
owned Demarcus, in which weparticipated in A product
lifecycle would go for seven to10 years.

You were the Google of the day.

We were the Google of the day and it brought a
wonderful group of people fromaround the world to work with.
It's where I learned, by the way, that one of the funnest things
in life is to work with peoplethat are smarter than you.
Yeah, it builds into itprevents us from humor.
I remember that I think it wasPresident Barack Obama, a long
time ago said that he realizedwhen he became president that on

(05:44):
any given topic, there wassomeone else in the room that
knew more about that topic thanhe did.
And the goal is how do you getthat input and that feedback
into you?
And so we did really well atHewlett Packard.
I loved it there.
I did well professionally withfriends, but there came a time
where it felt like I needed todo something more connected to
my community.
My wife would always somewhatjoke that I knew my home, I knew

(06:06):
SFO and I knew Hewlett PackardI used to worry my kids would go
to school.
I felt like something wasmissing in my life.
While the products we developedit might be a stretch to say
they changed people's lives, butthey were phenomenal products
they didn't really have anyimpact on the people around whom
I lived in the community and Ithought I love to do something,

(06:28):
that it matters where I live.
And, I, think, Tonya that'ssomething that people come to
often in their careers atcertain ages.
I think, Like I know, that Inever would have come to that
conclusion when I was 20.
And even when I was 30 andclimbing the corporate ladder.

I think you're chasing different things in your
20s and 30s and then you chasesomething different when you're
in your 40s.
You do and if you're lucky, youunderstand when it's time to
change.

Yeah, and you change to something, transition
to something that's sort of thenext wave in your life.
I remember friends of mine thatwere male that in that
timeframe they had reached acertain level of professional
objectives.
They were the general manager,they were the vice president and
it's okay.
Now what I got here all my life.

(07:13):
It's not fully and rewarding tome anymore.
So now what?
And I was really fortunate tobe kayaking up in the Sierras a
really good friend of mine andhe said, eric, what are you
going to do with the rest ofyour life?
And I was probably in my 50sthen.

Okay, what are you going to do with the rest of
your life?
Well done kayaking.
How much safe is that?
He's a neighbor?
Yeah, A little wine probablyalso.

And when you're in a boat, in a small boat, and
he's in a small boat, the worldbecomes very small and focused
and the water's calm.
I have a lovely kayak.
He's a real crew at MIT and Ijust love being on a fast boat
in a nice calm lake and theserenity.
And I said I don't know.
And he says, what about workingfor a public sector?
I was like no, I can't imagineworking for the government.

(07:58):
And he talked to me some moreand I trusted him and he, of
course, the city.
At the time one of the hurdlesthey had was building out
technology infrastructure forprocess improvement internally
operational efficiency, but also, more importantly, for
citizen-facing technology.
You didn't have any of thisstuff back then right, you were
going to talk to the citycouncil.
You called up someone and opengovernment didn't exist.

(08:21):
You have the opportunity, thebackground, the skills to help
out locally.
And there happens to be someopenings coming up that end, so
that blah, blah, blah happenedand it was one of the best
decisions.

So that's what took you into the CIO role.
That's right At Santa Rosa,that's right.
How amazing.
And I'm guessing this is around2005 or so.
It must have been around 2005.

Yeah about.
I left in about 2024, 2023.

Which would have been an amazing time in local
government.

It was an amazing time.

Because then they were starting to actually fund,
to do things, to catch up withwhat people, with what their
consumers expected.
They knew it by then.

Because at some point, if you're too early
moving into a new, a largerorganization, they don't view
that as mission critical.
They view that as willing tofund.
Yeah, and it can be reallyfrustrating and I was fortunate
to work with a wonderful citymanager and chief financial
officer at the time and let medo what I do well.

So you felt the calling for meaning yes, yeah,
yes, yeah, I loved it, yeah, andthat never stopped.
No, never stopped never stopped.

No.

Never stopped, Never stopped.
So it occurs to me as I workthrough these dates with you.
I think I saw an articlesomewhere your Airstream journey
started around 2010.

Yes, this will be 15 years in the club because we
get our third star.
I don't know this, but in ourAirstream club I laugh.
It's kind of like Boy Scouts insome ways.
What's up with Scouts?
But it's about rewarding peoplefor accomplishments.
And so every five years amember has been in the club, we
get an extra little star we canchoose and put up on the train.
I haven't earned a star yet oh,he'll be soon.

I peeped, he'll be soon.
I didn't know about this.

And I used to joke , but one time I ran into a
gentleman and he probably hadare 12 stars on his trip, oh my.
I would write up to him to talkto him.
You would have too, Okay,Because you know someone that
has been around the travel thathe must have done the stories
they've been part of.
Almost nicest man, nicest man,and we talked for hours.

(10:16):
So anyway, so about 15 years inthe club.

So what was it like in 2010,?
Walking into your firstgathering rally, you and Laverne
and you, I think you maybe hadoutdoor things that you were
doing as a family, yeah, but youI think that's how Laverne
quoted as saying you graduatedup to an adult trailer.
Is that what she called?
Because people who drive whotow Airstreams are fanatical

(10:39):
about the brand.

Yeah, they are.

But she said that you needed to graduate up to an
adult trailer.

Like a lot of people, we started off car
camping, backpacking, kayakcamping, Still had a family at
home, a family we had, a tenttrailer we loved at.
We were camping a lot, butLaverne grew up in Hawaii.

Yeah.

So her version of camping is going out two blocks
from the beach and putting out abike, Having a tight mind.
And Seattle was.
You go up in the Cascades andyou dig a trench around your
tent and try to stay dry.

Yes, with your wool clothing.

Yes, yes, love it, and so we started in the club.
But kind of the club was a verydifferent place back then.
You know my wife, she's halfJapanese and Portuguese.

Looks Hawaiian.
Yeah, you're just talking aboutphysical attributes.

I'm obviously African-American.

So, laverne, we'll say looks like a Hawaiian
woman, I'm obviouslyAfrican-American and you're an
African-American man.

The demographic of people in our club is not that
it's mainly Caucasian, it'swhite, it's mainly older, and we
came in a time where we didn'tsee ourselves in the club.
The world was in a differenttime, yeah, but more importantly
, we didn't see ourselves.
We didn't see anyone around.
That sort of reminded us of ourfriends.

And it made us concerned, if you join a club.

You're doing it to join a group probably.

Yes, and you're going to invest time in that
group and you want to becomfortable.

And I learned from that that my misconceptions
were huge, because it's just awonderful group of people, but
it didn't look like a group thatwe'd ever been part of.
Fortunately, when we werepurchasing our trailer, a
gentleman came up.
Apparently he was Chinese.
He says oh, I'm in the AyrshamClub and he told us all about it
.
He's like a nice guy.
He lives in the Bay Area.
He said it's a great place.

(12:19):
Great people Come to an event.
And we came to an event andafter that we just were all in.

So here you are, a person that looks different
from the average demographic,correct.
You look different in yourappearance, in your marriage,
all these things, yeah.
And then you began leading.
It isn't just attend.
You got so involved that youwere assuming pretty soon in

(12:47):
club leadership.
What was it like to lead anorganization where everyone was
had a very different life thanyours or had at least different
experiences in their history?

So I had a benefit because for most of my
professional life I have been asenior manager, so I have been
in those positions and Lavernein those with me, as being a
senior person over a largeorganization.
Another person of color.
Often we look younger than weare.

So we're a little more accustomed to that.
Yeah, you've been the only yeah, so much so that it's your own
person.
For me, I've been the only fora lot of my career and it was
just my standard.
If I came into the room andthere was another woman in the
room, I didn't know my place,because my place was very well

(13:35):
carved out as the only woman inthe room for a long time.

I think our community, our United States,
California, ready for our club,was ready for it at that time.
Yes, yeah, we didn't know itfor sure, but one of the markers
of that was when Laverne and Iso the first major role you have
was third vice president in theinternational club, and second
and first we were brought in asthird vice president.
It was at a big event.

(14:00):
We had a standing ovation.
No one else did, and I.

So it was embraced and I choose the Blue
Mountains, because the club saysfinally Saw it as a moment this
is another sign that our clubis opening up.

We're more inclusive To have an
African-American man, and beforeme was the first openly gay
person to lead our club Beforeyou yeah, the president before
me Before that was the firstfemale to lead our club Before
you, yeah the president beforeme Before that, it was the first
female to ever lead our club in70 years.
Okay, and so our club, I think,started to see that we are
inclusive.
We're moving to a place where Ithink a lot of people want to

(14:36):
be, where race doesn't matter.
It's your character it's yourcapacity to lead your judgment
right, and so that was reallyhelpful for us to see that, and
I think that to see that in ourfirst major introduction to the
club was incredibly powerful.
Yeah, Because as you go aroundthe country, you meet people and
they are people.

(14:57):
Some are reserved, some areopen, distrustful, Some are oh
my gosh, you guys are.
The word woke wasn't used backthen but, you're a bunch of woke
Western coast people.
That's how they perceive us,because they don't know any
better.
So it was really nice to seethat warm and welcoming
introduction to the club you arecompletely authentic yes, with
everything that you are, andyou're a role model.

It's a lot to carry, I know, because you are.
I've never seen you asrecruiting for people who are
married to Hawaiian lookingwomen, but I think you know that
just when you show up, thepeople go.
Oh, it's not what I expected.

That's right, it's an opportunity.
We hear that all the time andit's usually from the people
that have been disenfranchisedas a minority or racial or
sexual preference or genderracial or sexual preference or
gender and they would come to us, often privately, and say I was
so glad to see you guys there,because it made me feel like,
because I'm xxx, I could do ittoo yeah, it was okay for me to

(15:55):
be different, but the otherthing that we did, I'm very
proud of when laverne wasinstrumental in helping this go
through.
Also is that our club has abunch of we call them intra
clubs, and that's if you're in aham radio or amateur radio.

What is it?
Grains and Grapes and grains.
Grapes and grains.

So back in those days when we first came into
leadership, probably five yearsago, we didn't have that many,
and Laverne and I personallyhelped start and promote single
women towers, women that towedby themselves, lgbtq plus club,
because that's really important.
And when people see that, theysee that it's been approved by

(16:30):
the International Board ofTrustees, then it's all talk
about it.
I'm not one to be shy on this.
I talk about the fact that weare inclusive, our club, and
here's some examples of it, andI think it's important to talk
the walk, not just walk the talk.
What also helped Tonya, was thatAirstream Inc would make our
lovely trailer.
When they look at their clients, the people buying their

(16:52):
trailers or their motorhomes,it's a very diverse set of
people.
They may not be in our club,but they're younger, they're
more diverse, and Airstream ismaking some rigs that are lower
cost entry level.
Their point and they told methis, their CEO and their
marketing director is that, look, this is our demographics.
If we partner with you, we wantyou to be welcoming to those

(17:15):
parts, if you're not the peoplefor us to recommend to.
So Synergy helped a lot that itwas reinforced not just by some
of the other people in our club, but also by our key, the
manufacturer.

I think that's a retention play.
It is, and there's nothingwrong with that it's.
They were progressive enough tosee if this demographic in
purchases was broadening anddiversifying.
Yes, the club had to mirrorthose values.

Yes.

Because people not me, but other people their
streams tend to graduate.
They'll start out with a16-footer and then they go to a
20, and then they have kids andthey might pop to a 30.
But people graduate in theirAirstreams in terms of size and
accommodating families.

Well it's also the brand stickiness too.
I was at the Airstream everyyear puts on a meeting for their
dealer network, which thegeneral managers are owners or
other dealers.
So we got invited to go for thefirst time three years ago and
I helped present to the generalmanagers.
But one of the key messagesthat Airstream, their CEO and
their chief marketing officersaid in their sales VP sales was

(18:15):
that we want brand stickinessand the number one thing that
we've identified that keepspeople buying Airstream over and
over again is there's somethingthat they lose if they don't
buy it Right.

Say that a different way.

Okay, the number one thing is that love the
trailers, but they understandthat if they go to some other
brand, they will lose thiscommunity they've built up 100%.
And so-.

That would probably give up my home before
I would give up my Airstream,because this represents to me my
extended family.

Your extended family and you give that up if
you leave the brand.
That's right and it's not acynical way of looking at things
.
It's what people want and theyrealize the thing that can help
them with that brand stickinessclub.
That provides value to theircustomers and we are in a
position to do that.

I love it to their customers, and we are in a
position to do that.
I love it.
There are very few brands, as Ican think of it, that have
accomplished the creation ofsuch a tight community.
I bought an Airstream becauseit seemed like thing I wanted to
buy.
I didn't know there was acommunity Most people don't and
then, but now that I do, there'sjust no way I would ever have

(19:24):
any other nature experienceother than this one.
That's right, right, that'sright.

And if you look at the Airstream ads, some of them
I call aspiration land Right.

Yeah, they are the ideal life.

You're with your friends or your family.

Yeah, and you're just in a creek or lake right.

Some of you are with a bunch of people gathering
around and going on a tour ofNew Orleans or camping in some
place up in Yellowstone togetheras a group.
So it's all those things, and Ithink that people want choices
Like I and the word and I welove to go up into Bureau Land
Management, blm Land, be aloneor go to Death Valley and hang
out there.
There's the two of us.

That means not an organized experience, not a
campground, not plug-in powersewer cable.
That means like you're just onthe land.

Yeah, one of our favorite items we were in
arkansas for the solar eclipseabout a year ago and we were in
some dude's hayfield in themiddle of nowhere and there's
about 40 air streams in a circle, just off-grid, camping for
about five or six nights and oneof those was the eclipse and it
was just such a magical thing.

Yeah, and memories, yeah, memories.
I don't know of many placeswhere you can expect that you're
going to have experiences thatyou're still talking about two
years later, that you countthose as like milestones in life
.

And we remember the people that were there,
absolutely yeah.

Yeah, absolutely Like when you pulled into this
rally and there were 35 or sotrailers here to celebrate the
end of your term.
Yeah, friends and family level,people all cheering.
There was a drone in the sky.
The only thing we didn't havewas like a drone laser show
Spelling out Eric McKinnon guy.

I bought it as repatriation.

So so in my career at Hewlett Packard I did
a foreign service employeeassignment two years abroad.
Where'd you go?
I didn't notice.

That doesn't count , can you tell a Canadian that.
I would not under the currentclimate, that would not be my
intention it was abroad, it wasabroad Okay, and it worked out
well for us.
But the problem is, when you dothat, you step out of your
local management chain and thehierarchy, and so when you come
back to the States, there's aprocess called repatriation.

(21:40):
How do you fit you back intowhere you came from?
And that's what this was aboutfor me.
Maybe not for y'all, but for meit was like we've been gone.
We've been on the road for sixto seven months out of the year
for the last three years, and alot of people here at this local
club were used to be our localfamily.
We didn't even know.
We've seen them once or twice.
It's how do you, how do we fitback in?

(22:01):
Yep, and this was a wonderfulsort of an open arms.

Welcome home.

We're still here.
There's new people here also.
We look forward to rejoiningour local family.

I love it.
So that's what it was for me.
I love it.
I'm not quite done talkingabout your leadership, though.
Let's go and it's the RESETthat we have and that we explore
in life, and you transitionedfrom tech Dramatic improvements,
still tech but what you weredoing really was changing

(22:32):
people's lives in terms of howthey were serviced by a very
important community here, andthen you began to manage a
largely volunteer community.
Yes, right, and manage is not.
That, didn't feel right.

Airstream club.

Airstream club, yeah, club, yeah.
So what skills do you think, orexperiences from your more work
experience translated as you,because you talked beautifully
about the kayak moment where youunderstood that doing something
for local government using theskills you had would be
meaningful?
You were looking for meaning.

(23:08):
Yes, you pulled technicalskills into meaning.
So when you transitioned intothe Airstream role, what were
you pulling forward into that?

I'd say, ironically, the part that most
was my public sector.
It turns out background.
Because if they're working fora city, let's say there's
200,000 employees, employees,and they don't really know who
the mayor is.
They don't care who the mayoris, they're sitting out
somewhere.
All they care about is thelight to go on, their utility
bills are reasonable, theirstreets are clean and there's no

(23:41):
high rise bill next to them.
I'm simplifying a lot.
They're disengaged.
They view public government asto be in the background to make
their life as a citizen work.
Well, if you think about theAirstream Club, people join us
because they want to just havefun.
They want to go to events, rigtime, that's all they care about
, by and large.
I think that our job as leadersof an organization is to

(24:03):
understand that these aresomewhat disconnected people
from a leadership.
They just want to have fun.
We call it the camping club.
So that awareness was reallyimportant to me, and I say that
because I've worked with somepeople in leadership in our club
that thought that they wouldhave a level of importance to
other people.
Now, these people that are inour club, they have a wide

(24:28):
background, a lot of verysuccessful in their own means.
They view you as someone tohelp them out.
They're thankful you're helping, but you're just helping out
and so there isn't this sense,I'd say, of entitlement from a
leader.
You shouldn't be there becausewe're serving them, we're
serving our members.

When it's going well, and that's what public
service is serving yourcommunity Yep and so I pulled
more sector.

Typically in high tech we move fast, we're nimble,
we hopefully, if we do our job,we anticipate the needs of our
customer.
We understand that customershave choices where to go.
In the public sector you havemore of an audience that
probably isn't going to movebecause the water bill is up too
high.
So you have to think about lifea little bit differently with
them.
It's a bit more of a long-termplay too, and so that kind of
that nuance.
And the other thing that wefound in the what I found coming
into the Airstream Club from aleadership standpoint is that we

(25:17):
may hear from a couple ofpeople that are very upset about
a certain issue.
We have 18,000 members and ifyou have never had feedback from
a few people before, you thinkthat the two people may reflect
the majority of the population.
That almost is never the case,and in public sector you realize
that because you have citycouncil meeting you have people

(25:38):
come down tensioned, and so it'sjust to balance the fact that
I'm hearing from these fewpeople and while their input is
important, it may not be thequiet majority.
So how do you manage and governand come up with policies and
programs that hit the majorityof your members, who are quiet
and they will vote with theirfeet, because if they don't like
what they see for themembership dollars, they're

(26:00):
going to call you up and they'regoing to leave.
Yeah, so that wholeunderstanding of that has been
very helpful to me, I think.

I love it.
I'll go back to your storyabout the gentleman who had five
or ten stars, yeah.
So with what you've done,you've done a complete rebrand.
Yes, on ACI, you've redesignednot just the website but how it
serves people, and that's yourtechnical leanings that helped
you do some of those things.

(26:27):
But you had to really balancetradition with innovation.
That's right, okay, andsometimes it's not about what
you deliver, but it's about whatyou change.
Yes, this magazine has been ahot point of contention.
At times, I think you guys wentto fewer this is a silly story,
but you went to fewer episodes,sorry, fewer printed versions.

(26:51):
And, oh people, I was at one ofmy first rallies and people
were up in arms that theyweren't getting a monthly
beautiful publication, that itwas online, digitally, yes, and
so that's my example of it.
It does matter when you pullthese communities forward.
How did you go aboutunderstanding how to move a
community into better efficiency?

(27:14):
Because it is a big businesswith 18,000 people, but it also
there's ways that we serve.
You and I are tech forward, yes, but we know we serve people
better if we can just get themto give an inch.

So that they'll?
I shouldn't say it's an easyanswer, but it is, in my mind at
least.
Again, Hewlett Packard right.
He started the idea ofmanagement by walking around in
BWA that was a key thing inSilicon Valley Started, became
very aware with Hewlett Packard,They'd walk around to your
office as managers.
You walk around.
And so, Laverne and I, we spentthree years, seven months out

(27:46):
of the year, going around thecountry sitting in discussions
like this, campfires, talking topeople, and we started to build
this appreciation, but alsounderstanding, of what's really
important to them.

Yeah.

And you could tell really quickly that most of the
people they already got most oftheir publications digitally,
most of them, and if you thinkabout a magazine, it wasn't as
much for information every month, it was almost.
I think Laverne coined it acoffee table book.

So you thumb through it.

I usually have these out on my table outside
and you thumb through it and youlook at it, but it isn't where
you get your primary sourceanymore.
And once we realized that, wesaid look, let's take the old
Blue Braid magazine, make it alot prettier, a lot more
aesthetically interesting, andassume that people will see this
every three months or so, andthen we'll build up also a

(28:38):
really strong marketing.
So we brought on, first timeever, a marketing person into
headquarters office.
We brought on a consultant tohelp us with our marketing
collateral.
We built up our social mediastuff, we worked with some
automation in our social mediaMailChimp type deliveries, and
so now you have this.
But this is just a referencebook.
I like looking at it nowadaysbut again, if I want to find

(29:02):
anything that's going on, we puton 800 events a year, our club
website and we have an app.
Everyone has it.

And you can get to what you need.
With that kind of scale, it nolonger made sense to have this
book or yeah.

So people would sometimes say, oh, if you're
young.
I said, look, there's a lady Iwon't share her name.
She's one of our members thatwe met in the Midwest and she
wrote me a really nice letterand we were driving near her
town and we said, oh, let'sPopeye visit.
She must have been 90.
And I asked her about this.
She goes get all my stuffonline 90.

I'm on Facebook, I don't look online I love it.

I love the Blue Beret.
I've been to the club for 30years.
No, I get all my stuff online,and so I would tell people that
story.
You know something, you can doit, because you think that
someone in their 70s or 60s saysdon't assume anymore, what
other bills do they do in paper?
No one writes checks anymore.
Let's get rid of checks, let'sdo everything online.

(29:58):
And so if you tell people thosestories enough and enough, you
still get the people pushingback.
But this is a small subset andyou know that you have to move
forward and be where yourcustomers are.
You become antiquated.
So that helped a lot and Ithink it's also.
I call it leadership courage.
Also, at some point I have tosay I think this is the right

(30:20):
thing.
I think this is what we want weshould do.
You don't get it right all thetime, but that's okay too.

I like to think you're absolutely right.
You don't get it right all thetime, but as leaders and as
servant leaders, we don't have achoice but to always be trying
to make it better.
Yes, and so sometimes that doescause wrinkles in the system
that people grow and learn from.
Yes, and I would say that therehave been a lot of things that

(30:50):
have happened just in my fiveyears with the club that
represent that growth, representthat it's a little bit of churn
, it's a little bit of questionIntroducing lotteries for
rallies, things that are reallycontentious.
Do I get to go to Albuquerqueor not?
There's just different wayswe've chosen to handle things as
we scale, but you have to keepiterating on it to find what the

(31:13):
rhythm is that works for themost people.

So we have a 21 person board, okay.

An Airstream club .

It's 12 regional, if you will, and then nine at
large executive council.
And so the re-presidents, theirresponsibilities, understand
their constituents.
They understand sort ofCalifornia, nevada, texas and
Oklahoma, blah, blah, blah,florida, they understand, and
there are regional differences.

Yeah, oh, there are Absolutely.

Their job is to understand that.
The Executive Council's job isto look holistically across the
whole and say, okay, what aresome partners or initiatives?
Let's get some feedback fromthe regional presidents, let's
fight them a bit and then weroll it out together so we do
have that localizedresponsibility.

Risa Goluboff Responsibility.

And they're very vocal on the board, and that's
something else I'm really proudthat we did is that it used to
be that board wasn't very activeand now they're very active.
Sometimes it gave me more grayhair than I wanted.
Risa Goluboff I understand that, but that's the reality of
working with a board that isinvolved.

But it brought that representation into the
board you have to have, and thisis to me like the listening
tour that you did.
Yes, when you first started,and whether you knew it was a
listening tour or not, it wasyour ethos, it was how you move
over and operate.

That's right.

And from that you learned and had insights and
then had leverage and influenceEventually.
I don't know that was yourdesign.
I have never felt like youwanted to let grow up and be ACI
president.

That was not just evolved through it's successful
in any job that you do, and todo that you have to have those,
that collaboration, you have tohave the trusted people people
that can call you up and sayEric, this is a stupid mistake
and you have to have sort of theconfidence of the members.
I met this guy.
I met his wife.
He's like a great guy.
I think he's on to some goodideas I'm not sure everything,

(33:02):
but I'll give him.
I'll give him a try.

So what has been your biggest challenge in
bringing together, because Iwould characterize the 18,000
group as being diverse but alsovery passionate about what they
hold on to.
So what was the biggestchallenge in working with those
dyed in the wool must-dos, asyou, naturally, are a

(33:26):
changemaker?

So one of the comments that and I'll tell you
a little story about this one.
So we started this thing,laverne and I did.
With the comments that, I'lltell you a little story about
this one.
So we started this thing,laverne and I did with the
corporate manager, lori, when Ifirst started three years ago
and we called them campfirechats.
A lot of companies would dothis.
They do quarterly or whatevermeetings all the employee
meetings.

Now three years ago, this was in the middle of
COVID.
Right yeah, okay, right yeah orinternationally, right?

Yeah, so we started these quarterly campfire
chats and it was a way where Igot on for an hour, once for the
East Coast, one for the WestCoast timing to say, hey, no
real agenda.
Ask anything you want, I'llanswer any question, give us
your feedback.
And that was hugely importantbecause what it signaled was
that approachable, wanting tolisten.
In one of those I got thequestion why do you talk so much

(34:13):
about the growth of the club?

Oh, that's a very telling question.

It is.
Yes, keep going and I said theopposite of growth is stagnation
and we don't want that.
A lot of other social clubsaround the world, be they
Kiwanis or Scouts or the bowlingleagues or whatever they have
gone down.
And I said so if we don't grow,we will have an aging
membership and at some pointwe're going to go away.

(34:40):
But we have to pay attentionnot just to the needs of our
legacy members that have been infor 10 or 12 years but also the
zero to three years and thatwas, at most, the biggest
challenge in our club.
Also the zero to three years andthat was the biggest challenge
in our club Because, rightly, ifyou've been in the club and
it's your family for five years,ten years, you may not want to
change some things and whyshould the new people cater to

(35:03):
them?
And I'm serious, these arereally, yeah, understood.
These are sort of family,neighborhood types, this was my
biggest challenge.

How much do you push?
How much change on?
Then they're working becauseit's working for them.
Is it a?

metaphor or analogy where you're trying to
push a kid on a swing and youcan only push at a certain rate
to make them go higher.
If you try to push too fast,it's like damn, if you push hard
enough, the kid doesn't goanywhere.

You did that with your kids?
Huh, I have not seen that.

No, no, yeah, got to push it, but from an
organizational standpoint,there's a sweet spot of knowing
pushing a little bit harder thanmaybe you think, but not too
hard, and scaling back sometimes, and that's a lesson that I
have a hard time with, because Ican be somewhat impatient also.

That's my biggest challenge as a leader.
But that's leadership.
Want everything moving fast.
Some organizations are notready to move fast, and the
other one organizational change.

They say, hey, the CEO at Agile at the time.
He told me that if you look atorganizational change, there's
one third, one third, one third.
Right, a third of the peopleare like yeah, let's go do that.
The third of the other end arelike no, but there's this third
in the middle that are I don'tknow, it might be okay.

Might be, Don't know how does.
What's the climate?
So those are the people youfocus on.

If you focus on the one-third like this, you're
not going to get anything done.
You want to focus on theone-third that's going to do it,
but really it's people in themiddle, because they're going to
get some really good questions.

They're already committed.
They're changed positively.
It's the people in the middleright.

Because they have really good questions and really
good concerns and if you canget them on board, then the
organization by and large willmove along, and so that's a part
of the thing we did.
Also, we started to do someinitiatives with clubs that we
knew were ready to try moreoff-grid camping or do some
special events that were highlycurated, perhaps more expensive,
in addition to the off-gridevents.

Oh, here's an example of how progressive and
that's not the right word but wejust did a cruise.
We're Airstreamers, we are RVtrailer people and I didn't go,
but it was did a cruise.
We're airstreamers, we are RVtrailer people and I didn't go,
but it was an Alaska cruise andpeople are talking about it here
.
Several people here went andhave spoken about because it's
community now right.
So trying out those experiments, if you will, led to people,

(37:06):
because Jason, I think, is theone who spearheaded the cruise,
and so people rise in theirinterest levels and begin to
lead with you to carry thingsforward that are of interest to
them, and that's what you wantin a club this size.

So how wonderful is it right to be able to work
in that space.
You can try innovations.

Yes, you're not backpedaling, or?

have a financial crisis or a personnel crisis,
and when those things happen youcan't really do anything.
But we're really fortunate.
I also focused on getting ourfinancials you know trans
finance director on board, thatnow we look at P&L cashflow
report.
All of that I would argue mostof our members don't care, but
we have a solid financialunderpinning now.
We have a good financialplanning.

(37:47):
Now we have infrastructureplanning, fundational and so,
because that's in place, you canstart to work on.
You've got some movement toplay around on a different thing
and that's where I think peoplereally want us to be yeah,
looking on services that helpthem get the value out of their
membership.

So yeah, anyway.
No, I love it.
No, I love it.
You're listening to Pirate CatRadio, kpcr 92.9 FM and
Translator K215GA 90.9 FM in LosGatos, kmrt 101.9 FM in Santa
Cruz and new family member, kv91.1 FM in Portland.

(38:31):
So what's beyond Airstream foryou?
Because this is just a chapter?
You may look 40.
Look at that camera.
You may look 40, but you're not, you're a bottom-line hero.

He left on, so I'm thinking that that's okay.
You do.

Personality and look.
Do you play basketball?

I do not.

Okay, then you're not quite Barack.

Obama, I'm not, so my interest right now is local.

Okay, it's still impact driven.

It's impact driven .
I am still the board presidentfor a local observatory John
Wilkes Observatory, robertFerguson Observatory because I
care a lot about STEM.
I care a lot about women inengineering, people of color
engineering, low to moderateincome, disenfranchised people
in engineering and sciences, andthere's something about getting
people out under the stars thathaven't done it before, and who

(39:22):
?
knows that spark that they getfrom.
Oh, wait a minute.
I don't understand why theNorth Star stays there because
there are spins and it doesn'tto the pole.
Blah, blah, blah I think oh, Iget it.
And they start to ask thesequestions.
And when kids are askingquestions celestial mechanics,
it's okay.
That's a great start.
And they get to have confidencein asking questions.
And so we bring also youngadults in to help out as

(39:45):
volunteers.
And there's one lady I won'tsay her name, but she when she
first came to the observatoryshe was so shy and she was in
her second year in high schoolshe was so shy she would stand
in the corner.
And now you watch her a yearlater and she's up on there
talking about the constellations, getting her laser pointer out,
talking about all this stuff.
She's studying in double starsand wow that is really cool.

We planted the seed.
We planted the seed.

So that I'm also really interested in wildfire
mitigation because we live inStonema County and we had a
tremendous number of horriblewildfires.
There's some groups now thatare working on trying to ensure
it doesn't happen again.
There's watershed protectionand preservation.
We have a lot of people wherewe live we're in Stonema County
and it's actually agriculture,and as some of these farms go

(40:31):
under or their kids don't wantto run it, there's a choice of
selling their land to adeveloper or enshrining it into
a public trust.
And just think of what if theGolden Gate had not been put in
a trust when the military leftbe fully developed Right now.
It's a nice mix of where it isright now, and so there are
these decisions that happenearly on around land use
protection and management thatif you don't do those, then it's

(40:53):
really hard to reverse, and sothis group I'm working with now
on their board, stone EcologyCenter, is all about that.

I'm going to ask you a I don't know.
It's a philosophical questionabout the future.
You and I both talk about AI alot.
I think that's how we met.
And that's how we met and all ofour gadgets, our watches and
our stuff.
But, as you said, that and I'mthinking about, I moved here
from Tennessee 12 years ago andTennessee is rural largely, but

(41:22):
I moved to California and thereare so many expanses of
beautiful land because peoplemade moves 50 years ago to
protect those spaces.
It's the West.
We made a lot of good decisionsthat allow ago to protect those
spaces.
It's the West.
We made a lot of good decisionsthat allow us to drive down 280
, for me, down 280 from San Joseto San Francisco and there's
just beautiful rolling hills forthe majority of it.

(41:43):
Yes, but that was in 2008.
Intentional design 50 years ago, investment commitment, working
to preserve and protect thosethings.
With AI, what do you think weneed to preserve and protect for
the future of yourgrandchildren?

Oh, my goodness.

I told you a hard question, but it's a hard
question.
I think that kind oflawyer-turned-thinking is
missing.
I think that kind of law ofreturn thinking is missing,
because we're all about, we'reall in such a hurry developing
with this new tech for speed andmore and more, and we are not
taking as much time as I thinkwe will be in as we settle into

(42:21):
this and looking at how toprotect the future with this
technology as an enabler.
So mind you, as I answer this.

I'm also very cognizant of the fact that when
I grew up, I used paper maps andnow I use Google Maps and GPS
satellites.
I don't feel I've lost anythinghuge.
I grew up using slide rules andnow I use calculators.
If I could, I just ask my phoneask to add to me Again.
That's something that.
So I know that change happensTotally fine with that.
So I know that change happenstotally fine with that.

(42:49):
What I'm really concerned about, though, is the interpersonal
communications, theinterpersonal experiences.
I think the pandemicexacerbated my concerns there,
because people got accustomed tobeing by themselves and a
little nervous about being withother people and losing a little
of work.
From home also, there's alittle bit of the, so I worry
about that.
I've worked from home alsousing a little bit of the, so I

(43:11):
worry about that, and I I'vebeen playing around with the
Chajigme 4.0 and interactingwith it as a person Sitting out
on the coast today and I figuredI got my AirPods in and I'll
just start chatting with andasking questions about.
Hey, I'm, I'm done with my term.
I'm feeling a little, I don'tknow, missing something, not
sure what.
What phenomenal conversationwith my AI in my head Not in my
head, my voice in my ears.
They're on the beach and Ithought I should be talking to a

(43:33):
real person about this.

Oh.

Yes, and I do, and I do, but two years ago I never
would have had that opportunityto have that discussion with,
quote unquote my AI.
Yeah, and so I worry where thatmight lead us, because it will
come to a point where I and mykids' kids feel more comfortable

(43:59):
Actually I would say feel lesscomfortable talking to people
than they do to their AI aboutsomething that's personal to
them.
I don't think they should talk.
We should talk to all of ourfriends about things that are
personal.

That said, I worry about that because it's so
easy and my AI notes me itdoesn't make anything.
I told it that's right and yourAI is on.
It's not the conversation.

It's not remember when I told you yeah, I remember
.

Make more AI, 24-7 available to you.

Yes.

It's available to you.
Laverne is still snuggled inand sleeping hard.
Yes, I think for those of uswho don't want to be a burden on
others, depth is hard to comeby these days.
I know, right, I know, and sothat's why I love coming to
these rallies, because I've gota handful of you I would
introvert.

I think you are too a little bit.
I love being by myself and Irealized that this helps me get
me out of myself.
It's nice.
I worry that even me I caneasily see myself directing a
lot more personal attention intoan AI conversation, because,
yeah, you know why, I don't knowwhere that's going.
But people are worried aboutagain a whole bunch of things

(45:12):
years ago.
Oh, people are driving cars.
Where's that going to go?
Oh, not driving stickshipsanymore.
Who drives a stickshifter?
I totally get that changehappens.
But this one feels a bitdifferent.
I'm talking about thisdisplacement or changing of jobs
.

Right, that's a whole different thing.
We could do two more podcastson that.

Yeah, I get all that Right so.

I am an optimist most of the time and I think
we've had some semblances ofsnippets of conversations.
I think people are going tocreate more community.

With AI.

The changes AI will shift in us.
Humans are seeking moreconnection, yes, more people are
hiding at home hiding behindthe Zoom?

What makes you think people are looking for
more connection?

Because I experience it and the groups of
Bay Area-based tech community.
People are not going into theoffice anymore and they're
creating things Like nextweekend I'm going to be at a
thing called the Decelerator 40unrelated people.
They're not used to that.
It would be a company retreatand you go bond as a team.

(46:22):
Now you've got peopleindependently finding each other
and saying let's invite moreand more.
And as communities grow, and ifyou look at the individuals,
they have nothing connectingthem except maybe a technical
interest thread and they'regetting together and they're
picking things out of the gardenand doing yoga in a barn.

(46:43):
There's more and more of thatbecause I think people are
seeking it out.
I think people I think thereare plenty of people that are
afraid to be out publiclybecause now they don't have to,
they don't have to go into theoffice five days a week, and so
they're like I can stay home inmy yoga pants, nobody will know
if I didn't have a shower.
It's a convenience, but moreand more people I see are

(47:04):
seeking.
A friend of mine wrote about onLinkedIn that he took an Uber
ride or a Lyft ride and the guydriving the Lyft was a software
engineer.
And this friend of mine, he's aVC and he said software
engineers in the Bay Area dopretty well financially.
Why is this guy picking uprides?
And so we asked the guy he saidwhat are you doing?
And he said what are you doingdriving a Lyft?

(47:27):
And the guy says I'm single, Ilive alone in my apartment, and
he said so I pick up shifts oneor two nights a week because I
just want to be around otherpeople.

I met a lady doing an airport shuttle that said
exactly the same thing a fewmonths ago.

He's choosing it.
He's not doing it really forinsom Because he says I like
talking to people interestingand I to plug technology.
These technologies like lyft,like ride sharing, to apps.
That's technology is enablingpeople he's not stuck at home
alone, since he's not in acoupled situation or whatever.

(48:05):
He has other opportunities.
Now that's not going andsitting at a bar, because some
people that are less introverted, or whatever.
He can choose these channelsthat have been enabled by
technology.

I agree, I just don't know where it's going, but
I'm optimistic.
I remember my mom used to tellme that when she was young there
was a big thing about getting aphone in the house, that it was
dangerous because people woulddo that.
Oh, I haven't heard this one,because once you have phones in
your house, you won't go talk toyour neighbors anymore.
What does that sound like?

Interesting, and it still is years ago.
Of course it's passed away now.

And of course, it changed some things, because
kids would go in the room withtheir phone, the long cable, and
they talk with their friendsinstead of going to their
friends' houses.
Sure, it changes things, so Iguess I am going to be
optimistic and curious.
Yeah, I do have to say, though,from a technology standpoint, as
you and your listeners know, itis really amazing from an
office productivity standpointAgain, on the bank I'm on and

(49:05):
the boards, we're starting touse it now in a way that allows
us to not really stay down tothe lower level of data
manipulation.

You can totally get insights.
You can see things so much morebroadly.

Totally, you can ask it about this.
We think about any odd thingsyou're seeing in this data set
or trend as long as the data isaccurate, and that's a separate
issue which we know about how tomanage.
It is amazing, it is.

Because we're out of the tactical straightening
up the data and we're intoreally assessing what the data
means.

I was talking to.
I don't want to say too muchabout Airstream, but I was
talking to an Airstream dealer acouple weeks ago and we were
talking about AI and I wassharing with him some of the
things that we've been doing inmy other areas.
Oh my gosh.
He says I really want to knowmore about my customers.
I said so what data sets do youhave?

(49:55):
He goes what data sets?
I said okay, what information?
Oh, I know when people come inand out of the dealership, so he
knows, so he has access to.
He says I was wondering, onrainy days versus sunny days, do
I have different amounts oftraffic flow or not?
And do people buy more likelyafter rainy days or not?
So guess what?

Fine.

Yeah, you didn't have any.
If there's a correlation, likesix, eight years of data, I said
yeah.
I said you may not in your headknow if it was raining or not,
guess what you can get that dataset, you're added pretty easily
, yeah, a comparison Do you seeany?

He goes, oh my gosh, and then tune his business
.

That's right, you would have hired a data analyst
in the past to do that.
And he goes yeah, I spent allmy time working on spreadsheets.
I said you don't have to do itthat way anymore.
And he left it inspired.
So I do think stuff like thatBecause he can serve better now.

(50:54):
Yeah, that's right, not justsell more Airstreams, but
actually he's thinking about howto move his business forward to
help more people live thislifestyle.
That's exactly right.
And again, he's a generalmanager, so he wants to be
working at this level, but he'sforced to now to work at these.
He's got four or five data setsfrom different programs.
He can't combine the data.
I said well, no, you cancombine it now you don't have to
do a data lake like you used toin the old day AI.
Here's five data sets, blah,blah, blah.
So I find that very interestingand I really hope that.
I'm not going to call itsimplistic operational

(51:15):
efficiency, but I hope thatpeople can use that.

It's not simplistic because we've not
done it before.

No, but in terms of what AI can do, it's really
far down the line.

Oh, and the technology's capacity to handle.
It is very simplistic, yeah,but I think that people courage
is the word that- comes to mind.
They're just not comfortableenough, yet they're not To step
into it, or inspired.

I gave him a very real example.
I can see that.

Yes.

And he knows now he can get started on it.
I should check with him laterto see if he did it.

But I know he got it.
Maybe you and I couldproductize it.

There you go.

I like it.
I wanted to like you know, stoptalking, stop talking, let's
mix it.
That wouldn't be fluent.

So for our observatory we did a little
analysis.
We use a ticketing software sowe know when people book ticket
to come to the event.
We have about 100 events a year.
We also know the sunrise andsunset times because we're
observatory.
In the wintertime, the sunset'sa lot earlier than it does in
the summertime.
And I'm curious is there acorrelation between the number
of people that come to ourevents when it starts at 10

(52:18):
o'clock or when it starts at 7o'clock?
The answer is there's nocorrelation.

Interesting it's not I wonder what patterns in
society drive that to not be achange.
I'm surprised by that.

But so this is what I love about this is that
I've told the board this and itstarts all these discussions.
I wonder what it is, is it?
Well, maybe it's just thetemperature out.
It could be, too, because it'swarmer in the summertime.
That's right, it's courtawareness, so it could be that,
or it could be kids are out ofschool and so tomorrow is no
work day, or is different ifyou're a kid.
A whole bunch of things.

(52:51):
We need to know that so we canpredict what our oversell amount
should be, because we typicallytry to limit it right, try to
predict how, so we don't.
So anyway, there's all thesethings that we can do that we
never really could talk aboutbefore.

We didn't have that ability it wasn't even
possible to have a reasonableconversation about it.
Now, what I love?
Because you and I are in a lotof conversations with people
worried that the humanity isleaking away with AI.
But this is to me, anotherexample of how AI gives us a
platform, through that data itdoes, to then have dialogue,
because before it wouldn't beworth having the conversation

(53:28):
because it wouldn't be based onanything that's.
Right.
Now we can like, spar with whatwe do know, yeah, and it leads
to more well-developedconversations that's right
because we have a starting point.
so I love it.
Good, I want to do this foranother two hours, but we're
coming into the last segment,which to me is fun.
It's all fun, but it's mylightning round.

(53:51):
So I do a lightning round ofspeed questions that I think
about ahead of time Don't cheat.
Don't cheat, fast answers.
So you introduced me to birdinga year ago in Tahoe and you
told me this weekend that youdidn't think I'd be patient

(54:12):
enough to introduce you.
Yeah, and when.
She was pretty funny, but youand Chris took me birding really
early.

I didn't realize you were competitive enough to
get into it.
I got that.

You introduced me to birding, got all the apps.
Now have fun with it, but foryou, you're also an avid
mountain biker.

Yes, a also an avid mountain biker.
Yes, avid, avid.

Definitely Birding or biking, which puts
you in flow.

Yeah, okay, okay.
Good Exercise outdoors.
Think concentrate war on bike.
If you don't concentrate,you're on the ground.
The concentration.

People like us need to be fixed.

It's seriously.
You're like, in the moment I'mgoing down this, I got to worry
about the next 20 hours rightnow.
Yes, and that's it.

Good, good, love it.
Back to birding.
That was a great answer forbirding or biking.
But, birding.

what is the one bird species that still gets you
excited anytime you see it outin the wild?
Oh, actually waterfowl,actually Pintail ducks.

Okay, that's your thing, so that's good.
Yes, back to Airstreams.
What's the best piece of adviceyou would give to someone
trying to buy their firstAirstream?

Buy a size up for what you think it's like in a
boat, because you're probablygoing to want.

I'm never giving bella up.
She's perfect.
I'm not doing you.
Buy a size up yes, yes, she'sgood.

Yes, okay, you think, at 23 you get a 25,
thinking 25 get a 27 okay,that's.

I would say that's good advice, based on the
number of people who moved upjust within a year or two of
buying their first one.

And the idea is that you're going to love it.
You're probably going to.
If you love it, you'll probablygo out more than you thought
you would.
It unlocks the comfort of home,with the outcome there's places
we typically would have gone tohotels totally our finger.
We're like why don't you go tohotels?
Like why would I?
I've got everything stuff here.
Their finger.
People are like why don't yougo on a tour?
I was like why would I?
I've got everything and stuffhere and it's lovely, so
ostensibly use it more and thenoften be using more to bring

(56:14):
people along.
Maybe they just want a littlemore space.
Don't go too big.

No, I'm, I'm pageant princess.

Laura and Bella and Bella's listening.

So if you could Now you go on long trips Because
you go to the East Coast, youswing through the South If you
could only pack three things fora month long adventure.

Toys or like essential clothing.
I didn't say Three things.

Your heated vest.
Is that one of them?

Three things.
That's a really good question.

I would pack my toque.
What's your deserted islandlist?

My beanie.
Okay, Because I had no hair.
In Canada they call them toques.

Oh, so you did get some value.
A leader in Canada I know youdid A toque, because my hair
gets clean.

I'm outdoor all the time.

Yeah.

I wear a pair of hiking shoes.
I love Ultras A-L-T-R-A.
Yeah.
Yeah, they're trail runningshoes.
They're great because I dostuff outdoors all the time.
I wear a big knapsack.
Basically, I'm outdoors person.
Man, you are practical.

Sure, I want my AeroPress.
You're an AeroPress fan, right?

I am yeah, but One at home, one in the trailer.

But a hat to keep your head from being cold is
probably more critical than Okay, fine, that's.

What's the most.
I feel like you weren't ashappy with those answers.

They were very practical.
I'm an engineer, practical you.
He's wearing a heated vest,like he can change.

Wearing my heated vest and my airbrush you
introduce me to apps which is arare thing for a friend of mine.

Right, it's also but you have toys.
That's why I love you so much,because we share gadget stories
so yes so it was a very vanillaanswer than all the things that
you could have said.
All All right.
So what's the most unexpectedplace that your airstream has
taken?

you Black Rock Playa.

Tell us more about that, where Burning man is
.

Oh, you took your airstream to Burning man, to
Burning man.

I would never take my.
There's a rocket launchingevent.

Okay, that happens two weeks after Burning.

Okay.

And it's up in the Black Rock Playa.
It's a little bit east.
It's probably about a mile east, two miles east of where the
man is burned, and so when weget there they're still cleaning
up after burning that and theycall them afterburners or that
People would stay around afteryeah.
It's over there we have a rocketlaunching con.
Go and observe and you playaLike up.
I'm on the middle of this playa.
I know the earth curves, Itotally understand that, but

(58:50):
when I look out there, all I seeis just it just dives into
nothing.
I can't even see the edge ofthe playa because it's, that far
out and it's curving over andit's dead flat.
That's a magical place and youlook around and if I started
walking that way, I'd have towalk for good Lord, I don't know
how many hours before I bumpinto anybody or anything.
So that's the most magicalplace it's been.

I love it, Just as a sidebar.
How long did it take to get thesilt out of your?

system.
We think of it.
It's all about positioning.

Please frame it for me.
We think of it as annualcleaning.
Oh, okay, okay.
Okay we'll talk about thatoffline because I'm very curious
what that process looks like.
Couple days okay, that's notbad no, it's annual cleaning.

Okay, bella deserves it.

Yeah, bella does she would love to be in the life
but, I'll keep you posted, I'llnever forget the picture I saw
of an airstream buried up to itsaxle.
Yeah, when they had therainstorms a couple of years ago
.
And that's kind of stuck withme.
Okay, fine, that's right.
That's right, which leads me toI actually got one more

(01:00:00):
question.

Eric McHenry (01:00:01):
Do you look at pictures of airstreams back in
the 50s?
Oh my God, with.

Tonya J. Long (01:00:04):
Wally Bynum crossing rivers in Africa.

With machetes, hacking out trails.

With a station wagon.
We fight about these bigmonster trucks that you have to
have this major engine to pullthese things.
I don't.
I have an SUV, but Wally pulledthem with essentially a station
wagon and they were huge andheavy and not optimized like
today's materials are it?

was amazing.
You had to have aapsack andsome boots.

Wisdom of the ages.
What's one outdoor skill youwish you had learned earlier in
life?

Wow, I've always thought I should have scuba dive
.
I never did, no, but you don'tneed to know how to swim to
scuba dive, I've been told overand over.

I understand that , so you're right.

The world is closed to me, and a large part
of the world isn't.
I would love to.
I think that's my interest innature and what's happening to
our reefs and just our.
You know in California, thewhole thing with the mussels and
stuff, sorry, with the seaurchins and stuff.
I'd love to be able to justdive and be there with the

(01:01:16):
animals underwater.
Okay.

So if you had it to do over and invested time and
learning a new, skill, thatdiving, class, that a number of
friends have asked me to do overthe years.

I always said nah.

You were more fit than most 30 year olds.
That I know.
My point is it's not too latefor you.
I know, I know, and I didn'tmean to lecture you in this
conversation, but I have to wagmy finger and be like my friend.
If that's something you want,that is completely achievable.

I understand that.

But there are priorities.

There's a lot of time in the life, time wasted in
the day, completely achievable.
I understand that.

But there are priorities, Time in the light.
Time went through the day.
Yep, Yep.
I forgot what I got all excitedabout a minute ago and said
it's the last question.
But what's the big adventurethat is still on your bucket
list?

I've never been to Alaska.
I know You're kidding me.
Every flippin' elsewhere andnever to Alaska.

You've been everywhere else three times.
But I have a dream trip toAlaska.

So I'm a hunter also, so I want to be flown in
to one of those remote islands,dropped and hunt and fish and
have someone come pick me uplater.

And the introvert in you you want to hunt and
fish on essentially private land.
Well, public, thank you publicland.

But you want to not be in an entourage of people
.
Probably Sure, I probably haveone person go with me, or two.
I already know.
But no small way back in themiddle there and by hunting.
I feel that means you don't getanything, but you're just in a
place that's just as remote asyou can be with a purpose in
mind, right, and some gorgeous.
I've never been up there, sothat's my one of my adventures.

Is that something you're going to work on, now
that you'll spend less timetraveling the U S?
Continental U S?

Yes, I love it, definitely I love it.
And what about you?
Your one adventure that youhaven't yet achieved Because
you've been everywhere as well.
You want a flash question?

My adventures involve shopping.

Go ahead.

So it's landing in Beijing with nothing but a
toothbrush and my laptop andgoing to the silk market and
buying everything I need for theweek, from a piece of luggage
to the things that I'll wear Tojust show up.
And for me that's a very riskything, are you?

working on that, to make that happen.

Not right now.
Not right now.
China's not in my radar.
Now, when I was going a lot, Isaid wouldn't it be great to
come over once and do that?
So I think something like thatwould be my adventure.
It wouldn't be a physicallyrisky external adventure like
you and nature.
It would be more Adventures,adventure.
Yeah, yes, that's something Italked about doing and I would

(01:03:59):
still like to have a way to do.

Yeah, I think it's still doing.

I thank you Thank you Take in I knew that.
Okay, so looking ahead as weclose, what's the title of your
next?

chapter.
It's local, for sure.

That's it.
Local, it's local.

That's where I want to spend my time and energy
.

Beautiful.
Beautiful If you want to leavepeople with information about
you, about the causes that areimportant to you, about how to
get into Airstreams.
What's the piece of likeconnection information you would
provide to our audience?

Because we're in an Airstream I just have to say
AirstreamCluborg and I don'tascribe to the belief that
people have to only travel toour events.
I think it should be a part ofone's outdoor experiences.

This is a good question for me to ask you.
I'm going to extend this by aminute, but I think there are a
lot of people, becauseAirstreams aren't inexpensive.
It's a lot of people.
It's a long, protracteddecision-making process For sure
, because you probably know thisbetter than anybody how can you

(01:05:13):
get involved to test the waterson Airstream Life, the
community, all those things,before you feel like you have to
own an Airstream Because Ithink you can?

Okay, we've thought about it a lot.
I don't think you can, becauseour events are three, four days
long and they're for members andso you have to have an
Airstream.
We invite people to come in andvisit sometimes, but it's just
not the same.
So I would say, if you'reinterested in the outdoors, it's
a lovely experience to be inGet an Airstream, get a used one

(01:05:40):
, get a new one, rebuild avintage one, start traveling,
come to the Van Der Steen andsee if you like it.
If you love it, then you knowit may be in your future to do
long-term.

The people that you met at dinner tonight when
you got by they came to one ofour club rallies in a.
We call them SOBs.
What is that?
Some?
Other some oh, you don't Okay,but it's an acronym that's
pleasant.

That's for some other brand, some other brand,
thank you.
But my old hand is AirstreamClub president.

The death of our club is to be viewed as elitist.
Thank you, I love it.
Yeah, but they came in not someother brand that they owned,
they did a rental.
They did a rental of a verydifferent kind of RV, but they
had friends that were in theclub, so they came camped like
right next to our group and theywent through everybody's
trailer and the whole becausethey knew they wanted to lean in

(01:06:33):
that direction.
But he's an architect, sothey're planners and they looked
in my closets.

They looked at my cabinets.
That's right.

Because they were trying to make decisions like
23 versus 27.
Some of the frames or the formfactors are different, and so
they came and they explored bydoing a.

That's a fantastic job because you get to see a
bunch of in this case, like 40airstreams here.
Every single one of us comeinside and take a look around,
Every single one of us.

Yeah, and see my mess, See what's in that closet,
and there is an openness thatis really remarkable that you
don't see anywhere else.
You and I talked earlier aboutthis concept of going inside
people's homes.
Yes.

It's a more intimate experience with people,
Community creation yes, to fithere.
The fact that you're fine mecoming in and looking at
whatever's around here, it'sjust, it's magical.
You don't really do that.
A lot of people don't do itenough at home anymore.

Yeah, I agree.

Come to that, come look at the rigs, see if you
meet some people and come toother event and whatever.
See what happens.

I'm going to sit with you in a year, before then,
but on this podcast I'm goingto sit with you in a year, I'll
be in Alaska and you'll be inAlaska.

And I have to come .
I will come to.

Alaska with my set of preformed questions.
All right, I'll meet you inBeijing and we'll yeah, we could
do that, we could do that.
But I will come see you and wewill see what is happening in
your next chapter, because I amexcited.
I adore your energy and the wayyou build community and the way
you inclusively fold in peoplewho are so different from each

(01:08:02):
other and turn them intoresources.

Thank you.

And so I'm excited about what the next year
will bring for you, because Ithink the next year is your
transition timing to decidewhere your energy goes and your
tremendous skill and talent.

This is about transitions, and pretty much
every transition I've had it'scome at a time where I knew
exactly what I wanted to do.
The time was right and I'vethought about it quite a bit too
.
About what I want to do next, Iknew I wanted to focus local
years.
Time was right and I thoughtabout it quite a bit too.
But what I want to do next, Iknew I wanted to focus local
years ago at this point in mylife.

But you don't have an agenda.
You're not winding down thisbecause you're going to run for
mayor of San Rosa.
You see what I'm saying?
You don't have an agenda.
So the next year for you willevolve into how.
Where is the place that you canmake the most impact?

Sure For sure.
Thank you so much.

So the impact that Eric and I are going to go
make now is next door.
I'm hoping these noisecanceling microphones.
Our friends are waiting for uswith a chocolate and wine.

I'll be having.
They're drinking.

I'll have a double helping of chocolate,
since I don't drink.
I can't believe how many.

Zoom or Teams meetings.

I've been on while traveling and having
people outside partying,knocking on the windows, saying
oh yeah, they've been quite goodto us, but it is getting a
little louder over there so weshall go, but it has been
remarkable.
I have loved this, Thank you.
Thank you Everyone from RESETwith Tonya.
Half Moon Bay edition with EricMcHenry, Next chapter.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining us on RESET.
You've been listening to ourshow from KPCR-LP 92.9 FM in Los
Gatos and KMRT-LP 101.9 FM inLos Gatos and KMRT-LP 101.9 FM
in Santa Cruz.
Remember, transformation is ajourney, not a destination.
Until next time, keep exploringwhat's possible.

(01:10:02):
I'm Tonya Long and this is home.
This is RESET.

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