Usually when someone says, “they treated her like a dog,” it’s not a good thing. But when was the last time you heard someone say he was going to take his Scottish terrier to classes because, though she’s great at catching vermin, she couldn’t run as fast as a greyhound? Or complain that his border collie needs remedial help because the dog won’t snuggle up on his owner’s lap?

Never, right? That’s because we appreciate our dogs for what they do well, and build their “job description” around their strengths. We don’t expect them to change from a herder to a lapdog to earn extra kibble and the coveted “good dog” award.

Why don’t we give people the same consideration? It’s pretty obvious we all have different innate skills and talents–for example, I’ll never be an architect because my mind just doesn’t work that way, but I can build a mean story (at least I think so!). And yet virtually every job evaluation includes a list of things to improve, rather than areas of excellence that should be expanded in that person’s job description.

Taking this to the meetings business: There’s always been a lot of talk about logistical versus strategic planners, with the “coffee cup counters” often considered to be lower on the career ladder in terms of salary and prestige than those who are more strategically focused.

Of course the latter is vital, but think about the two biggest factors attendees talk about, the two things that, if you get them wrong, nothing else you do will be perceived as right. Yup, that would be room temperature and food–logistics. If the seats are uncomfortable, the room setup not conducive to learning, the lighting harsh, the sound system bad, it doesn’t matter how well-designed your meeting is or how compelling the content, people won’t be able to focus–or remember the good parts.

Which leaves me with a lot of questions:

Why does the system tend to encourage planners to move into strategic or managerial positions, which may or may not be where their skills and talents lie, if they want to be successful in terms of salary, respect, and all that jazz? On the hotel side, why should good CSMs have to move to sales to make more money? Why don’t we hear more stories like the one I wrote about on the MeetingsNet blog last fall, where the Antlers at Vail honored Emiliana “Millie” Barela, who for more than 30 years served as executive housekeeper for the resort, by naming its new boardroom after her?

Instead of requiring people to go from the human equivalent of herding to racing to get ahead, let’s work to find ways to get organizations to reward and respect what people do well, regardless of their title or place on the organizational chart.

What can we all do to help the powers-that-be see that, in this case, we want to be treated like dogs?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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Orac over at Respectful Insolence has a great post about people who you always see come up to the microphone for the Q&A portion of a session. While he’s mainly talking about medical/surgical conferences, I’ve seen these types at just about every meeting I’ve ever been to–I bet you have, too. Check it out, it’s pretty funny.

Even for Pez dispenser collectors. I’ve said it before, but now I’ve officially heard of everything!

Good for Marriott–as part of its new $1 billion diversity outreach initiative, "which includes the commitment to double the number of minority-owned Marriott properties over the next five years," Marriott just celebrated the opening of the $43 million Residence Inn by Marriott Capitol in D.C., the result of a financial partnership with Native American tribes.

A tip of the hat to what I hope is the beginning of a trend…

Hmm, sounds like "Happy Birthday," but it could be copyright infringement, and hotels might have something to worry about, according to this article by Jim Abrams.

The possibility of a copyright infringement, if any, arises where the copyrighted music is publicly performed without permission of the copyright owner, regardless of whether the music is performed by live musicians in the establishment, by wired music, by record player or tape recorder, or by other mechanical means.

We’re talking jukeboxes, private parties, rebroadcasts, even in-room movies…I can hear the lawyers sharpening their pencils as we speak. (And yes, "Happy Birthday" is copyrighted. Don’t tell your four-year-old.)

You know that awful sinking in your stomach as you watch the carousel empty until you’re the only one left, vainly urging the conveyor belt to spit out just one more bag? Well, the airlines think radio frequency ID tags could fix the lost-luggage problem, according to this article from the New York Times. The problem, of course, is that with airlines losing money tail over wing, they can’t afford to use the technology to track bags. As the Times writer said so wonderfully, "Most are in such dire financial straits that that kind of money could be as hard to come by as legroom in coach."

While they could recoup the costs relatively quickly by reducing their lost-luggage percentage–and all the extra labor required to find the wayward bags–from 30 percent to 5 percent, I doubt they have the cash hanging around for the initial outlay. Which is a shame.