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The speeches were all kept short, and believe it or not THE DINNER ENDED ON TIME! If you have never been to an NCADP awards dinner (or pretty much any other awards dinner), you know that such events have a reputation for going on for hours. At the National Coalition dinner in Philadelphia in 1999, the folks at my table started up a little pool. We all threw $1 into the hat and picked a time that we thought the dinner would end. Whoever was closest won the pool. Last year at the Committing to Conscience conference in San Francisco, CUADP formalized the pool. In a list that reads like a "who's who" in the abolition movement, more than 70 people kicked in $1 to pick the minute at which the dinner would end and everyone would be invited to leave. Dick Dieter won last year by picking 11:07pm. Dick received half of the funds collected, and the rest went to CUADP.

This year, I had not planned to run the pool. But late in the day I happened into the conference registration area and NCADP staff asked if they could pick their times. So due to popular demand, the pool was back! Again, 73 people picked specific minutes, with most being around 10pm and later. THREE NCADP board members picked times AFTER 11pm! Very few were optimistic. When the dinner ended, I went to the podium, quieted the crowd, and asked the official time keeper (this year, the beautiful and talented Lisa DuFord) for the ending time. "9:35" she yelled out. Well, nobody had picked 9:35pm. The closest was NCADP's David Elliot, who had picked 9:31pm. "Not close enough!" I said, and wished everyone better luck next year - fully intending to keep all of the money for CUADP. Certain individuals chastised me for not going with the closest pick, however just like roulette, "close" but not "on" does not win. But nobody heard Brenda Lewis, the NEW NCADP Board Chair, when she got up and announced that the actual printed schedule indicated a scheduled end time of 9:35! Anyone who has ever organized one of these events knows that actually ending on the scheduled minute is an incredible achievement. Even though they had not bought into the pool, I gave NCADP their fair share of the pool.

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