From Cruise Director to Chief of Protocol?

My reputation as Cruise Director of the Michigan Liberal Blogosphere has become widely known, and will continue to grow as my Outreach duties grow (see the morning post on MichLib).

For those of you looking around for the Carnival ship, put your binoculars down. No ship, well at least not yet. :-)

It's been a running joke now for a couple months, as I seem to find myself the social butterfly/gatherer of bloggers/connector between bloggers. It's a role I love, because it gives me the opportunity to stay in touch with such a diverse and richly-talented group of individuals who are similarly driven to keep our state great. (If you want proof, check out the blogroll to the right)

This evening as I was prepping the morning's post, I had a chat with MichLib frequenter Count VonBob. The Count and I were musing over my ever-growing role, more formally known as the Outreach Coordinator. That's when he suggested the perfect goal for me - Chief of Protocol, and sent me to Wikipedia.

Hmm...Chief of Protocol. As a girl who always reaches for the stars, I decided to poke my nose around the CoP's office and see if the digs suited me. That's when I discovered the top 5 duties

1. Plan and execute detailed programs for foreign leaders visiting the President and accompany them during their official travel in the United States, including their visit with the President at the White House.

2. Accompany the President on all official visits abroad; coordinate planning with the White House advance office, the First Lady's staff and host country officials.

3. Make arrangements for and accompany delegations named by the President to represent him at inaugurals, funerals, weddings, Independence Day celebrations, and similar ceremonies abroad.

4. Certify and pay the expenses of the foregoing and other diplomatic activities authorized by Congress.

5. Oversee the accreditation of foreign Ambassadors and organize the presentation of their credentials to the President and the Secretary of State.

Well, the more I think about it, it's not too different from my volunteer duties as Cruise Director. Of course, then I stumble upon #4 and that nonsense about "certify and pay the expenses".

Mayday!!

I may not earn much (i.e. nothing!) as Cruise Director, but I'll be damned if I'm paying for chocolate mints on a pillow and $400 bottles of wine for someone else to eat and drink.

Well, so much for that idea. Looks like it's back to the shuffleboard deck for me. Besides, muscles like these shouldn't be wasted on just anybody.