A while back I got an invitation to a VIP breakfast to be held during RootsTech 2014. The breakfast was to be Friday morning. When I got the invite, I printed it out and put it in a notebook with my other RootsTech paperwork. That was my first mistake. I should have added it to my calendar accessible from my iPhone. Eventually the printout went into my RootsTech bag and then ended up under a table in the FRPC booth. Last night I realized that I didn’t know the event time nor the room number where breakfast was to be held in the Salt Palace – and that email printout from Elaine was in that bag under the table in the locked-up exhibit hall.
No problem… Since Elaine had sent the invitation by email, it would take just a moment to find it in my email, and print out a new copy with the time, and room number. I did a search on Elaine’s name, found an invitation email that said RootsTech and was for a Friday morning VIP breakfast. I noted that the room number was 355. So – I got up early, drove into Salt Lake City, and leisurely found my way to room 355. I took my time, and I was well over 1/2 hour early. Finally arriving at room 355, it was dark and no one was about. I started asking questions of folks and found a man who said that there was a breakfast going on in room 150. Going to room 150, I could quickly see that this was the FamilySearch VIP breakfast alright, but the program was underway, and the room was full of folks. I stood in the doorway a moment, and eventually found a seat. Embarrassed for having come in late, I was thinking that the room number must have changed and that I was the only character at RootsTech that didn’t get the memo. Why, I had an email that clearly stated room #355, and I seemed to be the only person who was hanging out around the door at 355.
I sat down near a young lady who worked for FamilySearch, and we were discussing my situation. She then asked me the question that cleared up what had gone wrong. She asked if I could have printed an old email. I pulled it out, sure that I was going to find that this could not be the case. I looked at the date on the email. Hmmm. 2012. The invite was 2 years old. I had searched my email, found what looked like the info I was looking for, and sure enough… It wasn’t. Embarrassing.
So let this be a learning experience for not only me, but my readers besides. When using the marvelous search capabilities that we have available to use in our email, our hard drives, the various online programs we put data into, and yes – even the cloud storage that most of us use today – be careful that what we pull up is actually what we are looking for – for many documents, emails, and even photos may look alike a first glance.
