NHI Celebrates All Staff Days 2018
They came from everywhere on March 28th and 29th, 2018. 145 of us descended on the Berkeley Marina here in Northern California for our annual All Staff Days! Once a year ALL of the staff and faculty at the National Holistic Institute come together to meet, play, learn, dance, hug, and eat (and hug)!
This year our growing company welcomed 27 new staff members, representing all 11 NHI Campuses.
Each year we have some stand-out moments and this year was no different. Do any of you remember the 1960-70s rock group Blood, Sweat & Tears? It was kind of like that.
One of the owners of NHI, Mason Myers celebrated his 15 year anniversary with the company and his side-kick, Linda Rikli, Sr. VP also celebrated her 15 years.
When Mason spontaneously lifted Linda in the air in a crazy-celebratory-mood (in front of the whole company) they almost splatted onto the ground! Potential Blood! But luckily disaster was avoided and tears of laughter ensued.
We had a lot of Sweat too. A highlight for everyone was the “Silent Disco” that had about 100 of the NHI Staff outdoors dancing to various tunes blasting into their headphones. Tears of laughter and joy for sure! Even for those not dancing – it was an incredible thing to watch!
We decided to forego hiring a presenter this year so we could instead showcase on our in-house talent. NHI’s President, Tim Veitzer served as Master of Ceremonies, with Jen Tobin (Campus Manager, Studio City) and John Gorman (Campus Manager, Ontario), our in-house theatre-background staff from So. Cal, leading us all through an Improv Style Training & Practice, themed, Yes And!
It was exhilarating to have the opportunity to play and create with other campuses and departments while focusing on how we can optimize the experiences of the students at NHI. Learning some key tenets of Improv opened the doors for us to get to know each other better through, creativity, fun, and collaborative skits.
NHI has so much to be proud of including the longevity of our staff. People like to hang around here at NHI. Besides the aforementioned Co-Owner Mason and Sr. VP Linda, we had an additional 15 year anniversary – the mighty Esko Homsi himself – teacher and trainer!
And wait, 10 years from Lindsay Medina and Lupita Laney – two of our dedicated Admissions Managers.
Then we celebrated two of our 5-year anniversaries with the unforgettable teacher/mentor Frankie Menzel and our creative and talented Gina Fong Seidler, Director of Marketing.
The feeling of appreciation, community, and inspiration that we all came home with is still holding us tight together. Our annual All Staff Days help to remind us of the importance of the work we do – it touches so many lives – not just our students and graduates, but all of our staff too. NHI truly does offer up a pathway to help people have work they love. Thank you National Holistic Institute for all the wonderful things you do to make the world a better place – one massage at a time.
Article by Mellissa Wheeler. Photos by John Gorman.