USC/ISI - Intelligent Systems Division

Lau Thanked for Meritorious Service on 2004 ISD Retreat

Herb Schorr, Kary Lau - CLICK TO ENLARGE

Kary Lau, ISD's tireless executive secretary, has been awarded a Meritorious Service Award for her work on the division's recent 2-day offsite retreat at Lake Arrowhead, which was attended by about 70 people from ISI and 20 of their family members.

Herb Schorr, director of the Information Sciences Institute, presented the award to Kary on Friday, thanking her for her instrumental role in making the ISD retreat a tremendous success.

Kary dealt pretty much single-handedly with all the retreat's local arrangements: She came up with candidates for the site of the retreat and recommended the final hotel. She worked with the hotel on the menus, sleeping and meeting rooms, A/V equipment, etc. She worked with people in the division to provide them with the material they needed to prepare their posters and presentations.

Kary came in to ISI on the weekend preceding the retreat to put together the materials and equipment needed by participants and took them in her car to Lake Arrowhead. And she arranged for special retreat T-shirts for all participants. All this was done before the retreat.

Up at Lake Arrowhead during the retreat, Kary worked with participants and the hotel to make sure that everything ran smoothly -- that more food was brought out when needed, that last minute needs for rooms were taken care of, that there were enough power strips for laptops in the meeting rooms, and so forth.

While the rest of us were enjoying the talks and the surroundings, Kary alone was working to make sure we could all do that. The division owes her much gratitude, and congratulates her on her Meritorious Service Award.