Define: Father

By: Chris Salazar-Mangrum, Vice President of USAV

---

Father’s Day was always an interesting celebration for me because my young mother raised me without a father for the first nine years of my life.  After she married my stepfather, he quickly moved to adopt me and raise me as his own blood, hence my hyphenated last name. My stepfather taught me two main themes about fatherhood: what it takes to be a father and how to raise the next generation of fathers. My stepfather was involved in my activities as my karate instructor and coach of my youth baseball team. These moments grew my appreciation for the importance of being involved in my own children’s lives at the ground level to continue to foster the next generation of fathers.

One addition to the list would be “He Teaches How to Overcome Adversity.” Life is tough and life is unfair, often rooted in what can be perceived as failures.

We can all relate to times where the world seemed to turn against us, we lost someone special, we found ourselves in a mentally dark place, or we felt mistreated. Right, wrong, or indifferent, my father taught me to not feel sorry for myself. Call it tough love or just the realities of the world, but my many eye-opening failures ended up being the most opportunistic and life-changing events. Perhaps it was the constant reminder to not become the victim of the circumstance, but to take the issue in stride, process it and move on. Feeling the emotions is ok and do not be too macho and hold in the frustration or tears. It imperative to teach and learn  how to let go of the past, reset, and focus on the future.

For daughters, being a father is the opportunity to be a role model and setting the standard for how daughters will view other men. A father who shows love, respect, and care for the women in his life and is nurturing and compassionate can help his daughter avoid unhealthy relationships and friendships with men as she ages.

As fathers, we are role models whether we like or not. I understand and value the responsibility of being a father and hold the magnitude of that responsibility close to my heart. I know how my actions influence and impact my own children and I live with the responsibility of fatherhood as a core value of everyday life.

Proud AV DAD: Celebrate Father’s Day 2021

By: Patrick Whipkey, Director of USAV

---

I began my AV career not even thinking about starting a family. I, like many, stumbled into this crazy industry from my love of music and all things technology. I’ve noticed an unspoken trend in this industry, and that is family. There are a lot of us that have either unintentionally or intentionally chosen this career for family reasons. Some had to “get off the road,” others wanted to find a more stable income. Whatever the case is, family is at the center of many of those decisions.

I use the term family with a few different meanings. You could be raising a family yourself, or you could call your co-workers and industry friends “family.” There are a lot of us that spend more time with our colleagues than we do with our family. I think that is the unique thread that bonds us all together. I ended up getting married and having three daughters. The funny thing is, I didn’t think I would ever have three girls. I’ll be honest, empathy and patience are not my best skills and I think that is part of why I now have three girls. Every day I’m learning how to manage not only their emotions but my wife’s and also my own. In business, you learn how to work with different personalities and not only managing your own emotions under pressure but the best can manage others under pressure as well. My family has continued to teach me how to manage the emotions of many. I take these small lessons and I work to apply them in my business communications.

Being a full-time working father is a daily struggle, but one that I would not change. When people ask, “how’s the family?” I usually respond with, “they are great; it’s a daily circus in my house!” I use that term in an endearing but funny description because right now it is crazy. I have an eight-year-old, a six-year-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old. We are dealing with everything from potty training to helping out with fractions. Did I mention my wife has a full-time job as well? We go from soccer to dance lessons to gymnastics, while also working to grow and excel in our own careers. It’s fun, exhausting, rewarding, stressful and sometimes a downright chaotic state of affairs, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I truly believe that sums up our industry. We all experience those same emotions every year, and that’s why the family thread runs so deep in this crazy industry. We celebrate the victories, we mourn the losses and we band together in times of need. This industry will always have its ups and downs and the key to it all is learning from each experience and growing together to become better people and a better industry.  Yes, I’m a proud dad of three girls and happily married but I am also a proud family member of this technology community.  Thank you for welcoming me into this community and cheers to all the proud dads. Enjoy each other’s company, be good to one another and together our family will grow and be strong.