ILMA Compoundings - June 2020 - 40

PORTRAIT
Meg Thaxton
Meetings Manager, ILMA
"Treat others how you want
to be treated. It's cliché, but
it's a great rule to live by."

STAR STRUCK

Thaxton with her friend Alex.

COMING ABOARD
"My first 'office' job out of college was at a market research
company. I was a project coordinator and did a lot of
recruiting for focus groups and usability studies. I learned
about ILMA because Tim Mack and I are really good friends.
We went to middle and high school together and have been
friends for years. He knew I was looking for a job and told me
about an opening. I applied, and the rest is history.
"Working for ILMA has been a great experience. It's taught
me so much about the association world, working with
people from all walks of life, using my customer service skills,
and has led me to find what I want to make a career out of:
meeting planning. I've really enjoyed helping plan our two
annual meetings and am always excited to learn new things
every day."

BROTHERLY LOVE
"I grew up with two older brothers. And as a little girl with
two older brothers, you want to be just like them. I dressed
like them, played the same sports as them, even watched
the same cartoons as them. We had our moments of love
and hate and everything in between, but they're two of the
greatest people I know. We were really tough on each other.
We were all athletes, so we were super competitive. Growing
up with them, playing sports with them and learning from
them made me into the person I am today."

JUNE 2020

| COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG

"This didn't so much happen to me, but the funniest situation
I've ever been in was back in 2011, when I was visiting New
York City. It was my first time visiting NYC, and I was with my
mom, her best friend, Ann, and Ann's daughter Kate. We had
gone out to dinner and had split a couple bottles of wine,
so we were all feeling pretty good. We got back to the hotel
and were grabbing a nightcap in the hotel lobby bar, and
who walks in but Woody Harrelson. At the time, Ann was the
executive producer on a prominent political talk show, and
she actually knew Woody. She brought him over to us and
introduced us all. I mentioned something about loving him in
Natural Born Killers, and Kate said she loved him in Cheers. He
was very nice and chatted with us for a bit.
"Cue my mom: She stands up, shakes his hand and asks, 'Do
you feel like a normal person?' He just looked at her like she
was crazy, and I about died of embarrassment. Then she continued to follow him into the elevator later (she insists it was
purely coincidental) and started asking him about his wife.
Thankfully, I wasn't there to witness that. At the time, it was so
embarrassing, but looking back on it, it's just hilarious."

LEAVING IT ALL ON THE FIELD
"I've broken 15 bones throughout my life. It's a lot, I know. I
was an athlete growing up and played sports pretty much
my entire life. Swimming, soccer, basketball, lacrosse, field
hockey - you name it. Half of the breaks were sports-related,
and the other half were from horsing around and wrestling
with my older brothers.
"The worst break was during my senior year of high school.
I was playing lacrosse against a rival team. We were ahead,
and I had just scored. I was still running through the shot
and was tripped by someone on the opposing team. I broke
my fall with my arm, and it snapped clean in half. Now I have
two steel plates and 12 screws holding my arm together."
Thaxton with her mother and two brothers.

http://www.ILMA.ORG

ILMA Compoundings - June 2020

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