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Show 67 background - Karen certainly had that, even though the Civil Service didn't consider her qualified to be a forester. And she needed the ability to talk about the new program before audiences of professional people - the tvio quarters she'd spent as a Drama major gave her the poise for public appearances. Education is never viasted, Karen decided. With her portable computer terminal, she arrived at a joint conference between the Society of American Foresters and the American Meteorological Society, held in Saint Louis. She was given a room where she could set up her equipment and display some printouts vihich she'd made in advance "in case I couldn't get the computer to work." Firebase was a nevi product and she had to promote i t , convincing the foresters and weathermen that they could save a lot of time by l e t t i ng Firebase search out information for them. Karen had never before attended a conference like that one, let alone been a speaker at one. Her demonstration viasn't a regularly scheduled part of the program - i t vias announced at the end of the first day's meeting. When she heard the chairman's announcement, Karen's heart sank. In a room f i l l e d viith 300 men and only one other vioman, he said, "We brought Karen Eckels here viith us because she's a member of the Society of American Foresters...and because she's pretty." Almost as an afterthought he added, "She's going to give a demonstration in the room next door." The compliment was probably intended innocently enough, but Karen didn't appreciate i t . She vianted the delegates to attend her demonstration because she had something important to present, not because |