The moment the last words had came out of his mouth another two people entered the conference room. Phew! Good thing they had missed his little introduction, for it would have been more embarrassing with more people in there. He didn't even know how he had managed to sound so confident, when he was dying inside from the embarrassment he was feeling.

And yes, he was twenty-six years old.

Monsieur Dwight? Yep, this guy was definitely french. Not that Nicholas minded or anything; he understood it, even though he wasn't exactly fluent. "Thank you", He replied with a polite nod, before sitting down again. "And don't worry about, Mr. Stryker. It was a pleasure to introduce myself to all of you". Right.

So Rico had been right, after all. The meeting was about the upcoming Wizarding Conference. Rico was definitely a smart dude. If it wasn't because Nicholas had noticed that Rico's accent was not British, he would have assumed that the man had been a Ravenclaw back in Hogwarts.

"Would you care to tell me a little about this Conference you are speaking of, Mr. Stryker?", Nicholas inquired politely from his seat, "Evaline mentioned it to to me very briefly before leaving, so I would really appreciate if you could tell me a little more about it".

"Certainly," Chad cleared his throat a little before pulling out a copy of the memorandum that had been handed out a while ago. "We will be playing host to Ministers of Magic from all around the world in a, obviously, a conference.

"Now, Mademoiselle Taylor, has recently provided me with the issues that our department needs to address to these minister's. This involves research and, for you Division heads that might be falling asleep in here (I don't blame you), you need to know the information like the back of your hand. You are going to have to present this information alongside Mademoiselle Bass."

He got up from where he sat and lightly walked over to where Nicholas sat, handing him the memorandum for him to look at, as well as anyone else at the table who needed a refreshing. "Does that answer your question, Monsieur?"

Rico wasn't falling asleep, no he wasn't. He was just having trouble focusing - the poor man should have never left his coffee all alone in his office.

He glanced briefly at the memo Chad handed out, recognizing it right away. He'd already been jotting ideas down for it, so it wasn't news to him. But the 'information' he'd have to present was news.

"What are we presenting, exactly, Mr....." oh what was his last name..."Stryker?" Rico asked quietly, raising an eyebrow at the Frenchie.

Chad smiled lightly as he looked at Rico, "You look like you need a good cup of coffee...get ready people, coffee and you may become best of mates in the days to come," he held up the sheet of paper that was loaded with scribbles of jot notes of what they had to do.

"Would you all believe that in amongst ALL these scribbles of what we have to accomplish, that only ONE scribble is what we have to discuss? I'm sure you're familiar with this topic...

"You have to research the history behind the illegalization of magic carpets here and develop a stance or position with our friends on the six floor, those of the Transportation department. This stance or position has to state as to whether or not we would like to consider changing the law.

"This report has to be completed well before the conference date. When this report is completed, please, give me a shout and I will come and retrieve. Mademoiselle Taylor has requested that she see the report so that the Minister can endorse the stance, if he is satisfied. Don't rush, think everything through...and good luck with that." He took a deep breath and looked at the sheet again, picking out the next thing to talk about. He was trying to decide which one was better to be said first.

"Are there any questions? Anything you need me to clarify?"

Nicholas listened intently to Chad's words with a curious and very light frown on his face. Examination quickly the memorandum that Stryker was offering, Nicholas nodded, still looking at the memo. "Yes, it does. Thank you", he replied politely.

Hearing what Stryker was saying about them becoming best mates with coffee, Nicholas made a face. Coffee was disgusting. If he wanted to stay awake, he just needed to eat a good amount of candy, and he'll be as good as new. Of course that if did that, he'd get as hyper as a five year old with a new toy. But hey, anything but drinking such a gross liquid as coffee.

Snapping back to reality, Nicholas focused on what Chad was ranting about. Thankfully, it was something much more interesting and important than coffee. Not that coffee was important or anything.

"So we pretty much have to work with people of Magical Transportation, then? Hmm. That makes sense... "He trailed off. He was just thinking out loud. "I mean--Nope, no questions from me".

Bad habit, Nicholas.

Katherine nodded, so she had quite a bit of research to begin. After hearing the little bit about coffee, she grimaced. Disgusting thing coffee was. There was going to be something else she used, perhaps just persistence. But no way on Earth would she drink such a thing. Glancing up she shook her head,"Nothing here." She said to Chad then looked down at her sheet.
There were tons of notes organized all over the paper in small, neat, curly cursive. Tucking her hair behind her ear, she glanced up at Nicholas and smiled. So he was one to think out loud. Covering her mouth to hold a laugh back, she faked a realistic cough in place and looked away.

Rico couldn't help but agree with Chad. "Yeah man, I do," he muttered to himself, thinking longingly of the nice, warm, black Peruvian blend still sitting on his desk....it probably wasn't even hot anymore...but that didn't stop him from wanting it.

Sigh.

"So....are we all working on this report thingy, er, now? Together?" Rico asked, scratching the back of his head with his hand. Was it just him or was Chad being a little vague? Maybe he should just summon that cup of coffee already and stop asking stupid questions...

Jacob sat listening, jotting down a few hurried notes on his paper with the annoyingly scratchy quill. International Conference. Illegillization of magic carpets. Transportation Department. All of it was easy to remember; there was really no reason for him to write anything down.

If the thought of more Earl Grey and his novel had been distracting as the meeting began, now he was only thinking of the magic carpet laws. There had to be some information on it in one of his books. Jacob gulped a bit as the realization hit him that he would be working on a project with plenty of people he had never met.

"Nope, no questions," Jacob said aloud. "Thank you for the briefing, Mister Stryker." Jacob thanked any listening dieties for his ability to remember many facts. There was no way he wanted to embarrass himself in front of someone so close to the Minister.

Donia almost groaned. Illigalization of magic carpets? Why couldn't it be something a little more interesting? She vaguely remembered learning about magic carpets in History of Magic while at Hogwarts, but who paid attention in Professor Binns class? The man was a ghost, for Merlin's sake! She could feel her face crumple. She had been so excited about actually being a part of something huge; something she could tell her sister about. But no. Now, when she saw Linnea at Christmastime, she could proudly tell her she was reasearching...magic carpets. Donia hoped that someone knew something about magic carpet laws, because she sure didn't. If someone did, maybe she could pair up with them for research...
She looked back at Monseiur Chad le Frenchie and asked, "Do we have to do the research on our own? Or can we form study groups and whatnot?"
The cup of lovely Sumatran coffee with a large amount of cream and a delightful shot of caramel that she had just finished sounded lovely right about now...not that she needed another cup of coffee.

Chad sighed lightly, "If you don't like coffee...then may I suggest pure sugar? Candy? Something that'll keep you awake? Anything that works for you."

He sat down on the edge of his desk as he nodded his head to a couple of questions. "Yes, you may work in a group...and yes, you may work on it now. BUT, I need your attention for a few more minutes. There's more," he grimaced.

"We are in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies, AS WELL AS setting up the hall. Apparently, we're playing dance committee too...just...no dance." He looked at the sheet trying to find the specifics about setting up the hall.

Lizeth groaned inwardly. This was insane. Why did they need to work so hard to impress people? She sat there, impatiently waiting for the meeting to end and tapping her toe on the floor.

If Jacob had been drinking tea, or coffee, or eating sugar or candy, he would have choked on it upon hearing the next words that came from Mr. Stryker's mouth. All he could do was sputter soundlessly. It seemed like the Minister had decided that Level Five was the only floor in the Ministry.

"Not to sound rude," Jacob began slowly, "And I completely understand that as we deal in International things we should host this...but are any of the other floors doing anything?" Unless this was bigger than the wedding, Jacob didn't see how much would be left for the other floors.

Donia's eyes widened. She remembered a similar event that had taken place at the Finnish ministry last year...except that was purely interdepartmental. Not international. Dance? Decoration? Did the Minister just have it in for Level Five? She knew that this was the international department, but honestly. You'd think they were the only level in the whole Ministry! Then something clicked and she looked up at Chad
"Wait. You said 'just...no dance'. What exactly does that mean?"

Rico sighed as Chad had yet more directions, and he jotted a couple more things down on his master list.

"Opening, closing ceremonies...set up..." Rico repeated the stuff to himself and wrote it all down. Geez the work list was getting lengthy.

And then he said something about dancing....Enrico liked dancing, but what in Merlin's name did the man mean by dance without er, dancing? Huh?

Like Donia, he was starting to feel clueless. Sure, Evaline had told him he needed to make sure a few things would get done - but nothing about er, a dance committe.

"Uh, Chad..." Rico said politely, tapping his quill on the table. "Do you mean that we need live entertainment or a band too...?" Perhaps that was what he meant...

Katie nodded while they kept talking. More and more questions seemed to pop out of everyone but her. Katherine got this all, but why wasn't anyone else? He said like a dance committee with out the dance because they were setting up a big event, but it wasn't a dance, no dancing really intertwined in this whole situation. Sitting back, she knew that tons of Diet Coke cans would be collected from her office. Late hours were going to start for her soon enough.

For Nicholas, this had been a rather productive and interesting meeting, that hadn't managed to make him fall asleep. That was of course until the word dance was caught by his ears.

He quickly perked up, gulped, and tried unsuccessfully to flat his hair--which was something that he did whenever he was feeling nervous.

Thankfully, he was able to sigh in relief when Chad said that they didn't have to dance. Now that was a HUGE relief for him, because Nicholas had massive balance problems. Needless to say, that he was dangerous when in the dance floor.

"So we are dance committee? No mandatory dancing for us, then?", Nicholas inquired, just to make sure. But if the dancing in the end turned out to be mandatory, he was going to have to pretend having a stomach sickness, or something like that.

There was no way he was going to dance. No way.

Lizeth grinned. "Did anyone think that maybe dancing would help us to impress our visitors? And maybe it would help us all loosen up a little too." She just thought it would make things a little more fun.

"OH...and I forgot one more thing....We need to draw up the invitations and send them out to a certain list of Minster's Of Magic. The Invitations need to be drawn up soon so that Mademoiselle Taylor can approve them before we start sending them out. I have the list of Minister's that the invitations need to go to," he grimaced apologetically.

"Oh, other departments have things to do...it's just, we ARE the department of International Cooperation...and this is an conference with people from different countries...so...I guess they kind of added two and two together...I'm sorry for the amount of work they've given...but I'll be here with you. I'll give all a hand."

He was looking over the sheet for the exact details of the arrangements, "AH. Here we go. These are Mademoiselle Taylor's words and not mine: we need to come up with the opening and closing ceremonies. A representative from each department needs to meet her with and Mademoiselle Bella to discuss the arrangements. Make sure you have good ideas before scheduling an appointment. And you are also going to have to set-up and decorate for the conference when the time has come. But, we have her permission to get the Maintenance people to help us with that.

"On the matter of the invitations: We need to develop and issue personalized invitations to each of the foreign minister's on my list. There are nine minister's in total. If you want the list now...let me know.

"And once again, our topic: look into the history behind the illegalzation of flying carpets here and develop a stance or position with the Department of Transportation as to if whether or not we want to change the law. The report must be seen by Mademoiselle Taylor before the conference so that Monsieur Cooper can see if he wants to endorse our stance or not.

"So: invitations, conference arrangements, and the report," he cringed a little. "Any ideas on how we can tackle this? How about we come up with ideas for the opening and closing ceremonies now so that I can scamper off and get you guys an appointment with her and then you're all free to go start the research for the report and the invitations. I can also go to the Transportation Department and explain their need in our section of work. Anything else you guys can think of me doing to help? Anyone got any ideas for the ceremonies?"

It was a lot of work, but Jacob, looking at his rapidly growing list of notes, was sure that the Department could handle it. The report, all though probably the most important, was apparently going to be later. Invitations could be potentially annoying if they had to be written in other languages, but if they were just centered on the country of the Minister it was being sent to, that should appease most of the government heads...

"Whatever the opening and closing ceremony is, it's got to be impressive," Jacob told the group his opinion. "Something that convinces the other Ministers that our Ministry is a government to be respected and listened to. Could we do something based on a globe, and then maybe somehow highlight the countries that have Ministers visiting?"

Man, everytime Chad spoke, he added another little thing onto Rico's to-do list. Sheesh.

"Okay, the ceremonies..." Rico sat up a little straighter in his chair and twiddled his thumbs as he thought aloud. "I like your, uh, idea," he said, nodding at Jacob Webster. "Perhaps we could also play the anthem from each minister's country in the background as they are introduced? Er, someone is going to be introducing them, right?" He raised an eyebrow at Chad, uncertain if the Minister was going to be the master-of-ceremonies or Evaline or someone else.

"As for decorations, couldn't we use the flags of all the countries involved, something like that? Do we need to provide er, food for them too?" he added as a sudden thought, wrinkling his nose. He was really not good at this 'planning' stuff. It was like hosting a party - and Rico was never a good host. Just a good partier.

Donia nodded thoughtfully. Rico's ideas were quite good. She especially like the national anthem one- very clever. She then thought back to what Chad said, about invitations and such.
"Excuse me, sorry to be a little off-topic, but which other Ministers are coming? And when do we need to have these invitations out by?"

"That's good...that's good...keep the ideas coming! And make sure to write them down! You need to be prepared for when I schedule you guys a meeting with Mademoiselle Taylor."

He turned to Donia smiling, "one thing at a time, mademoiselle, please. We seem to have a train of thought going here. Let's not derail it."

ooc: a few more posts of ideas, please, and then I'll move on. -smilesandhidescauseI'mslow-

Dora listened quietly to all the ideas and comments. They seemed great ideas so she just nodded, but didn't say anything. She was not very creative at the moment, therefore she didn't express any point of view or idea; she just realised how much work this meant.

Addie slipped into the conference room unnoticed. Apparently people were coming up with ideas for the opening and closing ceremonies. She heard severel good ideas and had an idea.
"Maybe at the end we have someone write a poem about International Magical Cooperation."

Chad sighed lightly and looked at his sheet, "I will get you a sit down with Mademoiselle Taylor, so that you can work out the details together. But remember, you MUST be prepared with ideas when heading in.

"Moving on! The list of ministers that we will be inviting to the conference are as such: Bulgaria's Minister, Valeria Anatolievna Nikolovna; the French Minister, Luc Benoit; Minister of the USA, Abigail Road; Australia's Minister, Kaylee Whittaker; the Indian Minister, Bhanuprasad Balasubramanium; Minister to Japan, Yoshi Ishikawa; China's Minister of Magic, Bao Li; the Norwegian Minister, Svetlana Jespersen; and Minister of Peru, Jose Espinosa.

"Personalized invitations must be made for each Minister. Mademoiselle Taylor also wants to see DRAFTS of the invitations before they are sent out. So, when that is completed, please message me and I will come and bring them to her for her approval."

He looked over his sheet again, looking for anything he may have missed. "So, recap: invitations, opening and closing ceremony, and the report. Got it?"