People from several administrations and we will get a sense of the environment of first lady operates in. Its a difficult place to be. As beautiful as the white house is, it has many different roles. It is a museum. It is obviously a residence. It is a park, a president s park, and it is a work place. And all of those combined, for the first lady, as opportunities for her. And also some hazards. As they live their lives their lives in the white house. It is a place for children. It is a place to raise a family. With a first lady with no compensation for what she does, its difficult to say exactly what her role is. We will talk about this. Our panelists have been in the white house since the time that betty ford was first lady. Nina mcbride was chief of staff to laura bush and she also worked for president s reagan and George H W Bush and she knows a great deal about the operations than the comings and goings. Gary walters worked as chief usher from 1986, but he came during betty fords time as first lady, and he worked into the Bush Administration. Ms. Sher worked in the office of the first lady lady of Michelle Obama. And Betty Monkman was the curator of the white house, a position that came along as a result of all of the work that Jackie Kennedy did. As a way of introducing you to our panelists said and what kind of operations a first lady hums into, were going to talk about a state dinner and use that as an introduction for all of us and how they are put on, where the first lady comes into it but all of the various parts of the white house that get involved, because it certainly is a big event and one that is involved for everybody. Gary, can you start us off . As chief usher, you handled the resident staff and you can begin. Gary i would be glad to. The first notice of a state visit, comes from the state department. It usually goes through the social secretary of the white house, and soon after these social secretary has had conversations with the first lady to get some direct in, the social secretary would come to the chief usher and lay out the who, when, why how, what of what the state visit was going to be about. Theres a lot of planning. Sometimes a vents are planned for as much as 3, 4 events are planned for as much as 3, 4 months in the future. Sometimes less depending on world situations, but the planning is intensive. I think one of the things people forget about state dinners, they set a style for the white house from the social aspect, and they also set a first ladys style. We deal with things like the flowers, the table settings, what color dress is the first lady going to wear at a state dinner . Because things get coordinated. I can remember the chief florist at the white house getting together with the first ladies and having a simple of the fabric, the color, the texter. How the table was going to be set what kind of decorations. Basically the first lady has a tremendous responsibility to set the stone set the tone for a state visit. I have written down a number of Different Things the first lady gets involved in, first through the social secretary and then threw things she deals directly with the chief usher with the chefs, and they include about eight Different Things. Ive mentioned a few already. Of flowers. The first lady helps choose the flowers, whether they are in season or a particular flower she likes. He decorations not only the decorations with the table but what are going to be put around the state visit. What is the dress . Is it white tie, is it black tie, is a business . The color choices. We have already gone over that with the color fabrics and tablecloths. But there are a couple of other things that usually fall into the first ladys aspect of what she is dealing with and that deals with a great deal of how Service Personnel are going to present themselves. Because quite frequently at these dinners, we have individual aspects of foreign countries, what kinds of foods they like, whether or not we have allergic to certain allergies, i should say to certain foods, food groups, and theres a myriad of details first ladys need to go through, both personally and an involvement with the chefs like roland and other chefs at the white house. The chief floral designer has to be involved in choosing the entertainment with the social secretary. What music is going to be played at the state dinner. What music will be played for the dancing afterward . There are myriad questions that have to be asked afterward. Dr. Kumar can you tell us about the menu . And be sure to tell us about your desserts. Roland as a chef to be involved with a state dinner or any level dinner at the white house, it is really an honor, let me tell you. Even if the money is not so good, it does not matter. [laughter] you are having fun doing it, let me tell you. It can be quite an ordeal to come to a final menu, because we have many people who have their hand in the stew, as they say. You would start with the basic menu. And then, you know, you would come back, as gary said people with allergies or also not only allergy, but people from different domination denomination, like if you have kosher people at the dinner. There are so many things to watch out. A common thing, shellfish. It is amazing what you have to go through before you have a final menu. Usually what i did, i waited until the chef in the kitchen on the menu, and then i put the desert down. It was a sure thing for me because the kinks were worked out. For me, for the desserts, like everybody who comes to the white house, at first you do not know which way to go. You will continue what you have learned outside. And i will say at the white house, up to mrs. Reagans time, pretty much had their menus and desert like you would have at any restaurant around the country. You can go back and look. Youll find pies, chocolate cake , all of this good stuff there. I do not think mrs. Reagan cared for pie and chocolate cake. She said to me once, roland, we in california dont eat cheesecake. Funny, she did, but thats another story. But again, i knew she was looking for something extraordinary. Can i deliver . Can i do it . I do not know. But i am surely going to try like hell. And we also had very interesting man in the white house, the head decorator of the white house, and he was very close to the family and he had a good eye for food and everything and colors, and he did work with us a lot and he did ask me a lot so you get your sources from wherever you can. And i think this is when desert took off on mrs. Reagan and the white house in those years, because she definitely wanted to take a different look, and if you study the desert, you want to do Something Different from what was done before. You want the truth. I am giving you the truth. [laughter] simple as that. It was such a pleasure. I learned one thing. Mrs. Reagan she told me that the days that are the worst, you do not have eight hours. You have 24. She did teach me that. There were several occasions where she requested a special dessert that was so tedious, and in those years, i was the only pastry person. And she requested the special dessert. We had two days before the state dinner. For 40 people. I said, mrs. Reagan the desert is wonderful, but i have only two days left, and that is when she corrected me. She said, you have two days and two nights. And you know, it sounds very harsh at first, but it is the best lesson i have been taught then, because the sky is the limit if you push yourself and you can make it happen. And if you do make it happen, you will feel like the king on the hill, and she is the one who made it happen to me. Dr. Kumar anita, can you tell us about a particular state dinner or anita sure. As gary was talking, i was thinking about the colors and matching the colors to what the first lady was going to wear. I remember Queen Elizabeth the first white ties state dinner the Bush Administration did working very closely with mrs. Bush and the team. One of the most fun calls i got to make was for the keen the queens dresser. I said, what color is the queen wearing, because you did not want the first lady and Queen Elizabeth to be in the same color. That is one of the fun little items. There are so many people and so many things that go into making a beautiful and flawless event that is respectful of your guests, but also reflective of the president and first lady and we all want to put our best foot forward when were working in the white house. Dr. Kumar did the first lady talk about the state dinner being an event that was showcasing america and what their goals were . Can you tell us about that . Susan certainly. There is a huge amount of protocol involved. And that is there is no detail that is too small because whatever one does, one does not want to make a mistake that would be insulting in anyway. There are a great number of details for us. Its important to remember its really about diplomacy. Our second state dinner was in mexico because of the personal touches part of it was tablecloths that were mayan blue and flowers there were roses and prickly pears that were just stunningly beautiful. But my favorite little piece of it was that we had in the east room a dinner, we had wonderful lovely entertainment by beyonce but there were bouquets and baskets of flowers on top of the tent with mayan butterflies looking like they were floating down, and the reason that was significant was monarch butterflies fly from canada to the United States in the summer and then in mexico and where they would land, for the most part, is the birthplace of the president of mexico, president called the run. So president calderon. So that is meaningful. We had an outside chef, a terrific chef, rick bayless, who is a very wellknown well, the food is american, but his food is mexican, and people who would ask why would we do such a thing, because obviously we would want the best mexicans and we had conversations because the first lady and her husband visited and had heard about rick bayless and so that was why. Dr. Kumar betty, can you tell us about some of the research that goes into setting up state dinners and that first ladies might do . Betty we do keep, and the curators office, records Historical Information on entertainment over the years. We were a resource for the particular countries being entertained at a state dinner. We worked with the state office, the first ladys office to order additional pieces of president ial china that would be used for state dinners as well. We had supplements to fill out those services, because they had been depleted by breakage and so forth over the years. In the year 2000, when the White House Historical association worked to found a new state service, we work very closely with mrs. Clinton on the colors, the designs, how this particular colors would look in the various settings in the state dining room or the east room, and i do remember mrs. Clinton from other, mrs. Rodham was living in the house of the time and she would come to the ease to some of these little meetings about showing samples from the porcelain factory, and none of them seem to be satisfactory and she said, you know, in the bathroom of my sweet of my suite, it is a beautiful yellow color and i think we should try that color. We got a simple of the a sample of the wallpaper and we sent it to lennix and it turned out beautiful. That is part of mrs. Rodhams legacy. [laughter] dr. Kumar lets go to looking at transitions, the transition into the white house that the administrations make. Often for the president , he has been running for office for a couple of years and he is a political person who is most likely at the white house numerous times, but coming into the white house there are first ladies who really have not spent much time. We have the example of Michelle Obama who was not familiar with the white house, whereas we have laura bush was very familiar coming in with george w. Bush during the george h w can you tell us a little bit about your trends lets say Michelle Obamas transition and how she prepared for it . Susan Michelle Obama is a serious student, but i have to say, i do not think there is any way one can be prepared to really know what it is going to be like. Her husband had been a u. S. Senator for a few years. That she and the girls had stayed in chicago, where her whole family and support were. The bush people were incredibly helpful and generous about what the office was like and structure and like that, but the bushes personally, when the obamas visited, but there is no substitute for experience. Mrs. Obama and the family were at the hotel and then the blair house and then came to the white house for coffee, as is the tradition inauguration morning and everyone went off for the inauguration, and then what the white house staff does is unbelievable. In that time that the inauguration is going on, they move the bushes out and the obamas in, so they get back from the festivities and they walk in and now they live in this new home. Its really quite startling and i dont think any amount of preparation really can help one understand what this all means. Dr. Kumar anita can you tell us about the bushes coming in and gary can tell us from the viewpoint of running the whole operation how that transition work, but personally . When she came in, what she was thinking . Anita sure. I was not working with her directly, coming in at 2001, but i had been part of the Transition Team in virginia before the election was finally decided and once we were in the governments ace, we were planning from the personnel side. But one of the first visits that a president and an incoming first lady get will be a visit from the chief usher about things that they need to think about and be knowledge about when they come into the white house. And i will let gary talk about that. 2001 was a very different experience. We did not know who the president was going to be. There was no official conversation taking place for the transition. Certainly very different from 2008 two 2009, when in fact, mrs. Bush had everything packed up and almost out of the White House Well before we left january, 2009. There were a few ittybitty boxes in the china room that morning that needed to be moved out. And you know, she would say its not like we know we dont know we are going to leave. She was very prepared. It was very seamless. The new first family is not aware of it, which is really extraordinary. Gary can talk a lot more about that and how the staff handles it. Gary transitions are unique. There is a fouryear transition when president s are reelected and the staff has to start gathering information on those people who are in the Opposition Party who are also expecting to be inaugurated on january 20. So, i know when i was there, i started six to eight months before the election, started gathering information on the candidates who were running and was the Political Parties started to have their selection you start to get information on the nominee. Its difficult. After four years you have to be loyal to the family that is there. It is their home. Luckily, i was involved in the home, not the political aspect of the white house. Some people forget that it times. This is a Family Moving in and out of the white house. And replacing their home or establishing a new home. But when you have a transition after four years, you are wearing two hats. You are loyal to the family that is there and you want the staff to spend 100 of their time doing what has to be done for the family that lives there and the sitting president and first lady. But you also have to be preparing for what may happen in the future. On inaugural day and luckily when you have a second term there is not much going on. Everybody kind of takes a deep wrath and let a deep breath and lets things proceed. But when you are doing a transition from one family to another, but the family knows that they are leaving for years in advance. They have plenty of time to repair themselves mentally and to start moving their furniture furnishings out. When you have a fouryear term, its an entirely different ballgame and the family that is coming in, once you have the election, if the family that is moving out is not going to be there any longer, certainly, the incoming president , there is a long conversation that goes on with both the first lady, but with the president also, because not only is there a home transition on inaugural day, but the west wing wing, which is very symbolic of the presidency and one of the first things the press want to see on inaugural day is the oval office. What desk did the president choose, what paintings did he choose for the walls, what statues are in there, what ones went out . Theres a tremendous amount that goes on. We have about five hours. By the time the president leaves for the inaugural festivities and comes back from the inaugural parade and one family is moved completely out, another family is moved completely in, and when i say completely, all of their clothes are hung up their Favorite Foods are in the pantry, all of their toiletries are in the bathrooms, all the rooms have been changed to their desire. Its done in five hours. We refer to it as organized chaos. [laughter] gary we divide the staff into groups. The staff responsible for moving things out and moving things in. We only have two elevators in the white house. The president s elevator is the larger of the two. There is a lot of going up and down, a lot of elevator traffic. Luckily i just got to be the maestro who gave directions and the wonderful staff, including roland and the kitchen staff who were preparing for the events that were going to take place that evening and in coming days as the new president welcomes in and thanks the people who helped him get elected. Dr. Kumar roland, i wonder if you can tell us about another aspect of it, and that is the human relationships that form that are close, when a president and his family leave, the impact that it has on the staff . Roland yes yes, yes. It is a very strong bond between the family and the staff because we rarely get to know we really get to know everybody from the president , first lady on down, family, pets, name it. The white house is a big family. That is what it is. And everybody is there for only one thing, one thing only, to please the family. What they want, whatever they like, whatever the family not only the president and first lady, but anybody in the f