When it comes to group business, Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf "gets" it. Rarely is there a group that comes to town that the 66-year-old mayor does not personally interact with - from a formal welcome address to shaking attendees' hands. She frequently travels with the Virginia Beach CVB to promote the city. In 1988, she was sworn in as the first directly elected mayor and the first woman mayor in Virginia Beach's history. She was re-elected in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004.

What do you attribute to your success?
I know everything in life is temporary and I make every day count. So when my time is up - way in the future I hope - I can at least feel that I made a positive difference in the lives of others.

How did you get involved in politics?
I was always interested in doing things that would make the community stronger. My bachelor of science degree is in elementary education. My husband was gracious enough to say he would earn the living. That gave me the flexibility to be a volunteer in the community, practically full-time.

I'm only half joking when I say I'm an only child so politics helped me build a much larger family. What I look at in the city is how well we can work together to make good things happen. For instance, the city has 29,000 volunteers.

Your feelings about meetings and conventions?
I look at things from the perspective of a short woman. I'm five feet and shrinking. When I look at destinations, I want to be sure they are safe, that I can easily retrieve my own bags, can find transportation to the central city or to my hotel without a hassle. I want my guest room to be easily accessible to the meeting rooms.

I want to go outside and feel comfortable and safe. I look for these things in other cities and expect them in Virginia Beach.

What has been your proudest accomplishment?
My marriage and my children. We have two daughters, Marcie, who is now 41, and Heide, 37. Had I gained everything else but lost the foundation that created the stability in my life I wouldn't have felt I had really accomplished anything at all. I wanted to be sure we came along life's path together as a family. I have been married for 46 years. [Roger, retired from United States Coast Guard and Ford Motor Company, serves as her manager.] Marcie is executive director of a museum in Charlotte; she and her husband have two children. Heide is a pilot with United Airlines, flying all over the world. She just called us on her way to Hong Kong.

Who has had the biggest influence on you?
When my mother was very ill, my father brought the whole family to a resort located in the Catskills called Grossinger's. I was so impressed by Jennie Grossinger, who served as hostess. She would visit every single table in the dining room and treat everyone like personal guests. My Hebrew name and her mother's Hebrew name were the same and a camaraderie struck up between us even though we were very much apart in age. She would let me walk around the grounds and through the buildings with her. I watched her interact with her staff. She treated them with such dignity and instilled in them a sense of pride in the property. When I became mayor, I modeled myself after her. Virginia Beach had all this magnificent potential but we needed to do some tidying up, some rehabilitation, and most of all, we needed to make our people proud of their city.

Personally, my parents have had the biggest influence on me. My father was a student in the apprentice school at Newport News shipbuilding and dry-dock. He was on his way to class, when a piece of metal being welded flew off, and hit and blinded him in his right eye. The apprentice school kicked him out because he was considered disabled.

He did a lot of things in his life but when he turned 34 he came home and told my mom he was going to go to law school. He did, even though he did not have a college degree. He passed the bar the first time he took it, on my 10th birthday.

My mom was one of six children. Her father owned a pharmacy which he left to the only boy in the family. Her brother agreed to pay for my mom to go to pharmacy school and in return she would work at the drugstore.

There really were not many women in college those days. As a matter of fact, the curriculum was four years for women and two years for men. But nevertheless, she became a pharmacist. My parents always taught me that if somebody slams a door in your face, look for an open window.

What would people be surprised to learn abut you?
I've led a very open life. I was running for re-election for my third term when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had lost my mother when she was only 57 years to this disease. She only survived 18 months after the diagnosis.

I called Roger at work at asked him if he would mind terribly if I held a news conference to explain to the public what I had ahead of me. He said go ahead but asked me why I was calling. I said some men think women are damaged goods if they're not 100 percent whole in their bodies. He said that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I didn't marry your breasts, I married your brain.

I did hold a news conference. In the meantime, one of my male detractors in the community was spreading the rumor that I'd be dead in no time. I made my battle very public. This happened just after my 55th birthday, just like my mom. Knowing my mom only had a short time after her diagnosis, it became important to me to make a difference. I reached out to the U.S. Conference of Mayors and we created a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health and I was able to educate more than 500 mayors about the importance of mammograms and that breast cancer isn't just a women's issue. I was very lucky. I had a lumpectomy, went through radiation treatment, but did not have to go through chemotherapy. I took a new drug at that time called Tamoxifen for five years.

What do you see the future holding?
I hope a lot more. Because I have a lot of energy and the thought of having to just sit back on a porch in a rocking chair is the most negative thing I can think of. I love the city and I would like to continue to lead it if that's at all possible … providing the public will renew my contract next November.

° Andrea Doyle is Convene's senior writer.