I was pondering what I would write about this month. Sitting at my desk, looking at my computer screen, I was going through a list of ideas in my head none of which excited me enough to start writing. Now, you have to understand the state of my desk. I have piles, not nice, neat piles just piles, of various documents and publications, binders and my engagement calendar is under there, too (I know, I do have a Blackberry and I try to use it to keep track of my schedule but I like my paper calendar).
To the right of my laptop just below my phone is a collection of sticky notes of various sizes, colors and advertising a number of services they hope I can’t live without. On these notes are phone numbers and email addresses collected mostly from my voice mail and from phone conversations. This multi-layered pile of adhesive notes is my to-do/in-progress list. My assistant director gave me a cardboard back to a tablet (he just ran out of paper) with an email address on it and since it was roomy, it also joined the note pile. I’ve included a picture of it here. This piece of cardboard reflects some of what I did over the past couple of weeks. Let’s take a tour, shall we?
At the top is the most exciting entry, an unsolicited offer of a sponsorship for our 80’s Night fundraiser (that’s 1980s, not 1880s). I can’t tell you how exciting it is getting a phone call from someone wanting to give you money – it just doesn’t happen very often. Below that is the name of a colleague from another local museum and below that is a call from a retirement community wanting a 45 minute to an hour presentation about local history. Just under her name is the contact for updating our museum’s listing in the AAA guide. If you look down on the right hand side, there is the number for the sign company that is making the new name tags for staff and board members which we need in time for a donor development event at the end of the month.
The lone “Chad” in the middle is the name of the representative from the HVAC company installing a new heat pump/air conditioner for the first floor of the museum. Related to that is the crossed-out name next to it, the one below that on the left and the email in blue ink running perpendicularly down the center. These people are contacts from the county’s facilities department who I needed to talk to so that the parking lot next to us, which we share with the county, would be free for the crane to come and lift the HVAC compressor to the roof of our building. The information at the bottom left relates to the rental of our activities room by a local group of CPAs for their continuing education workshops. Oh, and lastly, near the middle of the sheet, one on the right and one on the left are people with whom I discussed historical research.
That is the end of our tour. I think it gives you a little bit of insight into what an administrator of a small local history organization does.