[pelblog] Happy Fun Seacoast Day!
so, my birthday party was excellent. there was a mod rock / classic rock dance party in the staff rec room, where we have a bar and a dart board and a ping-pong table. i stayed up too late, drank too much, and then had to work at 8am the following morning :)
saturday was Seacoast Day... which was basically an island 'open house' for folks from the Portsmouth area. out of 150 folks, only five of them had ever been out to the island before. so this was an opportunity to reach out to folks who had heard of Star but didn't know what it was about or anything. there was a mix of private citizens, small business owners, folks from the Portsmouth Arts Council, religious leaders, and a handful of reporters.
i spent the morning setting up A/V stuff... a video projector here, a mic and PA there, that sort of thing. once the CEO and volunteers arrived i went over to ombudsman / errand boy, and spent most of the rest of the day on that duty.
most people would complain about having to do that kind of customer service all day. but honestly - and this may not be much of a surprise to folks who know me - i kind of like doing it. i did a lot of just wandering around, talking to folks about the island, or how their day was going, or answering questions about what was going on, and that sort of thing. most of my actual duties were finished before people actually showed up on the island, so i guess it was more gladhanding and less "actual" work. but i had my great big "island PR" smile on, and frankly it was pretty easy to. everyone seemed to be having a great time, and just being on the island on a gorgeous early-summer day puts me in a good mood to begin with. it bodes well for my full-summer job, where i'll be doing this a lot more!
later in the afternoon, the pel staff had a town-hall / roundtable-type meeting with our new CEO to discuss a couple of issues that have come up. i somehow got nominated to be one of the facilitators - again, this probably is not too surprising to anyone but me - and i think we did a good job of breaking down some barriers and getting rid of some misconceptions on both sides. i have some hope that things will get better from here; if everyone backs up what they said yesterday with actions going forward, then this should be a good environment for everybody. if not... well, it may be a difficult summer. but i am "cautiously optimistic".
i realized yesterday that i'm wearing a lot of hats when i'm out here. obviously, first and foremost i'm a Pelican. it's in my own best interests to make sure that our community is protected and supported, since i'm part of it! beyond that, though, i'm a conferee, so i care about the impact of decisions on the conferences and guests. and then there's the whole Corportation thing - even though I'm not officially a member yet, i still have the interests of the Corporation and the island as a business in mind. it does make things like establishing a relationship with the CEO sort of... well, "interesting". in that Chinese proverb kind of way.
also, I was approached yesterday during Seacoast Day by someone who works with my dad on the Facilities committee about joining a subcommittee to examine alternative energy sources for the island going forward. so, heads-up to all you folks that are into everything from solar to wind to bio-diesel to composting to sustainable living techniques - i may be hitting you up for information soon.
in the evening we did some low-key partying on the staff dorm ('Shack') deck that overlooks White Island and the southwest side of the island. while you folks back in Boston were sweating in the heat, we were kicking back in the high-70s with a stiff breeze from the south. the cloud lightning over the North Shore was amazing - every 30 seconds or so there would be a flash and two or three clouds would light up part of the night sky.
i'm working today but it's just front desk stuff so it's pretty low-key. supervisor orientation/training is today, first-years show up on tuesday, and everyone else on wednesday. and then saturday's the big day.
wish us luck!
saturday was Seacoast Day... which was basically an island 'open house' for folks from the Portsmouth area. out of 150 folks, only five of them had ever been out to the island before. so this was an opportunity to reach out to folks who had heard of Star but didn't know what it was about or anything. there was a mix of private citizens, small business owners, folks from the Portsmouth Arts Council, religious leaders, and a handful of reporters.
i spent the morning setting up A/V stuff... a video projector here, a mic and PA there, that sort of thing. once the CEO and volunteers arrived i went over to ombudsman / errand boy, and spent most of the rest of the day on that duty.
most people would complain about having to do that kind of customer service all day. but honestly - and this may not be much of a surprise to folks who know me - i kind of like doing it. i did a lot of just wandering around, talking to folks about the island, or how their day was going, or answering questions about what was going on, and that sort of thing. most of my actual duties were finished before people actually showed up on the island, so i guess it was more gladhanding and less "actual" work. but i had my great big "island PR" smile on, and frankly it was pretty easy to. everyone seemed to be having a great time, and just being on the island on a gorgeous early-summer day puts me in a good mood to begin with. it bodes well for my full-summer job, where i'll be doing this a lot more!
later in the afternoon, the pel staff had a town-hall / roundtable-type meeting with our new CEO to discuss a couple of issues that have come up. i somehow got nominated to be one of the facilitators - again, this probably is not too surprising to anyone but me - and i think we did a good job of breaking down some barriers and getting rid of some misconceptions on both sides. i have some hope that things will get better from here; if everyone backs up what they said yesterday with actions going forward, then this should be a good environment for everybody. if not... well, it may be a difficult summer. but i am "cautiously optimistic".
i realized yesterday that i'm wearing a lot of hats when i'm out here. obviously, first and foremost i'm a Pelican. it's in my own best interests to make sure that our community is protected and supported, since i'm part of it! beyond that, though, i'm a conferee, so i care about the impact of decisions on the conferences and guests. and then there's the whole Corportation thing - even though I'm not officially a member yet, i still have the interests of the Corporation and the island as a business in mind. it does make things like establishing a relationship with the CEO sort of... well, "interesting". in that Chinese proverb kind of way.
also, I was approached yesterday during Seacoast Day by someone who works with my dad on the Facilities committee about joining a subcommittee to examine alternative energy sources for the island going forward. so, heads-up to all you folks that are into everything from solar to wind to bio-diesel to composting to sustainable living techniques - i may be hitting you up for information soon.
in the evening we did some low-key partying on the staff dorm ('Shack') deck that overlooks White Island and the southwest side of the island. while you folks back in Boston were sweating in the heat, we were kicking back in the high-70s with a stiff breeze from the south. the cloud lightning over the North Shore was amazing - every 30 seconds or so there would be a flash and two or three clouds would light up part of the night sky.
i'm working today but it's just front desk stuff so it's pretty low-key. supervisor orientation/training is today, first-years show up on tuesday, and everyone else on wednesday. and then saturday's the big day.
wish us luck!