so ummmmm
3 people out of 64 applicants. i'm pretty damn proud of myself. to be perfectly honest, if someone had told me that those were my odds to begin with i wouldn't have applied. so i'm taking this as a learning experience in self-confidence and growth, as well as pushing myself past what i think my limits are. i'm going to be doing a lot of stepping outside of my comfort zone.
so, the place is called People's Market. it's a student-run collective that was started by two women in the 70s. this is the mission statement:
A. To provide a place for the University community to buy natural and fresh foods.
B. To provide the University community with an alternative eating place.
C. To promote the co-operative and collective movements.
D. To educate and inform the community about nutritional, political, and social issues in the realm of the food industry.
so basically, we try and get most of our products (well, all) from as close to the original source as possible. we don't carry coke products, for example. we carry coffee from a guy who started his business in amherst. we carry tea made by a woman who used to work at people's market not too long ago and who now lives up the street and grows her own herbs, makes and packages her own tea. it's a really, really cool place with awesome ideals.
today was training, and it was a lot to take in. just 5 hours (minus some down-time when other co-managers came in to hang out and see what we were up to, which was usually followed by lots of random, relaxed conversation) of being told how everything works down to every little detail. we learned everything about running the coffee station (how to brew this type of coffee, that one, when to have backup, how to manage that, keeping the decaf warm, the process of brewing iced coffee, keeping everything stocked, managing the henion baked goods, what to do in a "coff-tastrophy", etc etc etc), your responsibilities if you're stocking for your shift (cutting cheese, filling spread containers, facing products, etc), and how to deal with the cash registers, which i've never done before. there are also tons of different committees for running different aspects of the market, whether it be buying, finance, inventory, catering, community outreach, maintenance, and about 5 others that i can't think of.
basically this job is going to challenge me in ways that i normally wouldn't choose to challenge myself in, but that's going to be really, really good for me. i think that at this point in my life i need to be pushed outside of my comfort zone. i really do. i'm scared, and i'm nervous about fucking this or that up, but for the most part i'm okay with that inevitability. everyone is so nice, and constantly looking out for everyone else. it's going to feel good to be a part of something like this, to have a piece of this market like i've never had a piece of any other job before. i'm not a co-manager under a supervisor or even a boss. everyone is a co-manager, and that's that. it's exciting. i'm also hoping to get involved with the community outreach committee in hopes of organizing some sort of campus clean-up event. since UMass is such a huge party school, there's trash everywhere. not literally, but sometimes it's gross and i think we need to take the responsibility and clean it up. the cool thing about this is that if you want to do something, you can take it upon yourself to do it. another cool thing is how we vote by complete consensus. if something goes up for a vote that you're not THAT okay with, but that you could put up with, you can either abstain or just vote yes. however, if ONE person votes no, it won't go through and that's that. so everyone is encouraged to be open about this and to really only vote now if you absolutely cannot deal with what's being proposed, like if you feel like it's bad for the market as a whole.
anyway that's that. i'm excited/nervous, and looking forward to making a lot of new friends (everyone seems so close-knit, and there are 23 other co-managers i'll be getting to know) and pushing myself to take the initiative and to do well.