2018-05-04 - 6:40 a.m.

I so love where I work.

Seriously

I have these weird technology glitches ALL THE TIME

and it is not my skill set or my ability

It seems rather more than typical

But I feel like Amelia
in that french movie where when she walks into a room her kinetic energy makes the lighbulbs Pop and short out!

Fun film...

I am now trying to just add a simple EVENT on FB for the arts org I support

and the darn application won't let me change the TIME!

My draft says it is a 7am event!

CRAP

I could go with any marketing is good marketing and hope people see the event and then go to our web site or call for the ACTUAL Time realizing that is WRONG

OR WAIT to get it up CORRECTLY

This time I will wait.

Sometimes in the past I choose to send out a blast of a newsletter even though it had a code problem KNOWING

GETTING IT DONE

was better than NOT getting it done.

The board may disagree as few of them are doing this particular task and work.

The guy who used to do it was not apprechiated and there was this resentment in fact as he was not present at board meetings

and he wasn't there putting up decorations for events, or cleaning up

or working on costumes being shuttled back and forth for cleaning

and all the other HANDS ON WOrk that the many many volunteers do.

But he was doing what he could contribute.

I think it a problem when organizations don't value the work some do.

This group recruited someone else to take over marketing from me which is fabulous. Thinking she will have more time.

I think not in the end.

She did a bang up job with some tremendously wonderful things she brought to our group and I so love her energy and her presence and she is this incredible person.

But I think it a bit unfair for them to try to shift the work I do to her for a couple reasons:

1. They have no idea how much work I have done. I get it done in odd hrs and its ON ME That I have not created the great report to track every item and tell them of every detail

BUT THAT WAS a few years back they were irritated our board meetings were too long and we were REQUESTED To trust each other and NOT capture every minute detail.

I listened. and accordingly never got in habit of doing that.

But this year I think I need to take an extra couple hours to add to my volunteer time to be more .... well it seems like a stupid waste of time...
but I think its only to be called SELF PROMOTING

when one broadcasts all the work they do rather than do it quietly in the background.

The second really is more my style DESPITE the fact I am an obvious extrovert.

I don't think they need to see every granular step.

But that is perhaps just WRONG on my part

and maybe it is not self promoting but good communication and organization and leadership and perhaps just my own justifying here for reasons I fall short in those skills?

Perhaps...

Biggest challenge which I can agree they SHOULD be irritated with me is that work of late, really since last April to be honest, when I shifted into a new full time role at my company

REQUIRES me to work longer hours

at least it did at first

Trying to balance work and life.

When I was a contractor I could spend more time on the volunteer work.

This year I QUIT being involved in one gardening group I had been involved with for the past 10 years. I have no time to invest in their mission of public education of sustainable gardening and lawn care practices in our community.

It served me well when kids were young frankly as then I worked on the children's programming and ran programs for kids I could bring all mine to!

It also gave us opportunity to do many fun things as a family affordably-

like my kids got to be tasters at the 4H Bake competition at the county fair as I was a judge for the flower category of all the entries.

And we got to go to many fairs or festivals where I worked a craft for kids teaching something about gardening to them which meant I got to bring in my whole clan FREE.

YES! IT was a whole network of events that my children then were able to participate in , which when you have a clan of a bunch of kid is otherwise really expensive and would have been out of budget but for the volunteering which returned that benefit!

So I gave up being a master gardener.

For years I worked at our local Sat morn Farmer's market in my town and it was super fun as I would walk there and meet people in my immediate community.

The last few years the organization I am in shifted to support OTHER markets and took my small town off its list. They wanted to reach more people. Felt preaching to the choir out here in this still rather mostly rural surrounding area of this small town area. They decided to support community education in more densely populated towns which are a good 30 to 45 min drive for me.

That was a chore...
AT first I would enjoy a bike ride to the market and work that one which is a few town's over. But then they expanded out even further away.

Driving early Sat morn to go hang in someone else's community to teach how to garden is just not as much fun for me. Turns out the volunteer base also seems to be getting older . There was trend there for a few years that this org did a great job or recruiting really YOUNG People who were entering the actual farming profession out her. There are a few and they were awesome to meet and interact with.

They joined and learned alot and now are busy running their businesses.

There are some cool young farmers in their 20s and 30s making a go of it in my area.

The revival of small farms is not families who had the farm in their family for generations but a few collectives of young people that actually made some money in tech or elsewhere quickly and saved and then collectively bought a patch of land and shifted to being farmers successfully. The secret is they have some other source of income clearly! Some are programmers...
ok most are programmers it seems to be that I come across who use that skill somehow to get freelance work once in a while to support their lifestyle of doing what they love.

The one painter I sat for a number of times does the same. He makes his money working on writing code on projects and looks for high return short term projects so he can spend his time painting.

BEAUTIFUL Work that he then sells a few pieces of a year for thousands. Hes in the market of fine artists. He only needs to sell a couple a year I think and with his programming work he gets to spend much time out on his bike every day and painting.

Neat guy

But of course single....

he doesn't make enough to support a family. And I think hard to be an artist and keep that balance of being able to create art and live with anyone else. I get that.

My heart breaks for ART my friend (HA so non creative knickname for him) who just never got really good at marketing and selling his work! He is truly talented

but whereas this one guy painted some portraits of me I am sure he sold...

Arts' got burned... (HA HA Hate to be so dramatic... )

but bigger sadness is Art has never been able to find a good way to support himself and find that balance to be able to create.

ITs like he can be unemployed and relying on others and have bursts of creativity

OR he finds jobs that tap his energy

are physical and demanding..

I swear the key here is education.

I think the artists who come out of programs dedicated to their art end up in a network

That supports their viability as artists.

The self made just don't have that network!

It's super hard to market and sell and then survive on one's art!

So Art went to school in organizational management, He is so smart and talented but has not found a job with his degree. He is not energetic enough I think to be sending out the hundreds of resumes

he is not hungry enough I suppose

and he is old

lets face it that matters

NO matter once in a job he brings energy and commitment...

he is having a heck of time finding one.

Meanwhile.... I just hope he is painting.

I have to get out to the Mexican Resteraunt with my girls one of these days where he painted a mural.

He gets those gigs once in a while... but I Think it was Last year he did that now... whenever he fixed my door. around that time. Last Fall?

Back to fighting with technology.
FAIL on the FB Event update.

Back to updating the web site...

OH the one thing I wanted to note is I am proud to see a few emails on our org FB Page inquiring about a recent event that were from people who never came to our events before.

When there was a show of hands how many who came had been there before and for how many it was the first time we had about half of our attendees who raised hand for the first time!

The board may not know, but I KNOW some of that was due to new personnel who brought their own fan base (almost like their own book of business!high value !) But also

our FB marketing campaign

AND our RADIO campaigns were successful!

I ran local radio spots.

They clearly were effective as I see some of the activity from town one station in that we never had anyone from the area come to our stuff before.

SUCCESS!!

I am sure I will forget to mention this to the board... but a little bit of analytics is not hard to do to see the effectiveness of the marketing done.

They really pay little attention as I have emailed reports. Hey Come to think of it I did send updates but the person I sent them to didn't print them out and hand them out.. Maybe she didn't get them...

I thought they were ignored and just chose to not address it and keep doing what I could.

CE la vie...

So now I will update our web site before heading to work.

Been on time all week and gave girls attention in morn so just will get this one thing done this AM.

I have to be proud I KNOW I did a bang up job of marketing this year seeing the emails. One who came to our event actually works at a radio station where I sent a PR Blast ! So that made me happy! (Even if they board doesn't fully get it.... that there was a correlation between the marketing work I did and they kinda ignored and the tremendous success and turn out at our recent events. The Radio spots and PR sent out to media definately worked and FB Ads are VERY Effective when targeted!)

�

�