velma.org

"I have need of the sky. I have business with the grasses. I will up and away at the break of day to where the hawk is wheeling lone and high and where the clouds drift by."   - Richard Hovey, 1894-1961

Friday, September 22, 2006

And we're off!

to the Annual Meeting of the Board of Councillors!

In my keeping are:
- 90 nametags personalized with a very cute meal choice sticker, their dinner table, hike choice and sunday activity
- four spreadsheets for registration
- four spreadsheets for dinner seating and vest sizes
- one master spreadsheet that knows everything (mine!)
- four banker's boxes of supplies divided by event activity
- 9 massive post-it easel/tabletop pads!
- 1 easel
- and one 4 inch binder with hopefully everything else I might possibly need to know.

I feel prepared. I'm so good, I not only had time to blog - but to edit this post three times! And get us bagels - toasted with cream cheese.

And miracle of all miracles - I slept last night - and I slept pretty well.

Maybe that shot of NyQuil helped a little.
Think of it as preventative treatment...

=)

And bless his heart - Mark's coming with me as official Event Photographer and Velma Anxiety Reducer.

And Thank you!!!! to Jess for last-minute cat-sitting!!! Good Luck!

Monday, September 18, 2006

For Kenya

Banana Bread Muffins
From Recipes for a Small Planet

1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup honey
3 eggs
1 cup mashed banana pulp
1/3 cup water and 1/4 cup milk powder OR 1/2 cup milk or soy milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups whole wheat flour
walnut pieces

Cream together butter and honey with an electric mixer until light. Beat in the eggs, banana pulp, water/milk, and vanilla. Stir together dry ingredients and stir them into the wet mixture with as few strokes as possible. Stir in 1 to 2 cups walnut pieces. Turn the batter into an oiled loaf pan; bake at 325 for about an hour, until well browned and a tester comes out clean. OR scoop about 1/3 cup batter into a cupcake-lined muffin pan. Bake at 325 for about 40 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen muffins. Awesome when topped with Nutella.

My changes in italics.

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Sunday, September 10, 2006

With a spoon

Thank you, Universe. Thank you, Cuisinart. Thank you, Marlene, for the Cuisinart.

I have been questing for years for authentic thai peanut sauce - because this sauce is up there with chocolate as a nectar of the goddesses. I've tried many recipes - all of them with peanut butter - all of them unsatisfying.

So, I decided that, as a proud new owner of a Cuisinart Food Processor, I might venture out into the world of recipes that say something like "process into a fine meal."

And I am soooo glad I tried...

I made peanut sauce. Peanut sauce worthy of spinach prahram, of chicken satay, of eating with a spoon. When Sarah asked me what I was eating it with (I was talking with her on the phone during this culinary adventure), I answered, "a spoon." Honestly. Knowing what's in peanut sauce, I know that's not a good habit to foster. But, for glory's sake, the peace and joy and satisfaction garnered from this is.....

Well, check it out for yourself. Don't worry about the quantities, but be careful of burning your tounge. Don't forget to try it with a little chocolate. May I recommend Sharfenberger milk?

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Thursday, September 07, 2006

past work

In the mail tonight was an invitation to Nature's Inspirations. I opened it and got all warm and fuzzy. As a staff member of Committee for Green Foothills, I managed the creation and execution of this event three years ago. I learned about art, exhibitions (not exhibitioning!), art juries, gallery lighting, hanging art. I worked with an amazing group of volunteers. I had fun. The mailing party dreams were worth it.

So, I'm proud that the structure and systems I put together still works. I'm proud that I helped create a fundraising event that makes money. I'm proud that in my small way, I've helped keep the foothills green.

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current work

Today was a good day. It was a long day and I got a lot done. What did I do?

8AM
- typed up talking points for our board president for the lunch he was attending with board members. asked a senior staff member if there was anything else I needed to include in the talking points. found the section from the minutes from 5 years ago that he suggested including.
- mailed a 1/2 inch thick briefing book (picked up from the printer yesterday afternoon) to 12 Councillors telling them everything they need to know about attending the Annual Meeting, that I'm managing, which is in two weeks.
- Made a special note on bright orange paper detailing information about meals during the Annual Meeting, to be included in above package.
- made sure that the office manager had the directions to the lunch so that she could tell lost attendees how to get there.
- Also, in the briefing book packet was the "face book" which I made sure reflected current staff - meaning I had to take out the page of a staff member that just resigned.
- checked and responded to most new emails.
- called the restaurant and then delivered talking points and framed pictures to the lunch.
- ate a donut.
- called and left messages with board president updating him on who would be late for lunch and by how much. and letting him know where to look for the talking points and framed pictures.
- prepared 10 packets of materials for Executive Director interviewees, which had 8 different parts, five of which had to be copied, all of which had to be collated.
- copied the front page article of the San Francisco Chronicle about the newly discovered tallest living thing. This was included in the packet for the board members. I also added our newly printed Annual Report to the packet. I put labels on the packets.
- updated the Acting executive director about the status of things for the board meeting.
- called the search firm looking for our next executive director to make sure they knew to look for the packets i'd made for the interviewees.
- tracked down a contract and w-9, copied them, scanned them, and delivered them to the rightful places.
- rewrote my to-do list.
- made a cd of documents for the past executive director
- put the checks in order that came back with our bank statement, copied the bank statement, highlighted and flagged the checks that our ED needed to review.
- helped with the mail opening.
- accepted an order of cookies for the afternoon snack for the board meeting.

1PM
- made a pot of coffee for the board meeting. grabbed a handful of creamers to take to the front of the office where the meeting was.
- ate some beef stew.
- double checked that there was enough food for the evening's meeting.
- recruited help for moving a small table into the conference room for me to take minutes on.
- arranged the chairs around the table. i could only fit 12.
- filled my mechanical pencil up with lead and grabbed a post-it pad from the supply closet because the one at my desk had wandered off.
- set my table up for the board meeting with paper, post-its, timer, board materials, water bottle, tape recorder, pencil, pen, highlighter.
- made a "poor man's mocha" - half a cup of coffee and a packet of cocoa.
- welcomed the board members to the office
- realized I'd forgotten to get one of the board members some materials and ran to get it for him.
- realize that my wedding is in a month.
- sat down to take minutes
- kept track of time for the meeting periodicaly letting the board president know how much we were running over the time on the agenda.
- took 6 pages, double sided of handwritten notes for the meeting, which I'll type up in the morning, with far fewer typos than this post.
- recorded the adjusted the agenda times during the break and ran to the ladies room.
- ate half of a cookie.
- checked in with two board members after the meeting about a couple of specific items.
- cleaned off my little table.
- checked my email and logged off.
- made it all look easy.
- left for home.
5:30PM

It was a full day. Most days aren't this full, unless it's a month or less until the Annual Meeting, which is in two weeks.

And for those of you feeling sorry for me for having so much to do right now with two events, I have to say that I planned it this way. We set the date after I learned about the Annual Meeting. I knew what it would be like now and so far my hypothesis is proving to be true - that with so much at work, I have no energy or desire to obsess about the hitchin party, which I otherwise would do. So, in a sense, I'm grateful for a work event becuase this is helping keep the hitchin party low-key and simple, which is what we wanted. So, it's really ok.

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