What Does Debra Really Do at Work All Day?

Hola Amigos,

I know many of you all have been curious to know what I really do at work all day.  So, I decided to take the afternoon, while at work :), to share some of the insights of my VISTA position.  I know my pictures SCREAM FUN, but it's not all play for me; I actually get some work done, occasionally :).

Well, here goes...

I work in an office with 4 awesome women above a local restaurant called Eggington's (which has AMAZING FOOD by the way) in downtown Casper. On a side note: I think this building has a lot of character. Pardon my digression. 

At any rate, each day really is different when I come to work.  I go in at 9am and leave around 5pm.  Today, for instance, I had a noon deadline to submit a radio commercial spot for our upcoming volunteer event for the National Make A Difference Day, which is October 23rd (mark your calendar see what's happening in your community *wink), but some of my agencies hadn't confirmed whether we would be partnering with them or not.  The contact person at the radio station needed those details to fill the 60 second spot and I was ripping and running trying to contact community partners and finish the script and what not.  On top of that we had a staff meeting from 9:30am to 11am.  Remember that I said I don't come in until 9am, so that didn't give me much time to finish the details. 

Let's back up for a minute.  You may be wondering why I waited to the last minute to write the script and figure out the details, right? Well, I actually submitted the script once I got to work, but the radio station needed 60 seconds worth of information and not 30 seconds that I was previously told.  So, I had to think quick, and figure out some fluff, good fluff of course, to fill the extra time.

Let me give you another example of my daily activities.  Last week I hosted my first event which was the 4th Annual Volunteer and Workforce Fair.  I worked with another VISTA member who is out of Riverton (2 hours west of Casper) and was the lead coordinator of getting businesses to participate like Sears and K-Mart.  While he did that, for 2 weeks I was busy recruiting local non-profits who were seeking volunteers to participate.  Overall, this event was pretty successful.  We had News Channel 13 to cover us and I found myself on local television and my voice was heard on a live remote radio feed (two very neat opportunities I must say).  And the radio personality was from Birmingham, AL!!! What a small world.

In the midst of all that craziness, I had to complete an activity called, Passport to Organizations, in which my supervisor gave me a list of about 75 different nonprofits in Natrona and Converse Counties and I had to call 8-10 different organizations to set up 45 minute long meetings.  The goal with this activity was to help me get oriented with the non-profits we work with and to get my name out there in the community that if they need volunteers they should come see me :-).  After assessing the needs of the nonprofits, I am able to match volunteers.  So the other major part of my job is to help individuals who are seeking volunteer opportunities and match them by skills and interests with organizations that need some help.  This is done via our database, www.volunteerwyoming.org . Through our database I am able to track volunteer hours, create reports, manage referrals, create events and opportunities throughout the entire state if I needed to.

One of my fellow ServeWyoming VISTA Volunteer member and I have also been working on the upcoming Special Olympics Fall Tournament volunteer recruitment.  They need 300 volunteers for this 3 day event next week.  We've only been recruiting for less than 2 weeks and it is TOUGH!! So we are really relying on businesses and large organizations to step up and help.  I'm confident that we will meet the need and make sure that all involved have a great experience.

On a calmer day when I'm not rushing to meetings or on a conference call, the ladies and I take turns answering the phones and do routine office work.  Every week I turn in a time sheet just like everyone else, as well as a weekly progress report to keep track of all the chaos :-).

I haven't started started to research or write grants yet, but I will be attending a major grant writing workshop for a week this month in the state's capital,  Cheyenne.  I was awarded a $900 scholarship to attend so I was super excited about that.  In return, I have to complete at least 40 hours of grant writing for any nonprofit in the state of Wyoming, but it will be worth every hour since I will receive a certificate saying I'm a certified grant writer.

I know all of this work is preparation for something extraordinary, but until then I'm enjoying the moment and ALL the lifelong lessons that I've learned thus far.  This is hard work for many reasons, but I'm loving every minute of it even when I call home stressed. I asked God to challenge me and He definitely has delivered.

Well, I hope today's lesson on "What Does Debra Really Do at Work All Day?" has helped.  If you have any questions or comments or suggestions, please comment or email me.  I would love to read your thoughts.  Thanks for tuning in to another edition of Debra's Westward Expansion!

Hasta pronto,