Day 3!!  Team BAM!  Our group project has been going well.  We are a great group.  Each of us has a place and we hit the ground running.  So far so good. Go TEAM BAM!!!!

Day two was a bit rough as I started the morning not feeling well.  Our guest speaker Mary Carpenter helped me get through it though as she was interesting and explained how important it is as a leader and a person I might add to simply smile. This is something that comes naturally to me as I am a "smiler". When I first went to Air Force basic training my TI noticed this the first thing and never let me forget it. Evidently basic training is no place for a smile.  But as Mary stated today we need to smile, listen and show our co-workers that we are interested and invested in them.  This will translate to a stronger work environment and life in general.

Go team BAM!!  We have our team.  We have our project. We have a team goal and so far are achieving it well.  We all agree that the results of our group project are going to be very helpful.  That's a lot of "we" so far.  After all you can't have a team without "we". One day down!

Digging My Way Out

Here I am sitting in the middle of a big pile of stuff.  Papers, pens, pencils, notebooks, calculators, bags, folders, highlighters, markers, papers, computers, cell phone, medicines, books, papers, (did I mention papers?) are scattered all around me.  This is how I could describe my life at the moment.  Scattered.  

Today I am determined to put some of these papers away.  It's crunch time for my PLMI homework with no time to waste.  I won't even go into how difficult it has been to pick the tiny little budget my library gets out of the county budget.  We don't get a budget so I am constructing one from all these papers.  So here I am picking little budget tidbits out of papers. 

I will admit that I may be a bit sensitive to papers at the moment.  This past January I went back to college and have thus far completed 23 credits.  Obviously I have been working at breakneck speed and it may have taken a toll on me these last few weeks as I have had to take a break from it and start to unwind from the madness of full-time college, work at the library, PLMI, and life in general.  Funny how you think you can do it all and life lets you know that is not the case.  The last three weeks or so I have been having some health problems and my stomach, colon and uterus have decided it's time for me to slow down and guess what they won.  Slow down I did but now I am more behind that ever on everything!  So here I am in a sea of scattered madness trying to dig myself out one paper at a time.  

There are 12 days left in my college term with a new one starting July 1st.  I have got to get myself together and ready to start strong.  I will not let managerial accounting defeat me.  It may be winning the battles but I will win the war.  (I hope)  PLMI is heading to the finish line with a lot of work to be accomplished before the victory lap.  I admit it is highly stressing me!!!!!!

My poor house looks like a disaster area and I may wind up on a reality tv show soon.  Of course, the tv crew would need to cut through the jungle that is now my yard to reach me.  I'm not sure where I lost control in my quest to me superwoman but I clearly did.  That is so unlike me too.  This is new to all who know me.  I'm usually the super put together ready to go gal.  Now I'm just a scattered mess of papers on the floor gal.  

So here I am on this blog.  I actually came here looking for a mission statement that I know we created and I thought maybe I blogged about it.  Didn't find it but I did enjoy revisiting this old friend and thought it might be helpful for me to take a moment and share.  There may be others of you who are out there sitting in your own pile of scattered madness and it might just help to know you aren't alone.  

I'm not complaining per say.  I think this is just all new to me.  I like to have control in all situations and I clearly have lost it at this point.  But it's okay.  I know I have to do things in order of priority now with my health coming first.  If I can get through this next month of PLMI stuff it will be done and I can go back to concentrating on my accounting.  Hopefully somewhere in there I can gain control of my house and yard which will help me mentally for certain.  And drum roll here......I have a wedding to plan as my oldest daughter just got engaged last week.  

So when you see me at PLMI in July and I am looking a little ragged and am not my smiling cheerful self just know that bubbly Pamela is in there somewhere.  You may just have to dig through a whole mess of papers to find her.  

Pam's Point:  I'm in over my head at the moment but I'm still swimming.  Can't complain though because I remember times when I didn't even have any water to swim in.  

SENIOR YEAR!!!

GREETINGS TO ALL!!

It's our Senior year and we are close to graduation!  Is everyone ready for a bit more homework and one last week of hardcore preparation towards that diploma?  Get your blogs in order and see you all in July!!!

Go PLMI Class of 2015!!!!!

CHANCE ENCOUNTER

Several people are riding on an elevator with me.  I have a teenager, a mother and small child, a mayor, and a philanthropist.  We are on our way up nearing the 4th floor and suddenly hear a loud thump and the elevator  stops and jars us around slightly.  The mother who is holding her child drops the bag she has in her hand and everything falls out including the child's library book.

We all are alarmed but calm and begin to discuss the situation.  We decide that it won't be long until help comes so we all stay relaxed except for the child whom the mother begins to comfort by picking up the dropped library book and starts quietly reading to calm the child.  I notice it and immediately say oh I'm so happy to see you have a library book.  I am a library director. 

The teenager sits down in the corner and declares that since she is stuck she may as well finish her audio book she is listening too. 

The mayor pulls papers from his briefcase and begins working.  The business man in the fancy suit and I are left looking at each other.  He strikes up a conversation with me and says so you are a library director.  How do you like that job?

Oh, I love it I say and then ask him what he does.  He tells me he has been very fortunate in life and owns several large companies and enjoys traveling around helping support causes he thinks are important.  In fact, he says I did give a small donation to a local library once.  I thought maybe they might need to buy some new books or something.  I know they don't need much money cause how hard can it be to hand out books. 

Well, my radar goes off and I smell opportunity. 

I say, "Oh that was very nice of you and I'm sure they appreciated it but libraries are so much more important than books.  He asks why.

I say, "Well, as a successful business man you are very familiar with branding.  I will tell you that my library has one too and it is selling improvement.  We are a comfortable safe place in the community for folks to get free access to the world.  I sometimes call us the living room of the community.

A living room is often the hub of the house with lots of different activities going on.  Think how many folks come to your living room in a year's time.  We are like that.   I point to the mother reading the library book to her child and say yes we have books like that and then I point to the teenager in the corner listening to the audio book on her phone and say now we also have electronic books.    

We also have computers that stay full of people doing all sorts of different things.  It may be the college students doing homework, the unemployed searching and applying for jobs, the children doing their schoolwork, or even the bored teenager who has no where else to go.  A couple of patrons come to mind with the computers.   A mother in her thirties who had gone back to school for nursing used our computers for her homework and testing.  She is now a happily employed nurse working right down the street here in our community.  The young man who spent several months coming in searching for a job who is now able to feed his family without assistance.  These people loved the library and appreciated what it gave them.  It improved them.  It improved their quality of life.  It turn that helped improve our community. 

But we can do more.  We need more.  We operate on a very low budget and often have to tell people that we just can't afford that beginning computer class they ask for or that class on doing a resume.  We need money.  It's that simple. 

We need to be able to help everyone in the community find that job they need.  The only way we can do that is for people like you to join in our mission and donate that much needed money to help us.  Just think one of these people who come to the library to get their college degree online might turn out to be one of the best employees at one of your companies one day.  That's improvement and it can't happen without people like you.  I'm asking for your help to better this community.  Join us in our vision of improvement.  Will you help us?   

Pam's Point:  Not really a point.  Just sharing my elevator speech project.   

THE LIGHT TURNED ON

Have you ever had one of those moments when you feel like the light suddenly comes on in your mind?  I had one today. Our class had a presenter named Mr. Robert Benson and he was a good one.  He was engaging and effective.  While he was speaking to us about communication techniques with one's staff he led us into the "why" part.  The "why" part is why we do what we do  Why do we put the key in and turn that lock each day at the library?  Why do we work so hard with low budgets and not much assistance?  Why do we get so involved in planning programs and promoting the resources at our library?  The answer is because we believe in what we are selling.  And what we are selling is our brand and that is a very important message to communicate properly.  

This week many of us have been struggling to really understand what a brand is.  One could take a quick response and say, "Well, I work at a library and I promote books."  That is true but it is so much more than books.  Why do we care about the books?  What effect do books have on people and is a library just about books anyway?  That answer is a definite no.  Many years ago that would have been a good answer but not today.  Libraries offer so much more than books.  There are all kinds of vital resources to be found at the local public library.  I could write several pages on those but time does not permit me to do so.  Just know that they answer to why we do all this is because we believe in what we are selling and what we are selling is knowledge that leads to improve the quality of life for individuals which in turn makes for a better community.  

So today while Mr. Benson was speaking to us about all this many of us had the darkness we had been kind of floundering around in this week turn to light suddenly.  Many faces around the room suddenly seemed a little less worried about the upcoming presentation hanging over our heads.  People seemed excited and ready to get started sharing the "why" of it all.  

Pam's Point:  Sometimes it just takes a different perspective and approach of explaining to enlighten people. Some presenters have a gift at reaching people and I believe Mr. Benson had that gift with us today.