In preparation for the RAC Summit in Bend Shannon and Laurel have asked me to coordinate pop-up sessions. This means that in addition to the four planned options for one of the afternoon break-out groups, participants can create their own groups on topics of their choosing. I spent time today reviewing information about the RACs, their history, composition, and organization.
Today I met with Jessica at NPCC to learn more about the logistics of the event, the makeup of the likely participants, and hopes and expectations for the pop-up sessions. I was happy to have been given this responsibility and grateful that past experience has taught me to ask a LOT of questions before just jumping in on assignments. Meeting with Jessica was useful as I was able to get all of my questions answered quickly. I was surprised to see her office space (cube farm on the 5th floor of NPCC) as this was a whole new “region” of their offices I hadn’t seen before. It also gives me the sense of just how much behind the scenes work happens to support the public face of NPCC’s work. While I aspire to work as Laurel does, I imagine I will have a long road of life in a cube farm as I work my way up.
I’m noticing that it’s tricky to coordinate and plan events like this all electronically. As useful as it is to not travel great distances to do work face to face, I am noticing challenges of doing so much work over email and phone. If event planning at a distance is tricky, I can only imagine the complications of trying to mediate online rather than face-to-face. Perhaps experiences like this one will give me good experience that will make future online communication less daunting and more “real” feeling but I’m not convinced. I will meet with Shannon soon to review other tasks and responsibilities for the Summit.
I also completed paperwork today so I can be paid for these hours working with the RAC Summit. It was a giant bureaucratic pain and reminded me just how much I dislike details and forms. I’m going to stay positive, however, with hopes that this will be one less hurdle to clear to be able to work in the future with/for PSU and NPCC.
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