Welcome, Ann Post as Jenna’s New Supervisor!
Please help me welcome Ann Post as my new supervisor, and let’s also thank Brigitte Blachere for serving as my supervisor since I began working with all of you in December of 2012.
Ann Post manages the National Education Outreach Program in schools and communities around the country, arranging for Smithsonian scholars and experts to share their knowledge with students and the general public. Ann also serves as Intern Coordinator for the Smithsonian Associates, and as such, she will provide oversight and guidance to my work with all of you volunteers. She has been with the Associates since 1985, and is a volunteer herself – with a local Girl Scout Troop for many years. She understands well the value of people helping important causes with donations of their time, talent and finances. I hope you will get to say hello to her next time you stop by my office; come see me and I will be pleased to introduce you to Ann.
As you well know, Brigitte has been an enthusiastic supporter of all things
volunteer related from my first day as your coordinator. I am very grateful – and indeed indebted- to her for her insights as I developed our volunteer program, began using EVANS, revised handbooks, planned parties, and she helped address many other challenges and opportunities that came about.
You will still see Brigitte around – we are not moving any of our offices, hers will still be next to mine. Please join me in thanking her for the many ways she provided leadership to both me and the volunteer program as a whole these past 3 years.
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Annual Volunteer Appreciation with a 1950s Flair
We celebrated these volunteers who have “Milestone Years of Service” and thus received their pins:
5 years: Earnell Brown
15 years: Dori Davis, Helga Fox, Patti Pride, Larry Williams
30 years: Lee Downing
35 years: Iris Reynolds, Bill Ulman, Jarla Ulman
We also recognized the following volunteers with a Certificate of Appreciation for their Superior Service this past year. We honored them with a “Bag of Smithsonian Swag” as well:
Event Rep: Marie Pogozelski
Studio Arts Rep: Elizabeth Siegel
Bus Rep: Annmarie Pittman
Office Volunteer: Phyllis Breese
Ambassador Volunteer: Kiren Jahangeer
Congratulations, one and all for another successful year of supporting our programs, classes, tours, and office operations! We hope to see you all at next fall’s party – in the meantime, enjoy the photo album here in this issue. It is part of the side bar column at right.
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NEW! Concessions Teams Offer Food and Beverages
to our Ripley Audiences
This fall you may have noticed that on 3 weeknight evenings each week we open our lobby to our ticket holders and make light snacks and beverages available for purchase. This was a pilot project to see if this added service to our audiences is something that is viable to do in 2016, on each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. So far many program attendees say they are very pleased to see our concessions table, as it is certainly a challenge to find food and drink in the vicinity of Ripley after 5 pm.
We have a team of 14 volunteers who have covered these shifts, 8 of them new to the Associates. Many thanks to these folks who are reliably helping us test out this new offering: Marie Pogozelski, Nancy McGuire, Mary Jo Rubino, Joy Erdman, Don Vitz, An Pham, Deyanti Manalu, Amelia Moore, Anastasia Yip, Michael Adams, Maggie Linak, Kimberly Martin, Toyin Bello and Rita Singh! (Pictured, above left - An Pham and Toyin Bello)
Concessions operations will continue in 2016. If you would like to help add a smile to our patrons' faces, contact Jenna to sign up for bi-weekly or weekly shifts from January to March of 2016. It's a great way to add volunteer hours to your schedule and interact with our program attendees.
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Studio Arts: Growing, Growing, Growing!
In November, some 20 Studio Art Reps participated in one of two special gatherings to talk about their volunteer experience, observations, and suggestions for improving the program for our participants and instructors. This was a similar format to the Event Rep Spring Evaluative Meetings; we were in small groups, it was not mandatory, and a pre-meeting survey guided the discussion. It’s rare that the Art Reps get to meet each other, so we also enjoyed some general fellowship, refreshments, and time for “getting to know you.” Jenna will type up all her notes in the weeks ahead and share them with all the Studio Art Reps and Kathy Fuller, who plans all the courses and works directly with the instructors. Thank you to all the Studio Art Reps who attended our meetings!
You may have noticed that there are a good number of new art courses being offered – these are exciting times of growth and creativity! We need more volunteers to help us host these extra courses. Please contact Jenna at jonesjel@si.edu if you would like to assist with our courses. Here’s an Associates Art Class Rep Volunteer Description for more details about the duties and expectations.
Please feel free to pass along this information to friends or social contacts you have, especially if they like to dabble in art making. Art expertise is by no means required, but a willingness to learn is a real plus. Your help in publicizing this great volunteer opportunity is greatly appreciated as we march on to our goal of bringing 15 new Studio Art Reps into our fold by the end of FY 2016 (September 30, 2016.)
Please welcome these 5 new Art Reps who received
their orientation/training on November 18:
Lisa Buff
Ana Gardano (also an Event Rep)
Roberta Holland (also an Event Rep)
Hope Ratner
Rita Singh
And a welcome goes out to Carol Farris (also a Bus and Event Rep),
who did her training in October.
