A World of Thanks at Our Volunteer Appreciation Party on Friday, April 12

Don't miss this annual extravaganza on Friday, April 12th, from 6 pm to 8 pm at the Ripley Center. Come celebrate with your fellow volunteers and Associates Staffers. Along with great food, we'll honor Excellence in Service volunteers and pin those who have reach milestone years of volunteering with Associates programs and office operations. Please RSVP by Friday, April 5th at Sign Up Genius. There you can see who else plans to attend. Please note: the party is not listed in Vsys. We are using Sign Up Genius instead. Any questions? Contact Jenna Jones at jonesjel@si.edu

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Special Studio Art Rep Trainings in March

All Studio Arts Reps will participate in one of three training dates in March, to maintain their active status and volunteer for the spring courses and beyond. If you haven't signed up for a date in Vsys, here are the options:

Wednesday, March 20th, 6 to 8 pm - this session is full, unless it is the only date you can do
Saturday, March 23, 10 am to 12 noon
or
Tuesday, March 26, 10 am to 12 noon

The trainings will take place in the largest of the three art classrooms: 3038/39. Look for a brief survey to land in your email inbox in the days ahead, and please complete it promptly so your feedback can be incorporated in each training session. 

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Sharon Boyle – Bus Repping Leads to New Career Travels
By Joann Stevens, Guest Blogger


Sharon Boyle has a knack for letting passion lead her to the right opportunity. Five years ago it prompted her to answer an ad in Smithsonian Associates (SA) magazine to volunteer as an SA Bus Representative. This month it guided Sharon into a staff position with Smithsonian Journeys, a new career path perfectly aligned with her zeal for lifelong learning and her career experience planning meetings for the Food Service Sales and Marketing Association.

As the new Program Manager for Smithsonian Journeys, www.smithsonianjourneys.org, she will develop, plan, implement and manage cultural and educational tours to worldwide destinations, facilitating Journey's mission of "Curating the world through travel to enrich and transform lives." Current program offerings include a family journey to the Galapagos Islands and a Smithsonian at Oxford tour.

Sharon says she looks forward to "doing something I have a passion for versus just getting a pay check. I have great respect for the Smithsonian and I love the fact that profits from these tours go back into the Smithsonian. That was very attractive to me, knowing that I will have a small part in ensuring the Smithsonian's future."

Volunteerism has also been her pathway to adventure. She says working with Smithsonian experts as an Associates Bus Rep gave her a travel network to explore and encouraged her to try new destinations.

Visiting museums in New York has always a favorite activity of Sharon's. Going to Mallows Bay off the Potomac River to investigate "a ship graveyard" was a less appealing sounding trip that became a "cool" eye opener. Riding a steam engine train through West Virginia was an unexpected delight. "I had no passion for trains but wanted to try something new. It was fascinating. I met great people who opened my horizons in unexpected directions."

Prior to joining Smithsonian Associates, Sharon had volunteered to socialize guide dogs for the blind, a passion ignited as a child after reading a 4-H book about guide dogs. She'd always had dogs and becoming a stay at home mom gave her the time to work with them. 

After undergoing training to learn basic commands, Sharon trained an eight-week old puppy for the next 16 months. "There are 15-20 commands we teach the dogs such as to stay, and to not to eat food off the table. I eventually raised six dogs."

Two of her dogs graduated to become guide dogs, one for a blind person the other for a deaf and blind person. A third dog went to ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) becoming a top notch Accelerant Dog. A fourth dog became a pet. The fifth, Oreo, is currently in training. Sharon also adopted a dog released from the program after going blind.

Though managing global educational tours is very different from training guide dogs and managing bus tours, Sharon views it as her "next step" in pursuing her passions.   

The new job "continues my love for the institution" she says. "I think the real strength of volunteering for the Smithsonian is the opportunity it provides to meet people and to learn what they do."

So future volunteers take note! Volunteering with Smithsonian Associates might just nudge you to pursue untapped passions which might lead to exciting career opportunities.

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27th Annual Environmental Film Festival Comes to the Smithsonian
By Kiren Jahangeer, Guest Blogger

In just a few weeks, museums across the DC area will take part in the environmental film festival. The festival runs from March 14-24, 2019. As the largest environmental film festival in the world, it features over 100 films each year to more than 20,000 attendees. The festival is a collaboration of over 110 partners, including museums, universities, embassies and theaters. Its mission: to inspire conservation of the environment through film.

Film screenings vary at venues across the city, including these Smithsonian museums: Freer Gallery of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, NMNH, and NMAI.

Freer: 3/17 @ 2:00 pm, Mori, The Artist's Habitat

Freer: 3/23 @ 2:00 pm, Genesis 2.0

Hirshhorn: *3/17 @ 2:00 pm, Meow Wolf, Origin Story
*This date offers a post-screening discussion

Hirshhorn: 3/24 @ 2:00 pm, Meow Wolf, Origin Story

NMNH: 3/16 @ 4:00 pm, The Ancient Woods

NMNH: 3/16 @ 7:00 pm, Epic Yellowstone: Return of the Predators
Post-screening discussion features the film's producers, Eric Bendick, Tria Thalman and Tom Winston

NMNH: 3/17 @ 4:00 pm, A House in the Fields

NMNH: 3/17 @ 7:00 pm, LOBSTER WAR: The Fight Over the World's Richest Fishing Grounds
Post-screening discussion features David Abel (Director)

NMAI: 3/16 @ 2:00 pm, The Blessing
Post-screening discussion featuring Lawrence Gilmore (Film Subject) and Caitlin Gilmore (Film Subject).

Zoo: 3/16 @ 1:00 pm, Shorts Program: Field in Focus (4 short films)

Zoo: 3/17 @ 1:00 pm, Journey of the Whooping Crane
Post-screening discussion will follow

For complete details including ticket and venue information, visit: https://dceff.org/festival/

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Finding the Right Words
By Janet Hewitt, Guest Blogger

A framed black-and-white photograph of Andy Warhol looks down on Bob Sacheli as he crafts and polishes the descriptions of Smithsonian Associates program offerings in his tidy office in Ripley. Sacheli is a key asset in the team effort to sell relevant and appealing programming to the Smithsonian Associates' vast, educated, plugged-in, diverse and multi-generational audience.

And who better than Warhol to inspire those trying to package and sell culture by adding just the right amount of sizzle? But Sacheli says he bought the photo of Warhol not because he's a big fan, but because it came already framed—at the right price.

Sacheli's official title is Writer-Editor and he has been helping craft succinct, compelling and perfectly phrased program descriptions (among other duties) for the Smithsonian Associates for more than 7 years. He calls the editorial output—which is the joint byproduct of Smithsonian Associates programmers and speakers—"marketing descriptions," pure and simple. Not great literature or anything fancy, but there is a clear purpose.

He says it comes down to conveying: "Why this is interesting and why you should buy a ticket?"

The Smithsonian Associates definitely has "a voice," he says. And it's unique. "We try not to have [program listings] sound like academic course descriptions. We encourage people to stay away from dry, academic, technical descriptions," he adds.

As Sacheli so aptly notes, these are not university extension courses. Even so, it is not as easy as it sounds, when program topics are such things as "The Golden Ratio—An Astonishing Number." But then again, Warhol painted Einstein didn’t he?

Think of Sacheli as a gifted, all-around, resident verbal composer. A bit of a 21^st century Renaissance man. Among the many things he writes (or edits) are: the longer website descriptions of all the Associates' current programs/courses/tours; the annual Discovery Theater season brochure; material for member acquisition campaigns; summer camp descriptions; major donor development initiatives; and program introductions for A-List speakers which Frederica Adelman, Director of Smithsonian Associates delivers to audiences.

Sacheli majored in English and Graphic Design at Syracuse University, and earned a Master's degree in Dance from American University. On Feb. 13, I had a chance to visit with him at his office in the Ripley Center.

Here is some of what I learned (in addition to the news that Chelsea Clinton just came on board with an upcoming program at the National Zoo.)

Q: In the fall of last year, you celebrated your 7-year work anniversary with the Smithsonian Associates. What has been the best part about the job?

A: I love that my job here allows me to call on everything I know in terms of my education, professional experience, and personal interests—and allows me to learn about topics new to me (or at least learn enough to effectively edit copy about them).

Q: Typically, how much editing/rewriting time do you put in on a program description between when a program folder first arrives on your desk and when the listing is ready to publish?

A: Every program is different and its editing needs are unique, but most go through at least two rounds of edits, which may happen over the course of up to a couple of weeks. Some of that may be simply for details like codes or pricing, and some may focus on enhancing content and style.

Q: You mentioned you are a specialist on Noel Coward, the noted English playwright, and said you were the production scholar for the Shakespeare Theatre Company's mountings of Design for Living and Private Lives. How did you gain that knowledge/expertise, and what appeals to you about Coward?

A: I've always loved the enduring wit, style, and structural brilliance of Coward's plays and musicals, and as a regular visitor to Canada's Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, I have had the chance to see many of his plays in performance there, including some of his lesser-known and infrequently produced ones. That has bolstered a lot of reading about Coward, writing about his work, contact with leading Coward editors and experts, and research done for my role as the Coward scholar for STC's productions.

Q: You mentioned you are involved with teaching dance to people with mobility issues, so dance is definitely a passion for you. What other art forms are you passionate about?

A: Specifically, I'm a teaching artist in the Dance for PD program developed by Mark Morris Dance Group and the Brooklyn Parkinson’s Group. I am also a regular theater-goer, spent six years as a judge for the Helen Hayes Awards (much of it on the musicals panel), and am a big fan of cabaret.

Q: Are there any words/phrases you particularly dislike and try to avoid at all costs in your writing? And how do you feel about typos?

A: Words I avoid in copy: inspirational, best-selling, prize/award-winning, and the "not only/but" construction. Also, exclamation marks! And extraneous CAPITALIZATION! Typos are embarrassing, but a fact of editorial life. They're easy to fix in digital copy, but live on in print.

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Where Am I? 
by Janet Hewitt, Guest Blogger

There’s one obvious place where a Smithsonian exhibit on a historic squadron of airmen would be found, and that’s the National Air and Space Museum, right? Well, maybe. Not to be coy or anything, but “obvious” is not how we roll with this column. So let’s hear a little more about this squadron before you jump to any conclusions.

First of all, the military had to be convinced to even allow this squadron to exist. But in the end, the brave airmen ended up hauling in more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses. These pilots flew both fighter planes and bombers. And they were all African Americans, trained for aerial combat.

The time was World War II and the U.S. military was still segregated. By this point, you have probably guessed that the now famous squadron is the Tuskegee Airmen.

In 1917, African American men had tried to become aerial observers in the First World War but were rejected by the military. Finally, their ongoing efforts to support their country in times of war paid off when the Tuskegee Airmen unit was founded in 1941. The group, formally known as the 99^th Pursuit Squadron (later the 99^th Fighter Squadron), was the first African American flying squadron and the first to be deployed overseas.

The Tuskegee Airmen trained at Moton Field, near Tuskegee, Alabama. Their ranks included navigators, bombardiers, mechanics, instructors, crew chiefs, nurses and other support personnel. Before the Tuskegee Airmen, no African American had been a U.S. military pilot. It took an act of Congress to make it happen--an amendment to an appropriations bill no less. On April 3, 1939, Appropriations Bill Public Law 18 passed with an amendment to designate funds for training African American pilots. It took two more years for the War Department and the Army Air Corp to constitute the first all black flying unit—the 99^th Pursuit Squadron.

The budding flight program got a high-profile endorsement when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt took a half-hour flight with African American chief civilian instructor C. Alfred Anderson, in March 1941.

So where is this exhibit on the Tuskegee Airmen?

HINT ONE: The exhibit contains several black and white photographs behind glass, including the one pictured here, and one of an African American female apprentice mechanic preparing a plane for flight.

HINT TWO: There is a detached baggage door from a Boeing PT-13-D Stearman airplane in the exhibit that has been signed by many former Tuskegee Airmen.

ANSWERS TO LAST MONTH’S Where Am I?

The hockey skates belonging to Gordie Howe featured in the last issue can be found in the Smithsonian Castle building. They are behind glass in the hall that features fascinating finds from all the Smithsonian’s main museums.