As seen on TV

So, the question came up to me the other day why I haven’t bothered applying to any PC Response (short-term PC) gigs lately. That’s something that interests me, definitely, but my applications haven’t garnered much attention.

But the thing is, I’m here for a year. And I like it. I’ve gotten more job satisfaction out of Minot in the first four weeks than I did in all of my PC service.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I loved Morocco; I still miss Morocco. Daily. (Oh, and remind me to tell y’all about EC’s doppelganger, found right here in Minot, though he’s not a possibility.)

But here, I’m doing more what I signed up for. PC is really vague. You form your own job and you sometimes have to fake it. You also have great friction, at times, when your site doesn’t agree with what PC wants. I mean, the times I got into real arguments about my job description was when I tried to do what PC wanted and it conflicted with my mudir’s idea of my job.

So here I have a definite job description and although I do stray from it from time to time, I know what my goals are. They’re measurable.

And if I walked out right now, I feel I’ve done more than I did in 27 months of PC.

My first event was this week; the open house that had been planned, but not really detailed, before I arrived. It kinds of got handed to me and two other committee members.

All told, we had probably between 100-150 people. Not bad, really -- we had NO idea what to expect.

My coup had been securing two fair tickets to the Zac Brown Band's performance at the fair ad well as their eat and greet beforehand. The band is big on that, so it worked out great.

I think I already told the story that, before I got here, someone had asked the fair if another one of the acts could do something about flood relief. The person they talked to – not affiliated with the artist at all – said no. I was like uh, it’s not that person’s call.

Not being totally ignorant of music and PR, I know that bands schedule time in for community relations stuff, and honestly, it doesn't get a whole lot more community friendly. But those committee people (not the two I was working with) were just so completely appalled that I'd consider going around the fair person I just didn't even bother to tell them.

But, with the OK of my own supervisor, I did. And got an immediate response from the ZBB saying sure, we'd be glad to help. (Some people make things so much harder than they should be.)

In the last week, I've been on TV, in the paper (http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/567274/Hope-Village.html)
and on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNkOco_a18M) promoting Hope Village and the like, so I had no idea what to expect.

Well, the open house went just fine. I did tours and information sessions and got some positive feedback. We'll see if anything like money comes from that, but it was fun.

The auction went phenomenal. I mean, phenomenal. I was hoping to raise enough to get one of these sanitizer machines used in power washing. They're $400 and we needed two.

I entered a bid to start us out, and I put it in Wendy's name. I was kind of worried for three days there, but eventually someone placed a real bid of $50.

My rules called for raises in $1 increments, so I was surprised when the next bid was $100. And then the next was $200. Then it went to $400, $500 and $550.

Then I got a guy who's from here but lives across the state who put in a bid of $1,500. I was stunned and still am.  The winner ALSO bought six tickets to the rest of the shows and I’m to give them away (two to Kid Rock and Foreigner and four to the rest of the bands). PLUS, he handed the tickets back so I could re-offer them to Bidder No. 2, who agreed to follow through with his original bid.

So all told, it’s about $2.5k, which, as I put on the release, is about the cost of the diesel fuel we use monthly to keep the food cold.

What is even better, though, is that the winner is really interested in community service in Minot. I’m hoping we can work together to get some regional and/or national attention in here. Maybe some kind of alumni hockey game or something.

So far I’m a great success, so I hope I can maintain the momentum.

Until now, I haven't really looked past the open house, but now I am trying to sit down and figure out what's next. I have a LONG line of stuff to do, but mostly, I'd been planning for that and now that it's over I'm a little lost.

It's still ridiculously hot here, and since it doesn't get dark until 10:30 or so it's hot all day. My RV doesn't have air so I kind of wander around to find a place to sit and work. I’m really attracted to the rec chapel because it has AC.

Tomorrow I have to present a PowerPoint presentation to the Lions’ Club. Yes, me, speaking in public. Believe it.