Spilling out of myself

I just sent out this e-mail to about 50 people. I'm totally freaked out about finding a new job.


Hello my trusted friends,

I am so needing a new job that I am putting the word out in this forum that is less than conventional.

If you know of any positions that speak to what you know about me and/or what you find in my resume (pasted in below), please let me know. Ideally, I would like to start a new job at the beginning of October (after returning from my planned walk across Spain). If something came up earlier (between now and when I leave the 23rd of August), I'd gladly flex as much as I could to make a new job work.

Thank you so much for being someone I can confidently ask this of.

babs

My resume in a pasted in form:

Barbara A. Adamski
7734 N. Central Street• Portland, Oregon 97203 • (503) 421-5934 • babsia@gmail.com

Skills:
Strategic Planning, Budgeting, Employee and Volunteer Management, Marketing, Connecting People, Training

Work Experience:

Friends of the Multnomah County Library
Friends' Library Store • Store Manager • August 2005 to Present

Opened bookstore in the Central Library to create finance stream for non-profit. Recruited and trained volunteer staff of 30, set schedules. Produced marketing plan and budgets for increased profitability. Participated in staff and board meetings. Achieved dramatic financial improvement over previous years.

Oregon Health & Sciences University

Project & Fiscal Manager • Center for Ethics in Health Care • February 2004 to September 2004

Project Manager: Established and maintained database for project tracking, teaching activities. Arranged travel, managed files for the Program, generated reports. Fiscal Manager: Managed eight endowment accounts. Prepared and monitored budgets, processed human resource forms and payroll.

Clinical Neurophysiology • Administrative Assistant • January 2002 to January 2004
Supported lab of eight EEG techs, three physicians. Scheduled appointments for three labs, prepared patients and/or their parents with testing information, checked patients in; billed for procedures and maintained lab filing system. Processed new hire paperwork. Prepared payroll.

Temporary Assignments •August 2001 to January 2002

Project Assistant for Corporate Financial Services: Researched General Ledger items to identify out of balance accounting strings. Refined Oracle records for employee and vendor information. Interviewed and organized two managers on paper management issues. Production Control Specialist: Assisted in the Payroll, Accounts Payable and Managed Care check processing and reporting. Created reports and records for IT customers. Maintained documentation on procedural and operational functions.


Powell's City of Books
Ordering & Receiving Departments • Department Head • November 1996 to August 2000

Responsible for the processes surrounding New Book ordering for the Burnside Store. Developed yearly budgets, adjusted them to follow market trends, internal shifts in marketing and process changes. Most recent budget managed was in excess of $6.7 million. Set schedules for ordering (Burnside and satellite stores), receiving, and distribution and data entry. Managed and trained a staff of 20 in Receiving/Remainders and four in the Order Office. Management responsibilities included reviewing and re-training individuals, team building and engaging employees in project management. Set schedules for individual employees. Developed a training program for purchasing new books at the best discount margin. Worked as an in-house consultant for budget management, process management and personnel issues.

Price Task Force Department • Administrative Assistant • January 1992 to November 1996

Maintained book buy information, employee schedules, budgets and open to buy. Set up the DOS system for overstocked titles. Section head for the Parenting and Large Print sections. Arranged and managed projects as appointed including the annual Square Deal Sale in Pioneer Square.

Burnside Store • Bookseller • February 1989 to January 1992

Clerk and telephone operator. Answered phones, searched sections for books, assisted customers with special orders and out-of-print books searches. Managed the Books Sets Section. Assisted customers on the sales floor.

Volunteer work:

SCRAP: The School and Community Reuse Action Project February 2004 to March 2008

Board Treasurer and Grants Committee Member (2004 to 2006)
Chair, Iron Artist III (2005), Volunteer Coordinator, Waste Not Fundraiser (2006),
Board Secretary (2007)

CCC: The Community Cycling Center June 2001 to present
Currently Board Secretary

Five years experience on holiday bike drive support including bike cleaning, mailings and engaging financial and volunteer support. Acted as a consultant on database matters including new design. Responsible for data on all bike donations.

SUN: Schools Uniting Neighborhoods January 2005 to present
Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary Art and Home Economics Teacher

Planned and executed lesson plans for classes of five to eleven elementary aged students. Summer program (2005) and after-school programs (2005-06). SCRAPpy Arts class focused on creative projects with reused materials. Rule the Roost focused on empowering children within their homes with an emphasis on basic cooking skills.

Education:

Portland State University

Intermittent classes: Writing, Process Management, Database Systems, Geography, History of Portland Park Systems and Portland Transportation

Oregon State University
Elementary Education

Umpqua Community College
General Studies, Early Childhood Education

In my mail there was a passport

But a different kind: the credencial for going on the Camino de Santiago.

I'm kind of excited. This week I am figuring out how to make it to an east coast wedding before flying to Spain to do the big walk at the end of August. 480 miles, 774 kilometers. 30 days. Think I can do it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James

Wake up!

A short trip to NYC put me on east coast time. Now that I'm back in my Portland life this means that I wake early, very early without an alarm clock.

This works fine as the battery in my alarm clock just died but it's not so great for getting something done after work. My garden needs much attention and I'm not there yet. However, I get to enjoy it early in the day when I'm waking up.

I'm waiting

for the end of the fiscal year,
for the end of this training,
for the romance to bloom or die,
for better health insurance,
for a sign.

I am not good at waiting.
Alas.

Alzheimers could be my friend

As a Buddhist-Catholic, one of my greatest desires is to be living, truly, in the moment and that the moment have some grace. Alas, it’s easier said than done.
There is some inspiration out there for doing just this. Even for being present in accidental ways.

This morning I heard a radio feature on some volunteering done by elders who were Alzheimer’s affected. At a charter school that has a mission to be inter-generational in their educational approach, there is one particular volunteer who spends hundreds of hours helping young children read. She doesn’t remember that she has been there before but she does remember how to help a child sound out a word. Although her memory of words in adult literature has diminished, a children’s book vocabulary is still in her reach.

I am trying this out in my personal life. The complexities of adult relationships sometimes seem overwhelming or painful. Thinking about how my mom’s health might progress or a romance might fade, I’m out of the moment. However, the activities that I did as a child (play, read, ride bikes) are still important to me. And they help me present. Alleluia!

I have the patience of a. . .

snapping turtle.

If one more person says, "I don't meant to be rude but. . . (fill in whatever it is that you really want to tell me)," I will slap them. Or snap them. Just say the rude thing you want to say and don't apologize.

Sunday in St. Johns

I've been waiting for the sun to shine all week and now that it's out, I'm in. I'm having a heartache complete with pet guardian worry, a heavy list of things to do including work that I've brought home and need to send to the bookkeepers by 8 a.m. and weeding.

This is not an auspicious start for a blog! Cassandra, the store assistant, said, "Blogging killed journals." It seems that most of my new journals begin at some low point when I realize that writing is what makes me feel better.

Okay, I've had my whine of the day and now I need to go to the garden. Maybe things will look up when I've filled the yard debris bins. By the way, we have new ones in Portland. And uber-big recycling bins as well. http://www.portlandonline.com/osd/index.cfm?c=44752
And it's being promoted by my favorite Blazer, Channing Frye!