As I slowly reveal more about myself you will see that I have my hand in a lot of things. I am currently on the board of directors for a local non profit organization that works to promote awareness for endangered structures in the community. In particularly buildings that have historic significance, we are the voice for them so that they are not destroyed to make way for a new house or store or whatever.
I was elected in November 2011 as a board member. Since then I have embarked on organizing their membership directory into a usable format in Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access is a great tool for this purpose as many have it already installed on their home computers and it makes sharing the database easy. The group never really had a way of tracking membership or when membership was expiring to solicit new membership. Long story short the membership directory is up to date and now we are going to have a large fundraising campaign.
The organization solicited membership via word of mouth previously, but the younger generation likes to use social media and exploit the internet to its full potential to get the word out there. I plan on subscribing to Constant Contact or another service to do email blasts to anyone we can email. Anyone ever use Constant Contact? Any other vendors out there or suggestions besides using Constant Contact?
So why volunteer my time on an all volunteer board? There are 3 parts to this of which I will only discuss one today and the other part on a subsequent day. The first one may not be the most obvious; we have two little kiddies, which means we spend a lot of time in our car driving them around to get them to sleep. The wife and I do this for our own sanity! There has been many a night we have eaten in the front seats of our car, like last Friday.
We have a connection to the area and have seen some of the historic structures razed to make way for parking lots and other mixed use structures. Some of which fall abandoned after a few years. Now being on the board of directors of this group I have had a chance to make an impact on some of these structures for future generations to cherish. When my little girls are older I will be able to tell them that I used to drive by here when you were small and sleeping in back. And mention that the building wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for the efforts of this group. I would love to ask you all for support but I like the anonymity of blogging. Someday I may reveal myself like J Money did at BudgetsAreSexy and Love Drop or maybe blur my face like PunchDebtInTheFace but until that time comes imagine I look like Brad Pitt just a little taller and nerdier!
What is cooler than having your name out in the community and people recognizing your name for having an impact on saving a structure or heading up a campaign to finance a particular function needed for the group? Nothing I can think of.
Blogging, working full time as a financial analyst, 2 kids, wife, and now board of directors means that Christopher is short on time but that is my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Lesson learned: Just because you don’t donate funds to a charity there other ways to help the community out.
Great way to get more involved than just writing a check, or a way to do so if you can’t afford to. I always say that time is more valuable than money, so when you donate time, you are giving your most valuable resource.
@ John – exactly and in tough econonomic times, that is all that we can donate at this time. In the future that will certainly change!
I’ve been wanting to do this. One of my goals is to be on the board at an animal shelter.
@Michelle – I definately recommend you get involved. Not only is it rewarding, it looks great on your resume.
I love old architecture myself. It’s a crime to see it fall in decay and to be torn down someday. A hobby of mine is geocaching, which many people call nerdy, and just the other day this hobby took me up to the local university neighborhood, including the cemetery in that area. To make Possibly long story short, a few of the caches had me learning about the old time architecture of the campus and the designers of these magnificent structures. I’m telling ya, we just build them like we use to. Today’s structures are bland and ugly and aren’t built to last more than. 75 years or less. This volunteer work you’re doing is great. Keep the old buildings they can be “retrofitted” so to speak to accomadate almost anyone’s needs and all while keeping the original structure intact.
@ Tim – they certainly can fit anyone’s style. They can have the modern feel or the feel of back in the day. They do not make them like they used to!