The Archive

One of my 'special projects' is working on the archive. The live files are housed in the admin area of the org and are in a bit of a state. Where to begin? The room where archived files are kept is well know to staff as 'the room of gloom'. So it's a bit of a scary task to say the least! I had been working on a new guide to archiving so that all staff can use it and know how it works, kind of a for dummies guide without too much information overload.

I came up with a three page document outlining how the new system will work. I presented it at the staff meeting today and it was well received. Staff will have 2 weeks to comment on it or make changes, then it is all systems go and i can start moving, filing, archiving and in some cases shredding. It's daunting but i can see the importance as it hasn't really been properly looked at for many years. Eeeek!

Museums and Calories NSW more like it!!

I have strong fears I will become morbidly obese over the course of this internship.

Ok, so I know office people like cakes but my god!!! Almost everyday there is cake, and lots of it. Today is no different as it is Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea. I was up until the wee hours, baking after uni. My creations are marble cake and chocolate spiders, for anyone who doesn’t know what chocolate spiders are (apparently a lot of people don’t) they are Changs Fried Noodles covered in melted chocolate and peanut butter, delicious!

These are well received and we make a lot of money from the surrounding arts orgs all under the one roof. For some reason they never put it on though and it has been up to the staff of our org to bake the treats 5 years in a row! Unfair!!

Anyway the rest of the day I think I did more database stuff but to be honest I was in a sugar based coma for the rest of the day.

The dreaded database

So my next task is to update our database by finding addresses and/or new contacts for all our returned mail, and believe me there is a lot! Whilst it’s a pretty boring job, I can see the importance of keeping up to date with these things as it is wasting time and money and we’re clearly not getting our info ‘out there’ which is one of the most important things of what we do.

It’s not too tedious, I get to speak with lots of nice people from all across galleries, museums and other orgs all across NSW. The awkward moments are the “oh they haven’t worked here for at least 10 years” but the worst is obviously “oh Mary passed away 2 years ago” : o can’t get off the phone quick enough! Luckily there are not too many of those.

Day one

3^rd May

My first day! After a brief introduction and walk around the offices, I am shown to my desk. Quite impressive really, my own computer and everything! There is even a stationary room at my disposal, reminds me of how much I love Office Works.

My supervisor is not here for my first day so I am inducted by the Communications Manager. Unfortunately my first task is the tedious one of helping with the mail out, booo! But at least it’s not only me, pretty much everyone chips in to help.

I am then introduced to File Maker Pro, oh the joy. My job is to begin updating a database of over 7000 contacts, which clearly hasn’t had too much love over the years. I am to begin with the email database as we got about 150 bounce backs after emailing a survey out to Regional Galleries and Museums across NSW. This will take a few days me thinks…