Community Involvement

I was looking through a box in our office today and found (along with my framed college diploma) a couple of guides from way back. One guide was for a Community Producer program (anyone remember Multimedia Cablevision?) that Scott and I joined to gain some experience in producing television shows. If you were of legal age and a resident of Norman and you completed the workshop, you too could have free access to the studio and air time and have your own show back then.

I can't recall the name of the show (something political) that we worked on for public access but I do recall learning how to pan and truck and switching between camera 1 and camera 2 and working on lighting. That was back around 1997-98. I wish I'd kept anything more than this guide as a memento.

The studio store room had a picture inside of the way things were supposed to look when properly put away after a show. I remember thinking how neat and helpful I thought that was. Maybe it's time to employ that simple idea here at home?

The other guide was from our old church, for updating the church website. We were so involved in that church back then. We took turns hosting/leading or being in a small home study group,  did photography for special events/website/brochures, worked in the Community Care ministry (this was cool as our church hosted a room at the local homeless shelter) and helped keep up the website. I gained a lot of good experience, friends and networking back then.

Of course that was before Emi came along. During that time of busy-ness we were busy with work and extra stuff and we were also going through IVF and Frozen Embryo Transfer trying to start our family. After the last lost following our FET back in 1999, we gave it completely over to God and 2.5 years later, Emi joined the family.

With the mommy duties, my extra community involvement was sidelined for a bit until I contacted our old high school reunion person about the 20 year reunion and updating my contact information. That was when Emi was 2. I got roped (willingly obviously) into organizing our reunion that followed 2 years after that phone call. THAT was an amazing experience.

I loved the technical work of setting up our alumni website and contact database; I loved meeting with the other committee members to design the signs and t-shirts and doing the fundraising thing. I especially loved hunting down the rest of my high school class to invite them to reconnect online and at the reunion.  I was definitely very involved in that effort.  Of course when the 25 year mark came along, I was not quite as interested in helping....maybe for the 30? (I am truly grateful for the friends I made and reunited with for my high school reunion and so glad we still keep in touch.)

[Other books found in that box:  Business Statistics (sadistics), Organizational Behavior Readings (Fall 1994) and Problems & Models in Operative Management (from a MGMT class I took in 1993).]

I am still involved with the community but not at the same depth as I was before (and will be again).

We have a little neighborhood watch (so we know our little community) and we are thickly networked in our children's activities/lives....and that's enough...for now.