• 06Apr

    Interview with an Entrepreneur, Betty Brennan of Taylor Studios

    Betty Brennan is the dedicated entrepreneur behind Taylor Studios and this week she took a few moments to answer my questions about how her ideas and interests have grown into a very effective business that works in the field of interpretation. Taylor Studios is an interpretive planning, design and fabrication business in Rantoul, Illinois, doing $4 million in projects each year with a talented and growing staff of 38.

    The staff at Taylor Studios work in two buildings. One office building is home to all project management, project design, and interpretive planning. The other is a former Wal-Mart store that is now devoted to the fabrication of exhibits and models of anything you might imagine for a nature center, museum or interpretive center.

    I asked Betty questions and she gave very thoughtful, direct answers:

    Tim: How did you get started in business?

    Betty: I grew up in a business – my family’s farm. I was my Dad’s helper, so I was outside all the time, and loved nature. Finding artifacts outdoors led me to fall in love with archaeology and history.

    During college at Southern Illinois University, I excelled in business and marketing. I knew early on I was an entrepreneur. At 19, I set a goal to be on the INC 500 list and achieved that goal after 10 years in business. I have been on the INC 5,000 list as well.

    Joe Taylor was my partner in the early years. He was the artist and I was the business person. Joe worked for a taxidermist and that led to making trees for a nature center. Then we discovered this was an industry, making museum exhibits for a living. How cool is that?! I went off to grad school to get an MBA. Joe went to work with Chase Studios. Later we did contract work for Brees Studios. We are friendly competitors with Gary Brees now.

    It wasn’t easy in the early years. We built the business from the ground up, starting Taylor Studios in our small town home’s garage, barn loft, and renovated chicken coop. Joe left to pursue other business interests, and I stayed on with Taylor Studios and expanded it.

    Tim: Why did you get into interpretive projects?

    Betty: We almost immediately were asked by fabrication clients to do design work because many of the designs we got from others were “floating in air”— not functional or something that could realistically be built.

    Designer Matt Wiley, working on a project.

    A children’s museum in Decatur introduced us to interpretation in 1996, while doing a project about health for kids. I started doing drawings, and we have been working on interpretive projects ever since. We wrote copy to tell Mark Twain’s story at the Mark Twain Museum in Hannibal. We knew you had to engage the visitor with writing; you couldn’t just hit them with a lot of facts. Interpretation is the best way to do that.

    Around eleven years ago, one of our interpretive planners, Pete Salmon, started getting involved with NAI and took the interpretive planning course. Pete went on to earn the CHI and CIP credentials, and Katie VanMetre earned the CIP in 2009.

    Tim: What interpretive projects have you done recently?

    Betty: Right now, we have several really exciting projects because the clients are allowing some risk-taking in design. Linn County, Iowa, is expanding their nature center. We did their original exhibits 10 years ago. The nature center is getting a whimsical, kid-friendly twist, using a custom children’s storybook to tell the story. It’s a non-traditional approach in teaching children about nature. We have often told the wetlands and woodlands story, but this is a very exciting new way to tell it.

    Artist Shawn Hensley, sculpting a figure for an exhibit.

    We are also working with the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln, Illinois to tell Abraham Lincoln’s story in a different way. Here in Illinois, there are so many exhibits about Lincoln – Taylor Studios is taking a theatrical approach, telling the story through Lincoln’s remarkable values. In the exhibit, Lincoln reflects on his life in very creative ways and we use video, lighting and varied media. We want people to reflect on their own lives throughout this exhibit.

    Our Prairie Grove exhibits in Arkansas won a Region 6 NAI award and we will submit it for a national award. Other projects are going on with Turkey Run State Park in Indiana, Rend Lake Visitor Center in Illinois, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, North Dakota,  and the Nevada State Railroad Museum. We keep about twenty projects going at any one time.

    Tim: How has certification with NAI played a role in your staff’s professional development and Taylor’s business development?

    Betty: I think our certification of staff members as CIPs give us credibility, a common language and a support system. I think it helps differentiate us from competitors. We try to be first to market on this kind of thing.

    Tim: What trends to you see in the business?

    Betty: We’re happy to see more open-mindedness in design. The industry is getting more open to creative design approaches. They know they have to compete with lots of other leisure time media. They need a compelling way to tell their stories.

    Planning seems to be a new trend instead of just jumping in with exhibits. When you ask what’s your story, why do you want to do this, they see a reason to plan it first. If we can help a client spend their dollars better and more sustainably, that’s good.

    Tim: Thanks, Betty. I appreciate your time in sharing your business story with us. All the best with your projects.

    - Tim Merriman

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  • 23Mar

    Remembering Howdy Weaver

    Dr. Doug Knudsen (left) and Dr. Howdy Weaver reminisce about AIN's early years.

    Dr. Howard “Howdy” Weaver called me about three weeks ago to chat. He explained he had only days or weeks at the most to live, but he wanted his most cherished professional papers in the NAI archives. He had already shipped them but wanted me to know they were on the way. I assured him we would make them part of the NAI Heritage Library Archives. On March 15, 2012, Howdy passed away at 88 years of age. Susan Schwandt, Howdy’s daughter, and I spoke this past week and she told me of how important it was in his last days to organize these materials to share with the profession. He was that kind of man, that kind of professional.

     

    Reminiscing with Howdy about the profession, NAI and AIN (Association of Interpretive Naturalists), was always a rich experience. Howdy, Doug Knudsen and I sat down together to chat at the Region 4 Workshop at Bradford Woods in 2004, the 50th Anniversary of the association. We talked at length about the many people involved in the early years of AIN and where they were so many years later. I knew some of those mentioned, but Howdy had the deepest history with these pioneers in our association.

     

    Howdy was involved in the earliest years when naturalists from Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois were getting together informally at Great Lakes Park Training Institute at Pokagon State Park in northern Indiana. By 1954 they were discussing the need for a separate group for interpretive naturalists as they met annually at Bradford Woods. In 1958 Bob Kelly of Dupage County Forest Preserves in Illinois suggested they organize formally and AIN was born. Howdy was the first President and would later file the 501(c)3 tax application for AIN in 1965 while he taught at University of Illinois.

     

    The details of Howdy’s contributions to communities, parks, universities and the profession are numerous and better documented in his published obituary in Michigan or his memorial page at interpnet.com. Those who knew him will remember his great sense of humor and love for music. His daughter explained that when asked to play the accordion at a weekend event, he would say, “Let me check my schedule. Carnegie Hall hasn’t called, so I guess I’m free this weekend.”

     

    While working on a Ph.D. in nature and science education in the 1960s, Howdy took a 21,000-mile camping trip through parks and forests with his wife and daughter. Susan tells of learning whitewater canoeing before learning to ride a bike. She also relates a story of her father swooping her to safety at Yellowstone National Park when she saw a black bear approaching and yelled, “Teddy Bear,” in hopes of giving it a hug. She explained, “. . . my first memory of my dad was as a protector.”

     

    For 75 years Howdy was involved in scouting from becoming an Eagle Scout as a youngster to being awarded the Silver Beaver by the Tall Pine Council in 2010. NAI gave Howdy the Distinguished Retired Interpreter Award in 2004 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the National Workshop.

     

    A memorial service for Howdy will be held at 2 p.m., March 31, at First Congregational United Church of Christ, ?6494 Belsay Road in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. Memorial donations can be made to the church, to the American Heart Association, Genesee County Parks designated to Crossroads Village, Friends of the Carousel, or to the Tall Pine Council Boy Scouts of America.

     

    If you wish to leave your thoughts or memories of Howdy on his memorial page with NAI, please click here. We will remember Howdy. He left deep footprints in our professional trail.

     

    - Tim Merriman

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  • 02Dec

    Maslow and the Culture of the Workplace

    Most of us have studied and taught Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs over the years. Abraham Maslow published his famous paper on motivations in 1954 and others have added to it through the years, but his basic premises have stood the test of time. It is interesting to consider how it applies to the culture at the places we work.

    Basic needs according to Maslow are food, shelter, safety and security. Food and shelter may or may not come into play at most workplaces. Some big corporations and work settings these days have gourmet food services so that their employees can get food without traveling far from work. But most interpretive settings are small and lots of us carry our own lunch to work. But safety and security do come into play. If we supervise with a top down approach by scolding, threatening and using negative motivations, we are threatening the employee’s “survival” in the workplace.

    It usually works better to use a coaching approach that tells people what they do well and how you would suggest they could improve performance. You can ask for improvements without making it seem that the Sword of Damocles is hanging over the person. Provisional language like, “you might consider,” or “have you thought about” are ways to suggest useful approaches without demanding things be done your way.

    Jobs can be eliminated if we do not perform as expected so in fairness we need to keep people informed if there are threats to their future employment. Continual threats usually are not a successful means of motivating employees.

    Intermediate needs on Maslow’s triangle are about a sense of belonging, community, and relationships – the social aspects in any workplace. A healthy workplace community can be encouraged through regular staff meetings where good work is acknowledged in front of all staff. Retreats or outings with staff can be done occasionally to encourage teamwork. These can be work oriented planning retreats or simply a fun meal out or a sporting event enjoyed as a group. Some work groups take their staff to a “ropes” course or other group challenge course to build teamwork. It helps if you get some consensus about what you choose.  A retreat or social event can be negative motivation if it is simply what the boss wants to do and no one else enjoys it.

    Cognitive needs are also important. Employees need access to professional development to help them grow and learn in their work roles. This kind of support should be there at all levels, not just for managers and upper level staff.

    We think of Maslow’s higher needs as aesthetics and self-actualization. Employees who feel empowered to do creative work along with the requisite paperwork or routine activities feel a sense of ownership. Telling each employee how to do the details of his or her job can have a chilling effect. Usually there are multiple ways to do a job responsibly and letting the individual choose how to do it is supportive and helpful. Hopefully we have hired talented people and will trust them to do their best.

    Professionals put in extra time, put out extra effort and give their best when they feel their expertise is acknowledged, supported and recognized. Rewarding great efforts with praise, giving raises when possible and awards when reasonable can keep them working near the top of the pyramid.

    Some psychologists describe a step beyond self-actualization as transcendence or helping someone else reach her or his full potential. As supervisors and employers, it can be very rewarding to find that the culture we have created is so supportive and collaborative that we have low turnover and employees who pitch in and help others when they need it without concern over turf or credit. A culture of kindness, support, encouragement and empowerment has benefits beyond longevity and low turnover. Our employees pass on that same feeling to our customers, visitors and audiences. The Customer Comes Second by Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters is a great resource that describes this philosophy in detail.

    Money is only one of many motivations we have for working in interpretation. We joke about being paid in sunsets, but in truth many of us have stayed in jobs for the wonderful aesthetics of where we work. We simply enjoy what we do. But frustration in the workplace can derail even the most passionate of workers. A culture of empowerment makes it likely that your employees will not only stay for many years but will also share your supportive behavior with others. Such a positive workplace culture can make all the difference to your employees’ sense of self-worth and ultimately your organization’s long-term sustainability.

    -Tim Merriman

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  • 05Aug

    Train the Trainers – A Decade of Growth

    The first CIG class in LaPaz, Mexico, in December, 2000.

    In December of 2000 NAI tested a new curriculum in LaPaz, Mexico, the Certified Interpretive Guide course. It was a course and credential suggested by Dominic Canale of Denali Doyon/Aramark of Alaska, after he sat in on training we provided for Cruise West and Alaska Sightseeing in Seattle. He suggested that such a course would be appealing for guides in all sorts of settings including his driver-guides in Denali National Park. In the past decade more than 10,000 have earned the CIG or Certified Interpretive Guide Credential. Who trained them? Many of you did.

    In 2001 we began offering the Train the Trainers Course which helps interpreters earn the Certified Interpretive Trainer credential along with the right to teach the CIG course and certify guides. About 95 interpreters took the course in that first year offered in four different courses. Since then we have trained more than 1,000 trainers and about 400 of them have completed the CIT credential and become CIG trainers.

    The five-day course alone does not get you the credential. You take it to learn the CIG curriculum and then you must submit pass the required literature review, the presentation requirement, as well as submit essay questions and training outlines to undergo peer reviews with three others who hold the CIT credential. You must have a college degree or four years of full-time experience or combination of the two to take the course. The requirements are described in the Certification Program Handbook and Study Guide. A CIT who has had the Train the Trainers Course may train CIGS anywhere in the world she or he wishes. Our surveys show that CIGs are working in about 40 countries though the training has only been conducted in eight or nine countries. Jane Pauley of TODAY show fame recently interviewed Barbara O’Grady, a CIG, working in Yellowstone National Park on NBC.

    The CIG course is now taught in about 40 colleges and universities within an undergraduate course so many young people leave college with the credential. Some programs use it as basic training with their seasonal staff. Some require it for all front-line presenters.

    The Trainers Course is being taught August 22 to 26 in St. Louis and is almost sold out. From September 12 to 16 it will be taught for the first time ever in Canada with Toronto Zoo as the setting. The first four days of the course is the CIG curriculum and day five is a chance for each participant to make a 20-minute training presentation of a small component of the CIG course. Another course will be in Chicago from Dec. 12 to 16, the last for 2011.

    If 400 CITs have come from more than 1,000 being trained, it is clear that some who take the course will not finish. For the most part they do not turn in the additional work to earn the credential. In some cases they simply wanted the training skills and had no intention of becoming a trainer of CIGs. Some earn the CIT and let it lapse four or eight years later at renewal time because their job changed and they no longer wish to be an active trainer. Staying active as a trainer of CIGs has some other requirements that not all will be able to maintain.

    If you have an interest in becoming a Certified Interpretive Trainer who trains CIGs, you can sign up at interpnet.com. Just call us at 888-900-8283 if you have questions.

    -Tim Merriman

     

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  • 28Jun

    Passion for Place and Patriotism

    Yosemite National Park

    As we approach Independence Day I’ve been thinking about all the things that have inspired American patriots—values and ideals, economics, perhaps survival itself on some level.  But I keep coming back to the idea that these values were attached to place—that place being America.

    When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect.

    ~Adlai Stevenson

    The connection with place is that people are looking for a place to apply their values and practice their beliefs, and that place was America.  Thus the ideals and the land became one.  Moreover, it was possible to own some of this land, and Americans became even more deeply invested in this place as it became a home, a livelihood, and a repository of our patriotic values that would be shared across generations.

    This sense of place, this love of the land that Americans have is further enhanced by setting aside special places that stand out as national icons—our national parks, historic sites and other natural and cultural treasures.  These stand out as places that will forever belong to all of us to continually inspire patriotism.  In preserving these places, we preserve our heritage and the ideals that have contributed to the ascent of America and Americans.

    Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park

    Yet if we lose our connection to the land, if we become isolated from the places that embody our values, we could risk our sense of patriotism.  That’s one of many reasons why our work is so important.  Interpreters help keep us connected to the land, to our heritage, and help keep us in touch with the ideals that set this country apart from all others.

    Even in this day of economic and political turmoil, questioning our values, concerns about our future—this is still a special place, the place has inspired patriots for over 250 years.  Interpretation fosters this special sense place that Americans share and I would submit that interpretation is a patriotic act.  So we have a particular reason as interpreters to celebrate July 4th.

    I hope your holiday is both relaxing and reaffirming.

    - Jim Covel

     

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  • 10Jun

    Bringing Urban Youth to Science and Math

    Tram Nguyen lived in Vietnam until age 10 when she moved to City Heights. Seven years after starting as a student involved in ODI, she returned to her community with a biology degree from UC Berkeley. She now works with ODI as staff.

    Founded in 1999 by Shara Fisler, Ocean Discovery Institute (ODI) is doing what many of us talk about. And they are doing it well. They work with underserved communities in San Diego to get kids with high potential into hands-on contact with science research programs that lead to science and math careers or community leadership roles, or perhaps both.

    Fareed Zacharias in his recent book, The Post-American World, wrote: “The difference between average science scores in poor and wealthy school districts within the United States, for instance, is four to five times greater than the difference between the U.S. and Singaporean national averages. In other words, America is a large and diverse country with a real inequality problem.”

    Most U.S. resource agencies have identified the challenge of bringing diverse urban youth from economically depressed environments into science careers. Zacharias points out that this untapped reservoir of young, talented minds is the difference in the U.S. being a laggard science/math nation and not a leader in these vital areas of education. Certainly in interpretation we know that most of our working professionals are from the majority white middle class and we search for ways to recruit more Latino, African-American and Asian-American young people.

    ODI has chosen to work in City Heights, a community of 80,000 with people speaking more than 30 languages. The community has a 38% poverty rate and 99% of their children are eligible for the school lunch program. Emigrant families who settled there came to the U.S. to give their kids opportunities they lacked in their nations of origin. The barriers to their kids getting into science and math careers are great in the U.S., but ODI has taken the challenge. And they are making a real difference.

    Shara Fisler leads a dedicated staff of 13 in this work. Their offices and quarters are modest modular buildings on the edge of Campland, a public campground by the water in San Diego. Many of the staff are recent college graduates who have gone through ODI’s creative programming as students.

    ODI involved 3,476 young people in 2010 as Science Adventurers and Watershed Avengers to do outdoor projects in the community. They engaged 2,255 kids in 2010  as Ocean Science Explorers. These programs give young people hands-on experiences with ocean scientists including oceanographers, turtle researchers, weather scientists and biologists of all kinds.

    Their after-school initiative program is focused on Ocean Leaders. These young people are nurtured after showing initial interest through the other programs or though an application and interview process. They take six-week trips to a field station in Baja California to work with scientific researchers on oceanography and biological science projects. Some of the former students, who now work as staff, coach these young people in how to get into college, get grants, land scholarships and achieve once they get there.

    ODI is now planning a Living Lab, an 8,000 SF facility,  that will be built in a degraded canyon in City Heights. The “schoolshed” nearby (the nine schools within one mile of the facility) includes over 5,000 students. It will be a dynamic place to continue ODI’s work with young people and their families, expanding community engagement from 5,000 people to 20,000 a year.

    This program hopes to serve as a model in stimulating other communities that want to replicate their successes. Of their 114 Ocean Leaders in 2010, 100% are headed to college and they had a cumulative grade point average of 3.56 on a 4.0 system, almost double the GPA of other young people in their school system.  73% of the Ocean Leaders declared a major in the sciences and environmental fields. Their annual report shares the amazing story of their wonderful work. We applaud ODI and encourage others to look at what they’re doing. It works.

    -Tim Merriman

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  • 03Jun

    GreenTown: The Greening of Greensburg

    Okay, it sounds like I made up these names, but it is a real place with people dedicated to recovering from a disastrous tornado on May 4, 2007. More than 90% of its infrastructure, homes and buildings were destroyed.

    A week after the tornado wrecked a substantial portion of this rural Kansas community of Greensburg, Daniel Wallach and Catherine Hart, his wife, presented a concept paper for making Greensburg become “America’s model green community.” More than 500 displaced residents attending a public meeting with then-Mayor Lonnie McCollum embraced the dream and rebuilding green became the direction for the community. As their “GreenTour” history explains, “Greentown was born.”

    GreenTown is the non-profit organization that came to life to solicit donations, educate local folks about “green” options, and assist business and homeowners in rebuilding sustainably. They describe their community as a “living laboratory.” I doubt the leaders of GreenTown call themselves “interpreters” as we might, but they are that. They are using their facilities as a GreenTown Visitors Center and they organize volunteer projects along with their educational efforts. They also host eco-tourists in their bed and breakfast suite. Their Green.Spring. Clean event, described in the video by City Building Inspector Paul DeWeese posted at the top of this article is another example of the great ideas that have grown out of adversity.

    An important partnership was established early on with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado. A team led by Lynn Billman brought in staff and subcontractors to provide the technical assistance and analysis. Their three years of help is described by Greentown as having “left a lasting mark on the community and their best efforts reflect federal government at its best.”

    The Greentown website has great articles that continue the education with the community and others interested in their story. They have hopes that this innovative approach to making green “lemonade” out of the lemons they were handed will be adopted by other communities in crisis. Certainly we have a lot of those these days with the record number of tornadoes this year and now beginning of the hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico.

    We would all prefer our community not experience a disaster, but it is inspirational to see a community rebuild thoughtfully and sustainably as Greensburg has done. You can learn more about the incredible work of Greentown and the Greening of Greensburg at http://www.greensburggreentown.org/

    -Tim Merriman

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  • 31May

    Stories of the Fallen

    An 18-year-old marine enjoys a few quiet minutes, dug in on the soft, volcanic sands of Iwo Jima.  It’s late in the day on February 19, 1944, and he survived a day of treacherous fighting, yet many of his fellow marines did not live to see the sun set.  He was sure that tomorrow would probably be his last day.  He was surrounded by death and had come to accept it as the fate of any marine involved in the bitter island-by-island fighting in the Pacific Theater.  He was most concerned about his mother and how she would feel when she learned of his death, so he composed a letter to console her.

    John survived the war.  He returned home from the war and became a science teacher, a role model and a friend to many, including me.  That letter came back home with him, a reminder of how fortunate he was to survive, and also a reminder of how many other mothers lost their sons and daughters.  I had the honor of reading that letter to John’s family at his memorial service at the end of a full and productive life.  The family never heard the story before, never knew about the letter.  I’m afraid all too many of these important stories will disappear if we don’t make the effort to capture and re-tell them.

    At NAI’s national and international workshops, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting several staff members of a little-known American agency, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).  The ABMC was designated by Congress in 1923 at the urging of General Pershing.    They are responsible for maintaining American cemeteries and monuments on foreign soil commemorating soldiers from WWI onward.  The ABMC takes care of 24 cemeteries overseas—many located on or adjacent to battlefields–and their audience includes the families and comrades of over 125,000 soldiers buried in those cemeteries.

    http://media.oaktreesys.com/abmc/video/ABMCTour.wmv

    It was fascinating talking to the commission staff, learning more about their mission and their work.  Through the years, much of their work was helping family members and comrades locate the graves of friends and loved ones.  In doing so, staff members were often found themselves and audience of sorts, hearing the stories of the fallen from their surviving comrades.  In recent years a new trend has appeared.  As we are rapidly losing the last of the veterans from WWII, there are fewer and fewer requests to locate graves.  But there is a rapidly growing audience coming to hear the stories of the battles and soldiers that fought them.  The ABMC staff increasingly find themselves to be interpreters, helping to connect today’s audiences to the battles and struggles of the past.  Having heard so many stories from veterans, the ABMC interpreters are in a unique position to serve as spokespersons for the dead, to tell the stories of the fallen in a very personal way.  And when you’re huddled in a foxhole or a trench with men dying around you, war is very, very personal.  When you lose a son, a daughter, a brother, a father—war is very, very personal.

    Many interpreters work in settings where we interpret conflict—historic battlefields or other sites where people lost their lives to violent actions.  It’s important that our audiences understand not only the course of events that occurred in those locations, but also that they understand the individual lives that were lost.  When we understand the personal cost of war, perhaps we’ll be more reluctant to engage in it—and we will more fully grasp the nature of sacrifice that our armed forces have made, and continue to make.  That’s what Memorial Day is all about, remembering those that have sacrificed their lives for our continued freedom.  As interpreters we can tell the stories of the fallen, not only to help commemorate their deeds but also to help us all remember the true cost of so many privileges we so easily take for granted.

    - Jim Covel

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  • 27May

    Netluck – A Local Opportunity for Food and Friendship

    When I was a kid, I lived in Vandalia, Illinois, a small town. Potlucks were the common meeting place for people to socialize (translate into modern terms as “networking”). Churches, Parent Teacher Associations, band parents, scouts and all sorts of informal groups chose to convene these wonderful meetings. I say “wonderful,” because these gatherings were informal and each person brought a food dish to share, usually one of their best creations. At the worst it was a great meal and at its best you made new friends in a very unpressured setting.

    Professional development in associations, like National Association for Interpretation (NAI), include formal workshops and conferences at regional, national and international levels. Keynotes, concurrent sessions and offsite sessions are the formal fare of the gatherings. Yet, all of these include networking opportunities for people to visit with each other, usually with a meal, snacks and beverages. Many participants comment that their best moments at formal events are the conversations over a meal or a beer or glass of wine. Still, many cannot get to an event as often as they would like.

    Many years ago, we began inviting NAI members in the Fort Collins, Colorado, area to occasional Netlucks (networking potlucks). Everyone contributes food so no one has great expense. No program is offered usually, but occasionally it includes a tour of a facility or a slide show of an interesting trip somewhere. Sharing good food and chatting with colleagues is the main idea of the netluck. We do it on no particular schedule and anyone’s home or any interpretive site can be the host. The NAI National Office is host at times.

    If you feel disconnected from the profession where you work, consider creating a netluck in your own backyard. You can easily invite all the colleagues you know in your area and get this networking started. If you need help with contact information of NAI members who live in your area, call us at NAI at 888-900-8283. We can help. Happy netlucking.

    -Tim Merriman

    P.S. If you live in the Fort Collins, Colorado, area or will be in our area on June 3, we’re hosting a netluck at our home. Join us. For a map to the house call me from 9 AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday, at 888-900-8283.

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  • 06May

    Taking Care of Yourself

    Photo by Johnny Berg

    Most of us go out each day trying to do our best for constituents, members, colleagues and friends and misunderstandings and miscommunications still happen. It is easy to lose perspective when criticism or gossip seems hurtful and unwarranted.  It is important to take care of yourself in thoughtful ways while also taking care of others.

    Mother Theresa, who devoted her life to helping others kept this prayer on her wall.

    People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

    If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

    If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

    If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

    What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

    If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

    The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

    Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

    In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.

    -this version is credited to Mother Teresa (http://www.prayerfoundation.org/mother_teresa_do_it_anyway.htm)

    We all need reminders to serve as a rudder on our personal journey.

    About 36 years ago I started jogging daily with hopes of better health in general. I had a student intern, Dave Johnson, who had been a marathon runner and cross-country competitor for many years. His advice was great about the right shoes, building up slowly and choosing a pace that worked for me. He recommended a book by Amby Burfoot about Long Slow Distance Training and it has been my approach all these years. I have been lucky to have very few injuries or illnesses that kept me off the trail each day.

    I realized at some point through these three and a half decades that the mental health value of exercise may be more important for me than the physical value, though both are good. Jogging outdoors is a chance to think about whatever is most troubling in life. Somewhere in the midst of thirty minutes of running I realize I am no longer thinking about problems. I am enjoying the day and getting a better perspective on everything and everyone I will meet in the day.

    Interpretation, like other professions, is a rich mix of planning, programs, politics and pleasure. If you take care of yourself along the way, you are likely to be healthier and happier. This is how I approach it. What are you doing to take care of yourself?

    -Tim Merriman

    P.S. Happy Mother’s Day.

     

    Permalink Filed under: From the Executive Director, Leadership, NAI blog, Professional Development Tags: , , , No Comments
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