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Volunteering at the Charles River Museum
Sep. 11th, 2015 06:00 amI have recently taken on a volunteer position at the Charles River Museum of Industry. This is something new for me, as I haven’t really done anything like this in this sort of venue before. I guess it counts as yet another different thing in my life and schedule, and I’ll be interested to see how it goes. I’m not sure what exactly I’ll be doing, but once a week I’m planning to show up and be of help in whatever way they can make use of me.
I decided to volunteer it for a bunch of reasons. The biggest one is that two people I really respect have gotten positions there in the last few months, and I’d like to support them and help them out. Bob Perry and Francesca Piper Koss were two of the main organizers for the Watch City Steampunk Festival this past May, resurrecting it after what seemed like interpersonal issues and mismanagement threatened to kill it forever. They did an amazing job, putting the whole big event together in just three months. If I’m not mistaken, their work organizing the festival led to their getting these curator positions, which I think is awesome. They were super-great to work under and were really a great support in my process of producing Mrs. Hawking as part of it.
I’m also kind of treating it as a kind of networking opportunity, so to speak. I’m putting myself out to be of service to an institution I respect and would like to have a connection with. I want to strengthen my relationships with the cool people I’m helping out. That’s what networking is basically, right? Networking is something I’ve been historically very bad at— social anxiety makes me unable to figure out why anyone who wasn’t already my friend would want to help me out when it’s so clear that I just want something from them —so this is an attempt I can make at it that’s manageable. Who knows what will come of it, but at least it’s a way to give it a try. And I can help out the museum and the curators in the meantime.
I decided to volunteer it for a bunch of reasons. The biggest one is that two people I really respect have gotten positions there in the last few months, and I’d like to support them and help them out. Bob Perry and Francesca Piper Koss were two of the main organizers for the Watch City Steampunk Festival this past May, resurrecting it after what seemed like interpersonal issues and mismanagement threatened to kill it forever. They did an amazing job, putting the whole big event together in just three months. If I’m not mistaken, their work organizing the festival led to their getting these curator positions, which I think is awesome. They were super-great to work under and were really a great support in my process of producing Mrs. Hawking as part of it.
I’m also kind of treating it as a kind of networking opportunity, so to speak. I’m putting myself out to be of service to an institution I respect and would like to have a connection with. I want to strengthen my relationships with the cool people I’m helping out. That’s what networking is basically, right? Networking is something I’ve been historically very bad at— social anxiety makes me unable to figure out why anyone who wasn’t already my friend would want to help me out when it’s so clear that I just want something from them —so this is an attempt I can make at it that’s manageable. Who knows what will come of it, but at least it’s a way to give it a try. And I can help out the museum and the curators in the meantime.
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