Hi all - thanks Indigo for the new topics! I appreciate it.

In response to Christian Trabue...regarding "mentors" though I am not his mentor I thought I would reply.

1. I got my first "museum job" by applying to an ad in the paper! Seriously, though, I lucked out in two ways - one of my professors knew a lot about the institution to which I was applying and gave me a lot of good information; secondly, the director of the museum I had interned at
was a good friend of someone on the interview committee and even though I had NOT listed that director as a reference, I got a glowing one from him.  So in a way I guess I networked.

Finding my second job was much harder as I did that on my own (but used Aviso & Dispatch for my search) and moved 800 miles for it (after I was told by a senior colleague that I would NEVER be a director because I was a woman under 30!).

2. The most rewarding part of my job is when I get compliments from visitors and when I ask schoolkids after a tour what their favorite part was.  I also received a really cute letter a few months ago from a little girl who had enjoyed a program - she wrote "And you are a great
director." (I am not sure how she even knew I was the director!).

The worst part of my job --- well do I have to pick one? When my staff squabble like children!  Which thankfully doesn't happen too often.

3. What I do to improve at my job....belong to several regional & national associations; belong to the Board on the local tourist council (really helps me meet other people); go to at least one conference (SEMC is good for a regional size and I personally prefer AASLH for a
national-I have been to AAM but it was really focused towards 'large' museums/art type museums and I have always been at a smaller sized, smaller budgeted history museum); I also got the opportunity to attend the Museum Management Institute at the U of Colorado this past summer - a
really great course!

Oh & a suggestion for Aaron and other people not entirely thrilled with grant-writing - one of the best exercises a prof had us do in grad school was MAKE up a museum of our own from top to bottom and then she used the IMLS GOS application to make us think about all of the issues
facing a museum - at the time I didn't realize it was the grant application - I thought it was just some really tough questions :)

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