Girl in the Big City

Hey all,

Thought I would chime in for a few minutes this Monday and report about my adventures. First of all, to those I haven't talked to (Jeff), I made it to Tallahassee safe and sound. Thankfully, none of the family gets real excitable when I forget to dish out details like when I'm moving, where I'm staying, when to wonder if I've been kidnapped, if I have a place to live, etc. I left Vermont, appropriately enough, in an icestorm at midnight and arrived a couple of days later to the warm rain of Tallahassee.

Work is good so far. It is a good thing to be familiar with your work before you start it. It has been incredibly helpful just to know the programs and language and constituents of Break Away prior to being the Director. That has allowed me to spend more time on learning software and dealing with press so far. We got a good hit last week from the Christian Science Monitor (shout out to you Dad, for helping me love that newspaper early on!). You can view it here:

Christian Science Monitor Loves Break Away

I hope that works as a hot link. I've got to do my homework on this blogging deal. Anyway, MTV and CBS have also called and so I've had to work on my professionalism. We are getting a fair amount of attention because of the sheer numbers of alternative breaks headed to do disaster relief.

Other than that, I went to NYC last week and it was awesome. No kidding. Break Away was awareded one of 10 nonprofit spots at a swanky 1 day marketing seminar put on by

Seth Godin

and mostly attended by the big corporate boys (AOL, Yahoo, Nestle, March of Dimes). We were fortunate to be there because it was probably one of the best professional development experiences I've had. I left the seminar with my mind just full of possibilities and feeling great about the work of this organization for the last 15 years - 10 of which I have been involved. A relaxing Friday ended up with meeting my dear high school friend, Danny Kourianos, and his wife for dinner. The fun was so great that we met up again on Saturday and had an amazing day of good food, Central Park time, going to the Met, and going to an Improv show where Danny has been studying. So much fun, and good to be a part of the New York energy for awhile. Got back last night.

This is getting too epic. I'm out for now. Thanks again Jeff for getting this up and running. It's a great idea. We've already been more in touch this year than the last 10.