Muffy Toe

I just completed my first week working at Ravinia. I'm part of the development department and work under the manager of corporate relations. Basically I'm responsible for taking care of Ravinia's corporate donors that fall in the $3,000 - $15,000 range of giving. I'm their first point of contact and will spend most of my time hosting them on site, planning their special events (dinners and lawn parties), managing any ticket/parking requests, and writing/submitting formal reports that detail the benefits and visibility Ravinia gave each sponsor. Not a super-glamorous or difficult job, but tons of fun. I've already met 7 or 8 of my sponors and they're all in love with Ravinia and fun to work with. The Ravinia staff is smaller than I thought it would be and very young. I adore my boss and the office atmosphere in general. My job is a perfect mix of desk-work and non-desk-work. :)

More than the specific experience I'm getting in corporate relations, I'm just loving that I can get aquainted with this organization - seeing the way it's structured, eavesdropping on the conversations directors have, and learning the ends and outs of music festivals. Ravinia is perhaps one of the "blackest" NPOs in the country and it's fun and rare to be in such a fluid organization; I'm soaking it up.

This week was rather tedious for the entire department because everyone was working on the donors' benefits mailing. Mailings are perhaps the worst part of NPOs and we're all glad the week is over. But it was a nice way to ease myself into the job - learning the names of the 44 companies I'll be working with, finding my way around the park, and memorizing all the numbers that identify the CR department (on the stamp machine, color printer, copy machine, FedEx envelopes, plus my phone numbers, the address, all the important dates and passwords and codes... soooo many little things to memorize!)

I find such a senseless joy in the little things about my job: having a badge that gets me in everywhere (including backstage), taking shortcuts through the kitchen where I have to dodge cooks and trays of food ready to go out, knowing the executive Chef Ben, and using the code to get in the secret gate. Since we work closely with everyone in operations, I'm having lots of fun meeting all kinds of people. I got my email, desk phone, and work cell all figured out now, and I did a very unprofesisonal squeal of delight when someone dropped my season-long pass off at my desk. (It admits me PLUS A GUEST to EVERY concert this season - so that's an open invitation to you all... seriously....) :)

My living situation is great. I'm renting a furnished room in the home of a recently retired woman who lives just blocks from Ravinia. The house is large and in a beautiful neighborhood, and I basically have the whole upstairs to myself. Lynne is laid-back and spunky. She's very cultured - there's always newspapers laying around, PBS on the TV, opera on the stereo, and sly comments about politics. She winks at me when she talks and accidentally calls me "Lisa" (her new daughter-in-law's name, but also my first name which makes it all right).

In other news, I've (almost) given up coffee on weekdays, but had a lovely coffee on this 50 degree Sunday afternoon. The caffeine is going to keep me up later than I'd like, so I'm going to try to wind myself down a bit.

More later. Hope to see you all in Chicago soon! ;)