Campus Kitchen at UMASS Boston

Home is Where the Heart Is

This is your brain:

This is your brain post-CKP Boot Camp:

Boot Camp was three jam-packed days of everything anyone ever needed to know in regards to The Campus Kitchens Project. I came home with a Brain Binder and my head swimming with new programs, how to better my Leadership Team, and where I want our Kitchen to grow this year. On the plane ride home from DC, I closed my eyes, leaned my head against the seat and tried to sleep. Instead, here’s what I kept hearing:

“No more boot camp, no more books, lots and lots and lots of cooks!”

Over and over and over again. It was like a song I couldn’t get out of my head. Needless to say, I took a small dose of Nyquil Wednesday evening to put myself to sleep and prevent insanity.

Yesterday, back to work at CKUMB headquarters, I had a lot to catch up on: voicemail, e-mail, programming I was working on before boot camp exploded in my brain (see above photo), but I knew I couldn’t leave my desk without re-organizing my paperwork. Ariel, Queen of All Who Organizes from The Campus Kitchens Project’s national office, gave all boot campers some alternate best-practice ways for keeping your paperwork organized in order to make our monthly reports a breeze to put together. Never one to be out-organized, I had a new project. A new time-consuming, could probably wait project that I needed to complete yesterday amid the above list.

After several hours with a paper cutter, a trusty Leadership Team member, and much Diet Coke, here’s my new drawer:

GORGEOUS, right?! Yes, I know how interested you are in how it’s organized, so I’ll tell you. I have the previous 6 months of paperwork in one folder with four inner folders (the manila variety). So, it’s big folder, “February – August 2010″ and small folders of “Cooking”, “Delivery”, “Volunteer”, & “Food Resourcing”. Following this are the next six months individually with the same manilla folders inside. This keeps my records chronologically and is more efficient for my students to access. Genius! The folders after these are simply those necessary to keep (Client Site(s), Financials, Leadership Team Information, etc.) all in alphabetical order of course. In addition to this beautious accomplishment, I am in the process of putting together binders for my new Executive positions on the Leadership Team. Those are soon to come…

Feeling organized brings me a sense of peace which I tried to explain to Stephanie yesterday as she nervously cut tabs (I told her that uneven edges would need re-cutting; we’re working on her fine motor development). Alas, she thought I was crazy (again, see brain above) and perhaps I am, but I do know that we know have the most efficient use of our small space in our office and I don’t need Nyquil to get some sleep.