I staffed at the Wooden Shoe last night.  It has been awhile since I have staffed.  I had to take some steps back because I was so heavily involved in everything that I was doing (zines and finance) that no one was going to take over anything unless I backed off a lot.  Even if things weren't done my way I had to let other people learn through their own mistakes.  It is kind of crazy that everything I was doing as the treasurer has now been broken up into jobs done by several different people.  I used to enter all of the daily sales into the computer, made sure that the numbers added up, did all the cash deposits, paid all of the bills, paid the monthly sales tax, tried to keep up with budget reports, and reconciled the accounts once a month.  When I was prompt with all of the duties it too so long each month.  I eventually let some stuff slide because I had so much on my plate.  It is nice that so many people are interested with learning finance and are keeping up with things.  For so long it was just me.  It took me a really long time to figure out how to teach anyone finance stuff because I had to figure it all out myself.  The learning curve was steep. 

I was talking to Briton the other day about how many skills we have learned from staffing at the wooden shoe.  We both gained a lot from doing conflict resolution even though conflicts were pretty hard.  I don't think any of the conflicts that we were involved with were fully resolved, but dealing with them instead of ignoring them were beneficial for most involved.  I learned a lot of listening and communication skills and definitely got a lot more assertive as a result of being involved and challenging myself. 

I feel sad that I met a lot of friends through the collective and many of them are not involved anymore.  It is hard to understand what makes people leave completely, especially after working so hard to make it a better place to be.  It will be weird to move away and not be involved for the next year or so.  But I really don't see me wanting to volunteer at any other info shops.  Mostly because I want to focus 100% on school, but also because I feel like the wooden shoe is family and you just don't go around joining other people's families.  Bluestockings does have coffee though...

I am tabling this weekend at the Scranton Zine Fest!  Come visit.  Scranton is fun!

I feel like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.  Yesterday when I got to work, the phones were down from 8am until 9:20.  It was amazing.  Normally it is so busy on Monday mornings, especially between 8 and 9.  More staff starts coming in after 9 to help with the call volume.  So, it was busy all day after the phones started working again, but it felt more managable.  Today it hasn't been as busy but I immediately got 2 problem callers that screamed at me like I was physically hurting them.  I've had my finger on the hang up button all day today.  I just can't handle the demands that people make sometimes.  Customer service can be so daunting.   I feel really happy that I don't go around screaming my demands at everyone and treating people like they are stupid.