Well... the resume is just the work history. To know me, and understand what I can do... take a look at what I have done:
Actress -- my first love, what I wanted to be when I grew up, what I really did try to become. I was the kid in the school plays, the ham in the home movies, the little girl glued to the Oscar broadcast dreaming that would be me someday. My parents helped without pushing - dance classes, weekend classes in New York (the American Academy of Dramatic Arts), piano lessons, everything they could do to help me. I made it through 2 years at Hofstra University, but lost in their theater department, I (have to admit it) flunked out. Moved to New York and studied again, joined a small off-off-off Broadway (we really were out of the way and hard to find) theater company and did that for quite a few years. Later on I went back for classes at Bridgeport University, performing in some shows there. Ultimately I had a moment when I realized that it wasn't what I wanted any longer.
Writer -- Science fiction, poetry that mostly stays private, other fiction. I've decided to embrace a career path of "Technical Writer" because when I analyzed my experience in all the jobs I've had I realized that I've always done technical writing, without realizing that's what I was doing. If a help document was needed, I wrote it. Training users on computer hardware and software basics - sure, I can write up a training guide and train people in a classroom setting. Oh! You need a security policy? Well, I've never written one, but let me get some samples and I'll write one. A guide for interns/residents at the VA hospital? Sure - "VA House Staff Manual." Websites, policy documents, user guides, training guides, RFPs, by now I've done a bit of everything in the tech writing arena. So I took a Tech Writing certificate program through California State University online - 3 parts, about 6 months of classes and writing and I aced it!
Editor, Desktop Publisher, Newsletter Designer -- I've run newsletters for the Mensa group I belonged to and spent 5 years as the editor of the Mensa International Journal, reaching Mensa members throughout the world. Those volunteer jobs involved editing, writing, graphic design, layout, desktop publishing, project management, deadlines, etc.
Convention Planner -- About the most fun I've ever had, and at the same time one of the hardest and longest projects. Planning the 1994 Annual Gathering of US/Canadian Mensa was a bear of a task: several years in planning, working with an all-volunteer committee from 3 local chapters throughout New England. We had multiple hotel contracts, 3 banquets at our main hotel, a 24-hour hospitality suite that served up "Mensa style" hospitality (food and drink), trips and tours with a local tour company, volunteer led trips to Boston area sights, bus transportation arranged to run between our main and spillover hotels. We had multiple program tracks with speakers on just about any topic imaginable along with Mensa leadership tracks. It was amazing, it was exhausting, it was a high point! Along with that "big" deal, I've worked with my husband as chair or co-chair for many smaller, local Mensa "gatherings." And continue working wih the Mensa annual gatherings in organizing a craft show for members each year.
Musician/Singer -- Gerry and I have been a part of several bands, put together with friends with matching musical interests and tastes throughout the years. I sing and sometime play keyboard or bang a tambourine, I love coming up with complicated harmonies. Musical highlights/highs:
Our band incarnation that was called "M-Music" (M=Mensa, get it? Really clever, huh?) worked over The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for months leading up to the 20th anniversary of its original release ("It was 20 years ago today...") and played the entire album live for an invited audience. We had help from a really talented synthesizer musician who filled in all the blanks that we couldn't with synth. Lisa got hold of a set of Tabla for "Within You, Without You." We bought, made or rented the closest we could find to Sgt Pepper-like costumes and it actually worked! It was very cool!
The last incarnation of our band was self-named "Band in Boston" and we spent probably the last 2 years of the New England Annual Gathering planning period putting together, culling, selecting and rehearsing 3 sets of music to play on the last night of the gathering. We filled a hotel ballroom wth listening and dancing friends and other attendees, many of whom didn't realize until they got a closer look, that the band was made up of many of the people who'd also worked on planning and running the convention. When we finished, the crowd stomped and hooted and called for more! Us: "We don't have any more! That's all we rehearsed!" Crowd: "SO? Just do it all again from the top!" Again... what an amazing feeling!
Web Designer -- When I started in a new job with SBC (now AT&T), one of my new colleagues asked if I would be interested in being his backup as webmaster for the CIS (Corporate Information Security) web site. Sure! I didn't know any HTML or anything about web programming and design, but I learned by doing. Got books on basic HTML, style sheets, color for the web, etc. Learned how to make basic changes in the existing web pages and eventually started making up new pages. When the time came to create a tool for training employees on how to do data classification, I created a set of web pages that trained on the basics, had a series of questions at the ends of sections (complete with cute audio clips played when you got something right or wrong) and ended with a checklist tool that would tell the user what the classification was from checked criteria on the form.
So, when I wanted to put up a web site for my jewelry business, I just started from a blank page, some graphics files, some backgrounds or color selections and voila! The Artisans at Mooseworks web site. (OK, not quite voila! more like several weeks of work to get it all together.) It's been redesigned once now and will continue to evolve.
Jewelry Designer/Beader -- My newest passion, and one that has lasted quite a while. It started with a handful of beads bought to compliment a unique pendant that had been given to me as a gift. The pendant had been on a chain, but it just needed to have more going on around it. By the time I finished that one piece, I was hooked. Took one basic bead stringing class, bought some tools, bought more beads... and bought more beads... and bought more beads... Oh, it was a slippery slope! When we moved to California, I decided that I needed a second job to have a bit more income. In one of those kismet moments of life I found a local bead store when I needed to buy one small part. They had a "help wanted" sign in the window, so I got my jump ring and filled out the application. A few weeks later I was working part time and being exposed to a wonderful world of creative people, ideas, classes and inspiration. When the Mensa convention that year advertised that they would hold a one day craft show for members I signed up and started making jewelry like crazy. I now made pieces that I did not intend to keep -- and that little change in attitude blew my creativity wide open. Before, I'd always made something with a specific person in mind, myself mostly, but also as gifts with someone as the intended recipient. Suddenly, I didn't have to have the finished product be something that I would wear, or that I would give to one person, but I just had to put something together that pleased me, even if I didn't want to keep it myself. (Though, sometimes, I finish something and either just have to have it myself or have to make a second one for myself!)
Making jewelry became about colors and textures and shapes and before long I had bags full of necklaces and bracelets and earrings to bring to the Mensa convention with me. I can't remember exactly how much I sold that first time, but it shocked me! The one day wasn't enough, people who heard about it but hadn't found the room we were in wanted to see more, so a new friend and I set up outside the hospitality room on Saturday night, putting our jewelry out on tables again. And I sold even more! Then I would see people coming from the Saturday night dance who would stop at my table to show me that they were wearing MY jewelry with their special outfits. It was absolutely delightful! To this day, Mensans are my best customers.
But that shot in the ego from having a successful show led me to create my website and to start doing craft shows in my area. I have a business model: "Sell Jewelry, Buy More Beads." It's very rudimentary, but I like it as a business philosophy - no pressure!
Project Manager -- I have one class's worth of formal Project Management training. But I still consider project management as one of my skills. The convention planning I've done is all about project management: timelines, budgets, sub-projects, working with people on deadlines, making the project come together when it needs to and be successful. I've done project management in my jobs: managing a large scale computer purchase for the VA New England region involved budgets and multiple delivery points, contracts, inventory management and getting it done on time and on budget. With AT&T: managed the purchase of new computer systems for the group of Yellow Pages artists at SNET - on time and in budget. AT&T Threat Management: worked with system support/developers on schedules for making updates and improvements to the web-based system. We worked timelines back from projected implementation date and set project landmarks from there.
Purchasing/Inventory Control -- When I was moved into the "Microcomputer Specialist" position with the West Haven VA Medical Center I suddenly became responsible for not just supporting desktop computer use at the medical center, but for purchasing, setting up, delivering, troubleshooting, fixing, upgrading and tracking inventory of what was a rapidly growing area. Hospital administrators, doctors, nurses, support staff were suddenly all discovering the value of having a PC available. The "dumb terminal" hooked into the hospital's mainframes were no long enough and it became my job to handle all requests for new PCs (both DOS and Mac), work with annual budgets, work with GSA (Govt Services Admin) approved vendors for hardware and software purchases, and keep track of everything that was coming in and being deployed throughout the medical center. I started with spreadsheets and databases to try to track it all, but eventually selected and implemented an inventory control software package to manage it all. By the time I was tasked with working on the purchasing and deployment of standardized hardware and software for the entire New England region, I was comfortable with the responsibilities and tools at my disposal to handle it.
Actress -- my first love, what I wanted to be when I grew up, what I really did try to become. I was the kid in the school plays, the ham in the home movies, the little girl glued to the Oscar broadcast dreaming that would be me someday. My parents helped without pushing - dance classes, weekend classes in New York (the American Academy of Dramatic Arts), piano lessons, everything they could do to help me. I made it through 2 years at Hofstra University, but lost in their theater department, I (have to admit it) flunked out. Moved to New York and studied again, joined a small off-off-off Broadway (we really were out of the way and hard to find) theater company and did that for quite a few years. Later on I went back for classes at Bridgeport University, performing in some shows there. Ultimately I had a moment when I realized that it wasn't what I wanted any longer.
Writer -- Science fiction, poetry that mostly stays private, other fiction. I've decided to embrace a career path of "Technical Writer" because when I analyzed my experience in all the jobs I've had I realized that I've always done technical writing, without realizing that's what I was doing. If a help document was needed, I wrote it. Training users on computer hardware and software basics - sure, I can write up a training guide and train people in a classroom setting. Oh! You need a security policy? Well, I've never written one, but let me get some samples and I'll write one. A guide for interns/residents at the VA hospital? Sure - "VA House Staff Manual." Websites, policy documents, user guides, training guides, RFPs, by now I've done a bit of everything in the tech writing arena. So I took a Tech Writing certificate program through California State University online - 3 parts, about 6 months of classes and writing and I aced it!
Editor, Desktop Publisher, Newsletter Designer -- I've run newsletters for the Mensa group I belonged to and spent 5 years as the editor of the Mensa International Journal, reaching Mensa members throughout the world. Those volunteer jobs involved editing, writing, graphic design, layout, desktop publishing, project management, deadlines, etc.
Convention Planner -- About the most fun I've ever had, and at the same time one of the hardest and longest projects. Planning the 1994 Annual Gathering of US/Canadian Mensa was a bear of a task: several years in planning, working with an all-volunteer committee from 3 local chapters throughout New England. We had multiple hotel contracts, 3 banquets at our main hotel, a 24-hour hospitality suite that served up "Mensa style" hospitality (food and drink), trips and tours with a local tour company, volunteer led trips to Boston area sights, bus transportation arranged to run between our main and spillover hotels. We had multiple program tracks with speakers on just about any topic imaginable along with Mensa leadership tracks. It was amazing, it was exhausting, it was a high point! Along with that "big" deal, I've worked with my husband as chair or co-chair for many smaller, local Mensa "gatherings." And continue working wih the Mensa annual gatherings in organizing a craft show for members each year.
Musician/Singer -- Gerry and I have been a part of several bands, put together with friends with matching musical interests and tastes throughout the years. I sing and sometime play keyboard or bang a tambourine, I love coming up with complicated harmonies. Musical highlights/highs:
Our band incarnation that was called "M-Music" (M=Mensa, get it? Really clever, huh?) worked over The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for months leading up to the 20th anniversary of its original release ("It was 20 years ago today...") and played the entire album live for an invited audience. We had help from a really talented synthesizer musician who filled in all the blanks that we couldn't with synth. Lisa got hold of a set of Tabla for "Within You, Without You." We bought, made or rented the closest we could find to Sgt Pepper-like costumes and it actually worked! It was very cool!
The last incarnation of our band was self-named "Band in Boston" and we spent probably the last 2 years of the New England Annual Gathering planning period putting together, culling, selecting and rehearsing 3 sets of music to play on the last night of the gathering. We filled a hotel ballroom wth listening and dancing friends and other attendees, many of whom didn't realize until they got a closer look, that the band was made up of many of the people who'd also worked on planning and running the convention. When we finished, the crowd stomped and hooted and called for more! Us: "We don't have any more! That's all we rehearsed!" Crowd: "SO? Just do it all again from the top!" Again... what an amazing feeling!
Web Designer -- When I started in a new job with SBC (now AT&T), one of my new colleagues asked if I would be interested in being his backup as webmaster for the CIS (Corporate Information Security) web site. Sure! I didn't know any HTML or anything about web programming and design, but I learned by doing. Got books on basic HTML, style sheets, color for the web, etc. Learned how to make basic changes in the existing web pages and eventually started making up new pages. When the time came to create a tool for training employees on how to do data classification, I created a set of web pages that trained on the basics, had a series of questions at the ends of sections (complete with cute audio clips played when you got something right or wrong) and ended with a checklist tool that would tell the user what the classification was from checked criteria on the form.
So, when I wanted to put up a web site for my jewelry business, I just started from a blank page, some graphics files, some backgrounds or color selections and voila! The Artisans at Mooseworks web site. (OK, not quite voila! more like several weeks of work to get it all together.) It's been redesigned once now and will continue to evolve.
Jewelry Designer/Beader -- My newest passion, and one that has lasted quite a while. It started with a handful of beads bought to compliment a unique pendant that had been given to me as a gift. The pendant had been on a chain, but it just needed to have more going on around it. By the time I finished that one piece, I was hooked. Took one basic bead stringing class, bought some tools, bought more beads... and bought more beads... and bought more beads... Oh, it was a slippery slope! When we moved to California, I decided that I needed a second job to have a bit more income. In one of those kismet moments of life I found a local bead store when I needed to buy one small part. They had a "help wanted" sign in the window, so I got my jump ring and filled out the application. A few weeks later I was working part time and being exposed to a wonderful world of creative people, ideas, classes and inspiration. When the Mensa convention that year advertised that they would hold a one day craft show for members I signed up and started making jewelry like crazy. I now made pieces that I did not intend to keep -- and that little change in attitude blew my creativity wide open. Before, I'd always made something with a specific person in mind, myself mostly, but also as gifts with someone as the intended recipient. Suddenly, I didn't have to have the finished product be something that I would wear, or that I would give to one person, but I just had to put something together that pleased me, even if I didn't want to keep it myself. (Though, sometimes, I finish something and either just have to have it myself or have to make a second one for myself!)
Making jewelry became about colors and textures and shapes and before long I had bags full of necklaces and bracelets and earrings to bring to the Mensa convention with me. I can't remember exactly how much I sold that first time, but it shocked me! The one day wasn't enough, people who heard about it but hadn't found the room we were in wanted to see more, so a new friend and I set up outside the hospitality room on Saturday night, putting our jewelry out on tables again. And I sold even more! Then I would see people coming from the Saturday night dance who would stop at my table to show me that they were wearing MY jewelry with their special outfits. It was absolutely delightful! To this day, Mensans are my best customers.
But that shot in the ego from having a successful show led me to create my website and to start doing craft shows in my area. I have a business model: "Sell Jewelry, Buy More Beads." It's very rudimentary, but I like it as a business philosophy - no pressure!
Project Manager -- I have one class's worth of formal Project Management training. But I still consider project management as one of my skills. The convention planning I've done is all about project management: timelines, budgets, sub-projects, working with people on deadlines, making the project come together when it needs to and be successful. I've done project management in my jobs: managing a large scale computer purchase for the VA New England region involved budgets and multiple delivery points, contracts, inventory management and getting it done on time and on budget. With AT&T: managed the purchase of new computer systems for the group of Yellow Pages artists at SNET - on time and in budget. AT&T Threat Management: worked with system support/developers on schedules for making updates and improvements to the web-based system. We worked timelines back from projected implementation date and set project landmarks from there.
Purchasing/Inventory Control -- When I was moved into the "Microcomputer Specialist" position with the West Haven VA Medical Center I suddenly became responsible for not just supporting desktop computer use at the medical center, but for purchasing, setting up, delivering, troubleshooting, fixing, upgrading and tracking inventory of what was a rapidly growing area. Hospital administrators, doctors, nurses, support staff were suddenly all discovering the value of having a PC available. The "dumb terminal" hooked into the hospital's mainframes were no long enough and it became my job to handle all requests for new PCs (both DOS and Mac), work with annual budgets, work with GSA (Govt Services Admin) approved vendors for hardware and software purchases, and keep track of everything that was coming in and being deployed throughout the medical center. I started with spreadsheets and databases to try to track it all, but eventually selected and implemented an inventory control software package to manage it all. By the time I was tasked with working on the purchasing and deployment of standardized hardware and software for the entire New England region, I was comfortable with the responsibilities and tools at my disposal to handle it.