Pre-festival volunteer turnout encouraging

Tonight’s meeting went well on a number of fronts. During the past week its been difficult to determine exactly how the festival staff would come together knowing we have such little time left. When the meeting hit, I was hoping for some conclusion to how things would actually fall together. Now, I realize that the only way you get anything done is by having some sort of faith that you can actually do it. As Jeffrey says, “An idea is only as good as the energy we put behind it”. As the meeting went on, the donuts were slowly disappearing and the festival shifts were not filling up. So, we broke up into a few groups and had volunteers load up on print material. The majority of shift sign up happened AFTER the meeting, as I was checking in with people personally. This was such a relief, and I think it worked out as I was able to familiarize myself with the volunteer body. It turns out the conclusion that I was looking for came from the volunteers themselves, the blood of the festival that makes it happen every year.

Thank you to everyone who showed up, I look forward to having a great festival with all of you.

Off to Amherst College

Today I am working on background research of Obrebski. Since I don’t have a prior experience with Anthropology this is requiring me to go into Malinowski’s work. There are a few texts here at the WEB DuBois tower that I can access, summaries of Malinowski works and a text on Sex Culture & Myth. It is this area that I find interesting as it relates to Obrebski’s time in Jamaica. Many of the family interviews performed by Edith Cobb and Tamara Obrebski link to Jozef Obrebski’s documents on religion, including sex politics and myth.

I’ll be heading over to the Amherst College library this weekend to access an online article on Sex & Repression in Savage Society – which I am curious about as a prior anthropological work. It will also be interesting to find out what restrictions are placed on this kind of digital material that it can be accessed from Smith College and Amherst College but not at UMass.

The Release of the Schedule

Meeting Reminder! TUESDAY OCT 30th 6PM
This Tuesday October 30th is our final pre-festival volunteer meeting. It will be at 6PM held in the NIFF office at the In Resonance building (this is the same location as our other meetings, directions at www.NIFF.org. We will be filling in the schedule, going over festival procedures as well as providing outlines for site managers.

POSTERS, POSTCARDS & PROGRAMS need to be Distributed

– 2-5 people needed in downtown Northampton to hang up posters on bulletin boards and put postcards in stores.

– Print material also needs to go to: Amherst, South Hadley, Sunderland, Holyoke, Greenfield, Springfield, and Florence; UMass, Amherst College, Mt Holyoke and Hampshire campuses.

– Program guides will need to be put out in shops and local hotels as well. These can be taken with the posters/postcards or done separately.
We have a list of hotels that need a quantity of programs dropped off – will need one person with transportation to do this.
– Need a SMITH STUDENT to put up signs on campus, contact me directly as there are certain flyering procedures for Smith.

If you are available to do some print media distribution, please send me an email ASAP – we need to let the whole area know that NIFF is going on! Posters and postcards are available to pick up at the NIFF office starting tomorrow from 10 am – 5 pm. Call 413-582-1832 and say Hi to Jeffrey or Deb before heading over so we’ll make sure to have a stack ready! Let us know if you need to set up a different pick up time and we will make arrangements.
Thanks everyone – Look forward to hearing from you and seeing you next weekend if not at the meeting!
Abby

[Phase II starts on Tuesday]

Obrebski Correspondence

I am relieved to be back immersed in the Obrebski collection after a few unfortunate events including a decent head cold and having a plate installed in the roof of my mouth to hold adjustments for my braces. I am getting to know the spectrum of information in the Obrebski papers and how the collection breaks down. Pertinent to the organization of Obrebski’s research, categories are listed for the Warsop and Bull Savannah subject files, these parameters were set by WISS and subject information taken down accordingly. These subject categories may prove to be useful for the “tags” in blog code, as they are already congruent with the papers and will allow for extra searching within posts (or items).

I still have research to perform for Obrebski’s biographical information and a brief history of the West Indian Sociological Survey. In order to write comprehensive (though condensed) documents for these topics, it may be pertinent to create a more systematic way of recording my notes. So far I have run into a few instances where addendums to prior research run out of margin room in my notebook. I believe it is a healthy technique to review and functionalize one’s data collection in any study. This is especially the case where Obrebski and anthropological surveys in general are concerned, as within the papers there are already structures of specific information that need to be carried through the digital collection.

Evacuation from the 25th floor

This morning at 11AM an alarm began to sound in the library. UMass students had received an all-campus email about exterior alarm testing to be happening on campus – however this did not give any warning about interior alarm systems. So, everyone is the library was required to evacuate and perform emergency procedures. We walked down 25 floors. It took over 10 minutes – I wonder what kind of emergency these precautions are built for… No sign of the outdoor test! Luckily it was really nice outside and a few minutes break of fresh air is always welcome in my book.

Thank goodness for the elevator on the way back up !

Stamps falling off postcards?

Last week NIFF had some great volunteers come in and get our massive postcard mailing ready – unfortunately a large batch of the stamps are not sticking on the glossy postcard. We need people to come in this week and glue stamps to glossy postcards!! Please send a message or feel free to call the NIFF office at 413-582-1832 !

Volunteer Count Hits 50!

Greetings Team NIFF!
19 days until the festival – 16 days until the last volunteer meeting!

As always, you can find the NIFF festival updates and the 2007 schedule on the website [niff.org] – scroll down on the left sidebar
and check out the “NIFF Intern Blog” for volunteer updates. As soon as the program for the festival is completed a PDF file will be available on the NIFF site so you can read up on the whole event!

If you sent an email and did not receive an individual reply, I apologize – I am receiving a considerable volume of emails, which is wonderful news for the festival! Thank you all for the introduction and I look forward to working with you.

Club NIFF needs furniture! Part of this year’s festival is a swank gathering room with goodies and wireless internet located in the same building as the Northampton Center for the Arts. We are looking for some extra tables and chairs to help create the film fest. club environment. Got anything that might fit in?

Club NIFF also needs a few key volunteers to be able to “open and close the club”! These cool people should be available most of the festival and be able to interact with the Club NIFF crowd, handle cash, potentially be over 21, and look forward to a great time!

We need a Volunteer to work with Smith College on our sign placement for the festival. NIFF signs are already made and we want to place at least 6 around the three venues (Stoddard, Graham, Weinstein) to make sure festival goers can find the films!

Poster and Program Distribution will be taking place in the two weeks prior to the festival. I’ll send an announcement when they are in the office – we will need volunteers to place posters and festival program guides around Northampton, Amherst and other surrounding towns. Let us know if you can distribute in your area!

We still need two more TRAFFIC ASSISTANTS to work with Deb <officemgr@niff.org> and Kevin <topaz@legendsoftheinternet.com> on making sure the continuity of the festival is maintained. This is an IMMEDIATE ASSIGNMENT! [job description]

MEETING REMINDER

Tuesday, October 30th at 6 PM will be the final Volunteer Meeting before the festival. Site Manger training will take place (Probably
let by the very capable Karen!) this evening. Sign up for time slots (see below)!!! Please check the website for updates on location and
directions.
**Projectionist training details TBA

SIGN UP FOR TIME SLOTS!
This is will be held on a first come, first served basis. Starting Tuesday the festival schedule will be circulated in document form through email. You can sign up for slots by responding with the specific day, time, title of the event, and your role for each time slot you sign up for. This will be confirmed by an updated schedule document that will be sent to the entire list any time we make a batch of changes. The meeting on the 30th will also be a great time to sign up, ask questions, and meet the rest of the team!

Thank you again to everyone involved – it is going to be a great season for NIFF! This festival is built on volunteers and we will have a lot of fun together.
Take care,
Abby

Independent = Open Source

Today Jared is creating the schedule grid for NIFF program guide. I assisted in creating a grid using the spreadsheet function in Open Office Draw. Using independently created open source software is just one more way to support non-profit organizations. I’m also working on using Base (the Open Office database program) for the NIFF film library – that is if it is not assimilated into any larger library collections.

NIFF Volunteer Updates

I’m looking forward to an administrative meeting for the festival tonight – making sure all the key bases are covered regarding parties, sponsors, merchandise etc. Thanks to Wendy for coming into the office and do the postcard mailing yesterday – now they are out in the mail! We still need a good number of festival volunteers, specifically people with cash handing experience and two more traffic assistants. Tell your friends! Send an email to get involved or come to our Oct 30th Volunteer meeting!

Check out the NIFF page to look at current volunteer positions!

Raiders of the Lost Manuscript

Mike (the SCUA Senior Archives Assistant) brought me down to the 2nd floor of the Goodell building on campus – the 5th floor is the ground floor. There was a locked room with 900 square feet of metal shelving and boxes – administrative records for the university since the 1970’s and yes, a few wooded crates that had been used for shipping.

Rob and I talked about a database to use for the individual Obrebski records – that way the blog isn’t the only copy of information. The database that he already designed for a similar project provides HTML coding for an alphabetical listing. Most fields will be adaptable to the Obrebski papers. I am going to wait until I get a little further into creating the records and becoming familiar with what fields are needed before I start implementing the database.

Holiday Monday – check back next Friday!