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| Laura Yannai SEE Venue Director seevenue@umd.edu |
One of the most common questions I get asked is, how much work do you do for SEE each week? Technically speaking, each director has five mandatory office hours a week and a weekly board meeting on Thursday afternoons. Our office hours are a time to do SEE work and a time when people outside of SEE know they can get in touch with us, and our board meetings on Thursday are a time for us to discuss new business and upcoming events. But my work for SEE is not consistent on a week-to-week basis, nor is it prioritized the same way each week.
As Venue Director, much of my work consists of communicating, through email and telephone, with people from various campus departments. This includes but is not limited to Campus Reservations and the Department of Transportation Services (DOTS), among others. I look through artist riders to see what kind of green room, parking and non-technical setup information they have requested and figure out where I need to make these requests in order to make them happen. Sometimes it’s as simple as filling out a request form for a parking permit and faxing that to DOTS. At other times, such as for the Homecoming Comedy Show, it’s a lot more difficult. In such cases, I’m triple-checking work orders to Facilities Management that request venue access time, tables, trashcans, recycling bins, as well as hundreds of chairs – and everything needs to get delivered and set up in a certain way. At times like these, the amount of time I put into my SEE work extends well beyond the five-office hour requirement. More often than not, my friends don’t need to ask me where I am to know I’m in the SEE office.
I’m going to be honest, balancing SEE work, my outside job and my academics can be pretty challenging. We are always told that we are students first and SEE directors second. This is not always an easy guideline to adhere to. When it’s the week before Art Attack and I have about 30 things on my to-do list, it’s very hard to prioritize my studies over a phone call that absolutely has to be made or the tents for McKeldin Mall will not get delivered at the right time. It’s also hard not to skip a class when the Spring Comedy Show is happening in the Grand Ballroom in a few hours and I want to go make sure that everything is set up properly. At times like these, I’m a SEE director above all else but by no one else’s choice but my own.
On the other hand, when I have a paper due and three tests in two days, it is hard to sit in the SEE office and fill out requests for parking permits when I know that I really should be in the library studying. It’s important for me to communicate with other directors about what’s going on in my life so that if I don’t respond to e-mails right away or have to miss some office hours, everyone knows why. There are definitely times when I am a student first and a SEE director second, but as with everything else in life, it’s a balance.
In an ideal world I would be able to tell you that I’m great at balancing and that no one task gets forgotten in lieu of another. Realistically, that’s not really how it goes. I operate between two poles: on one end, I’m rushing in and out of the SEE office in a frenzy because I have a biochemistry review session to go to, and on the other end I’m spending an entire day doing nothing but SEE work. My goal is to give whatever I am working on 100 percent of my concentration. I accept that there are days when I will not be able to do any SEE work and days when I will be doing nothing but SEE work. Regardless of what I am working on, so long as I am giving it my full attention and making sure I get the job done right I know that everything is going to work out.
This work/life balance has been a valuable learning experience and one that I know every college student will experience in some way, shape or form during his or her collegiate years. If I could offer any advice, it would be this: stay organized, stay passionate and stay positive.
