Tuesday, August 17, 2010

August 17, 2010- Extreme Makeover: SBP Office Edition


What happens when the SBP staff is asked to do an incredible task: completely renovate the upstairs office so that we can run a more efficient, organized operation? That would be the most epic make over in SBP office history.

One might be surprised to learn that many of the staff in the development and volunteer departments, in their power suits and cushy rolling chairs high in the SBP office tower, once worked on the construction side of things- many as site supervisors, repeat volunteers, or as a part of the rotating AmeriCorps NCCC teams. SBP is proud of our relationship with AmeriCorps and especially grateful to the program for exposing its NCCCs to the work down here, many of whom return to continue doing good with SBP after their service is up. This background came in more than handy as the office and warehouse united to devote nearly three hours to transform a cluttered, inefficiently mapped office into a sleek and spacious base of operations.

Jabs about the office being "high maintenance" and fraternizing with "the help" in the warehouse were put aside for the afternoon to achieve a success on many different levels- each held their own in assembling the carefully constructed desks and shelves provided by the warehouse managers, and it was a prime opportunity to come together and accomplish a task as a staff in its entirety. Check out some of the pictures of the staff working on, and for, the new digs upstairs:

Our very own YouTube sensation, Kevin, and grant-writing phenom, Kate, who both were NCCC site supervisors for SBP, helping mark the spots for the new office desks

Our jack-of-all-trades government liaison, Matt taking care of some desktop sanding.
Case manager extraordinaire Kathleen and marketing coordinating dynamo Drea stain the new worktops.
Development coordinating sensation Catherine taking on the sander
The office staff giving the warehouse a run for its money...?

Monday, August 2, 2010

August 2, 2010- The SBP Office Makes a Splash for the Pepsi Refresh Challenge

Ready, set, VOTE for SBP in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge! That's right, voting has officially gone live and we need all of your help to vote for us every day to win $250,000 for mental health services for those affected by the oil spill.

Our office, always looking for new ways to keep things interesting, has decided to spend the next 30 days searching for something more refreshing than our proposal. To capture this bold idea, we will be turning it into a youtube video journal where our resident scheduler, Kevin Albrecht, will be testing the various ideas we come up with to see if they are truly on par with SBP.

For the first video, Kevin thought we should take the idea of "refreshing" literally. Though the stifling Louisiana heat may be the one to credit this idea to, one 10 minute break to wait for the business next door to stop mowing their lawn, a near fall off an unstable crate that our intern videographer Mollie was standing on, and three practice takes later, Lisa, one of SBP's case managers, Heidi, a site supervisor, and Amanda, the marketing coordinator, were ready to soak Kevin for the cause. You can check out our first entry here to see how he was willing to literally make a splash for SBP!

Never fear, Kevin didn't melt and will be back tomorrow with our refreshing idea #2. Have an idea for him to try out? Leave a comment and it could be in our next video!

Don't forget to vote for us once a day at www.refresheverything.com/sbp and to reach out to your networks to help lead the charge for $250,000 to help victims of the oil spill. We can't do it without you!

From the Center of Refreshing,
Team SBP