I have done several shifts at the MOU booth for many years and also at
St Paul Audubon and Audubon Minnesota when those groups had booths. I
agree with Sid that is great fun to talk about birds for several hours,
especially kids. And when things are slow you can talk with your
partner. I have worked several times with Sid, Bob Holtz and others
whose names are on the sign up schedule. You get a chance to talk to
some great birders and hear some good stories.And if you don't have
answers to questions, chances are your partner will.
I am only doing two shifts this year as I am also working at our church
parking lot. If you are looking for a free and convenient parking place,
we are at 965 West Larpenteur. Buses run every 20 minutes or so and it
is a 20 minute ride.
Manley Olson
On 8/11/2010 8:06 PM, Sid Stivland wrote:
Although I do not have the energy or "way with words" of Mr. Maiello,
I do share his enthusiasm. Last year, I volunteered for 3 shifts at
the State Fair MOU booth and enjoyed it so much I signed up for 4
shifts this year. I may try for more if I can find time.
If you have not signed up or have never staffed the State Fair booth,
take it from me - it is a lot of fun! Thomas has elegantly described
the reactions of children so I will not even try to elaborate on that
except to say "ditto". The families and adults are nearly as
entertaining. Nearly everyone has a story or a question and they
really do seem to appreciate the attention they get from us.
Incredibly, last year there was only one question I got more than once
and that was "What do I do about the woodpeckers on my house?" By the
way, if anyone has a good answer for that, please let me know.
Otherwise, I am doomed to my stock answer - " I don't know" or "Keep
your caulking gun handy".
One side benefit.- you will be fortunate to share the booth with other
interesting people. Last year, I had one shift with Bob Holtz and he
had 4 hours to work on me. So now I am a YMP volunteer! In his
defense, it was not a very hard sell. I was also privileged to work
with Manley Olson.
This year promises to be even better. I think we owe a great deal of
gratitude to Thomas, Rich, Jen, and Kate (I hope I did not forget
someone) for all the work since last year to make the significant
improvements. I, for one, am looking forward to my shifts at the fair.
Sid Stivland
Plymouth
----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Maiello" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 4:08 PM
Subject: [mou-net] Don't let this year's fair experience slip away
We still have a few prime bird booth staffing spots left for you to
jump into and play to your hearts content. I just got the new
spinning wheel yesterday and it is super fine! I love it! Attracting
kids with this will be like wafting oatmeal raisin cookie vapors
across the crowd using a high volume shop fan. It will be fun just to
watch kids' eyes scan and connect to find the source of the sound as
the wheel clicks around to land on a bird picture for them to
identify. Then the joy of having them pic a bird tattoo or choose a
poster for just saying the full name of the bird the wheel landed on.
Meanwhile the accompanying older kids and parents are going to be
latching onto the touch screen monitor and investigating with the MOU
website, or play a game, or explore other software on the new computer
display system. I don't know if I will be able to truly figure the
new gizmo out at first but I got a feeling the people beelining it to
the booth because of it, will figure it out and teach me by just
watching them. (My 17 year old daughter still teaches me how to change
the setting and use the features of my cell phone and I have had the
same one for some 3 years - she says to just hit all the buttons and
figure it out - yeah right. Here you go girl. Give it back when you
are done fixing it. ;-D)
For those of you who struggled with the low riding captain's chairs we
used in the past, they have been replaced with two gifted swiveling
barstools with padded seats and back support! Now you have no excuse
except that you just haven't taken the time to plunge in. Come join us
and have some great stories to share with your families at
Thanksgiving and Christmas or even sooner when you call them with the
excitement you brought back with you after your shift. I know I do.
Come on! You know you want to!
Here's how:
There are two ways to sign up for a shift. One is on Google Calendar.
1 Go_www.google.com_ (http://www.google.com)
2. Click "Sign In" on the top right hand corner of your screen.
3. Sign in using "mouvolunteer" as your "email" and "ilovemou" as your
password
4. Click the "more" drop down menu item located at just about the G in
Google along the top of your screen.
5. Click "Calendar" from the drop down menu.
6. You will see a calendar centered on today's date. Scroll through
until you get to August 26th 2010 where you will start to see the MOU
booth shifts in red.
7. Click on the shift that you want to sign up for. I find that
clicking on the actual word "Shift 1"(or 2 or 3) is the quickest and
easiest.
8. Write your name after "shift 1, 2, or 3", in the "what" box at the
top of the form.
9. Click "save"
10. Log out (on top right hand corner of the screen).
Easiest of all and to remove any possible technical hesitation - and
because we really, really want you to come play:
You can email Jen or Thomas and tell us what shift you want.
Jen Vieth: [email protected]
Thomas Maiello: [email protected]
See you at the fair!!! And don't forget flat bread tacos, real fruit
smoothies, 1919 root beer floats, Aunt Martha's cookies (to give away
of course), pork chop on a stick, fried walley bits (yum!), riding the
sky tram, riding the sky tram back, lingonberry tarts, roasted corn on
the cob, getting the world's greatest veggie sandwich at Nelson's next
to the fair grounds SE, people watching without having to move around
(they actually parade right in front of you) and of course the fish
pond and river trash art - don't forget the raptor show right next
door and the emerging butterflies. (I got hooked on watching the
x-gen bicycle stunts doing flips and spins just a few feet from me.
Didn't expect that to be quite so much fun!) - man! I almost forgot
the breakfast and fruit crepes - yummy yummy yummy!
See you there.
Thomas Maiello
Angel Environmental Management, Inc.
Maple Grove, MN
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