Wednesday 02/23/2020
Walk. Get idea re zoom simulcasts. On return to my room, I have an email from Paul in IT telling me the problem with the wireless mics is fixed. Hell it is, it still existed yesterday at 11am, I reply. Paul replies, meet me in the auditorium in 15 minutes.
I go to the auditorium and test, and what do you know, the problem is fixed. Gerald from IT, after our meeting yesterday, thought of something and went back and fixed the issue. All mics work the way we need them to. Big relief to me.
In my room, I email David M with the idea I had. Then start my laundry
Stanford WBB had sent an email yesterday saying, click here to claim your tickets for the post-season games, but the link did nothing. Now I call Stanford tickets; they say I don’t have to do anything to claim post season tickets. As a season ticket holder they will automatically charge my card.
I call Ian to check on the plan for a zoom simulcast next Sunday.
I send email to AV team mailing list with the good news about the mics, and scheduling an AV team meeting for next week, when I hope we can have a workshop on how to do simulcasts.
Yesterday eBay said “remember those old IBM manuals you been trying to sell for weeks? Hey they sold and you have 48 hours to ship them.” So now I email Lisa, FOPAL volunteer who helpded me do that before, to see when she can help with another mailing.
I made a date yesterday to talk to Mary Beth, the Gift Shop manager, about money. Now I go to the 4th floor to meet her. This was a very interesting talk. I learned a lot. The Gift Shop started in the 90s as an organized committee with officers (? she’s not sure if it had bylaws etc) but over the years it was run more by “benevolent dictators” of which she is the latest, and prior ones have died or are in SN. She would like to see more structure and transparency. I suggested merger with RA and we left that idea hanging.
The GS does their banking as a sub-account of Channing House’s account at Umpqua Bank. This is a new idea to me. It means their actual banking, check deposits especially, are done by Jaisie Lozano, the CH Finance Director. Their accounting is complicated because as a retail operation they have to remit sales tax on taxable items, which Jaisie handles based on their input.
In my wanting to dump Wells Fargo I had not considered anything but SFCU, but having a sub account under CH makes sense for the RA and I will press that idea with the incoming treasurer.
In any case, the GS has never committed to paying the RA a fixed or steady amount, it has always given single grants based on ad-hoc requests for funding, all aimed at generally improving life for Channing House residents, and she didn’t think that would change. Also she is not certain how much the GS actually makes per year and left saying she was going to find out.
I go to lunch while the 2nd laundry load runs. During lunch, I get email from Lisa, she will be at FOPAL annex for a couple of hours soon. I finish lunch quickly. Check laundry. It will be fine by itself for an hour, so I drive to FOPAL and mail IBM manuals with Lisa’s guidance. In future, if I do any future eBay sales, I will be able to do it myself. From there I go to Piazza’s, buy PB, mayo, bread and gatorade. Drive home and move laundry to drier.
Bring in from car, an LED floodlight that we use for object photography at Shustek. I took from Shustek 2 weeks ago, because its switch was flaky, and I thought I could fix. Now I finally bring it up from car and maybe will actually fix it?
Nope. The problem appears to be a failure in the tiny circuit board the drives the LEDs, there is an obvious melted spot. Something overheated, pffft. Send an email to Gretta telling her so.
After a nap I put in an hour organizing tax-related papers. Next time I sit down to do that I will actually start filling out the accountant’s online workbook.
At 4, a person who had signed up for the 6-7pm tray distribution wrote to say she had a health problem and couldn’t make it.
At 5, David M. called from the Auditorium where he was trying out the tech for a zoom simulcast. He needed help with the audio input, and I had an answer in the form of a stereo miniplug to USB converter. I went down and consulted with him on that. Then it was nearly 5:30 so I picked up my dinner tray that I had ordered earlier, took it to my room and ate. At 5 to six I went back down and joined Eva in dispensing trays until 6:45 when almost all were gone.
And that was pretty much the end of the day. Russia invaded Ukraine, I notice.
Codgerville 