I may soon be chief cook AND bottle washer - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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You need to have a sit down with the food services manager and ask him what he is going to do to make sure you have the staff to serve the kids. If it were happening in my kids' school. the parents would have been up in arms. If there is money in the budget, it needs to be used.
Good luck. Hopefully your food service director can get things under control. And don't let him think you can do it without help. You and the kids need enought personnel in the cafe to get them served, in a reasonable amount of time and safely-no cutting corners on food handling.
You need to have a sit down with the food services manager and ask him what he is going to do to make sure you have the staff to serve the kids. If it were happening in my kids' school. the parents would have been up in arms. If there is money in the budget, it needs to be used.
Good luck. Hopefully your food service director can get things under control. And don't let him think you can do it without help. You and the kids need enought personnel in the cafe to get them served, in a reasonable amount of time and safely-no cutting corners on food handling.
I have talked to him but he says his hands are tied. It's up to the Director of Finances and Operations on who gets hired, not my Food Services Director and unfortunately a lot of the parents in the town I work for are "above" working in kitchens. The parents I talk to who volunteer in the actual cafeteria are upset when we're down people but they're unwilling to do more than volunteer once or twice a month to watch the kids eat. I've tried "recruiting" them but while they don't say it as "thanks, but no thanks" they don't ever ask questions about becoming a sub i.e who they should talk to, what it's like, etc.
As for safely serving food - I haven't hidden the fact feeding the kids is my job and it's what I'll do. If it's me, myself and I, the kids will get fed exactly as they do with 3 people (we only have one person serving at a time so it should take the same amount of time) but I'll cut corners when it comes to the money - I just won't collect any and I know that will get someone's attention.
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I can't understand what management is thinking? I'm sure they budgeted for the three if you, they should be able to replace both if them.
They would, if we had people to replace them with. At the end of last year, we had exactly 3 subs. One took a permanent position somewhere else in the school so she can't do it anymore, one gives most of her time to another town that pays her more so she rarely works for us and certainly doesn't commit unless the other school hasn't called her in (can't really say I blame her) and the third one is threatening to walk and not working nearly as much as she has in the past.
My mom was the cafeteria manager for Walpole High School. It is a hard, thankless job . . .
Hi Neighbor (although I know you're in Maine now). AFAIK, Walpole does things far, far different then here in Medfield. One of my former coworkers lives in Walpole and I remember her telling me about the lunch choices her kids had - and they were better than ours. None of the heat and eat we do most days so I can't consider a lot of what I do hard. Believe me, I'd rather have better meals for the kids and work hard than what I do actually make for them but not only do I have to stay within the state health guidelines, I have to stay within the budget I'm allowed. Not that I know how much that is but usually when I suggest something good that's too expensive, I'm told we can't have it because it's too expensive to make.
Do you know anyone on the school board? I think you are getting the run around. School budgets are generally done yearly. The money is appropriated.
I know your area. I cannot imagine that there is no one who would like a part time job while the kids are in school.
Parents should not need to volunteer, the department should be staffed. What do the teachers say? The kdis should get hot meals, that are prepared in a safe way with enough staff to make sure they are also served safely.
Don't give up and don't do it all. Would they drop the school lunch program if you took another job? Don't let yourself be taken advantage of.
Do you know anyone on the school board? I think you are getting the run around. School budgets are generally done yearly. The money is appropriated.
I know your area. I cannot imagine that there is no one who would like a part time job while the kids are in school.
Parents should not need to volunteer, the department should be staffed. What do the teachers say? The kdis should get hot meals, that are prepared in a safe way with enough staff to make sure they are also served safely.
Don't give up and don't do it all. Would they drop the school lunch program if you took another job? Don't let yourself be taken advantage of.
I agree, they have the money and they could find people if they tried hard enough. Have they posted the jobs? Have they advertised in the newspaper or online? I think they are trying to get away with spending as little as possible. It is way too much to expect you to do it alone. If they are not advertising, of course no one is applying, only a handful of people even know about it. Good luck Darlene, I hope they get you some real helpers soon.
Since you will be doing the work of THREE people, will they be paying you the other two's salary as well now? sounds like you have a bumpy road ahead for the end of the school year. Hopefully things will get better, in one way or another.
Maybe, just maybe, they will hire some normal people. Wait - better than normal - people you can be friends with! Been there, done that - its so much nicer to work when you enjoy the people you work with.
Sorry for the troubles you are having. I am not really surprised, I work in food too. I have seen it over and over that people now do not want to work. They show up and do next to nothing and want to get paid. It is very hard now because the pay is not enough for the job so people work what they think they are getting paid to do.(next to nothing) Food service is not a mentally straining job but it is labor. Not only that people treat you like you are a moron and beneath them. It has turned into this vicious cycle that people do not get paid enough because they are not working and they are not working because they feel they are not getting paid enough. I personally have more self pride and I do my job and do it well like you do Darlene. Showing up and not working and leaving your co workers in the lurch is not the way to live your life. I hope they find someone good to work with you. Please keep us posted.
I don't have much time this morning - I have to get Abby on the bus soon - but today should be interesting. The last few weeks since my part timer left for surgery have gone relatively smoothly. I've had a sub as often as I haven't so I know the kitchen can run quite well with two people - it almost runs better with two than with two plus a sub. Anyway, today my full timer called in sick so until further notice, it will be me, myself and I. I don't think my Food Services Director will leave me to work by myself (I have a plan if he does anyway - just feed the kids and forget about the money) but I actually won't know anything until probably 10 this morning when I typically see him (and for those wondering, the next "shift" starts at 9).
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