I may soon be chief cook AND bottle washer - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Darlene, when you see push him about filling vacant positions and getting more subs
I know he's been trying - he has interviewed two people recently - but with the town hall saying "we won't pay for ads in the paper" people don't even know we need help. And the few that do and apply decide our starting pay isn't enough for them to actually take the job.
So anyway, about yesterday - one of the subs (the one threatening to quit) was sent to another school to work with her sister because she has been assigned there permanently due to someone being out with a long term injury. The other sub we have went to the other town she works for where she makes more money leaving me to work by myself. The secretary to my Food Service Director was in yesterday for a change (she put in for retirement and calls in sick every other day now) but she doesn't help at all - it's not her job, she doesn't get anything extra for helping, etc - so she just sat at her computer watching YouTube videos and playing games. My FSD finally came in the building around 10:30 but by the time, I pretty much had gotten done everything "important" - food prepped, milk put in the cooler, etc. All that was left was actually getting the food cooked and putting things out on the line for lunches. My FSD did offer several times to help with things but there wasn't anything he could do but he did come out and serve so I could ring the kids out. All in all, it went smoothly - of course too I didn't go in to work all stessed out over it like some would have. Going in like that wouldn't have helped any so I just didn't do it. Plus too, yesterday wasn't that labor intensive when it came to lunches. Even if it were, I would have figured something out. The plus side is my FSD told me to leave once the deposit was counted so I got out of work half an hour early (but I will get paid for my full shift).
The really "sad" part about the whole thing? I'd much rather work with my FSD serving food than the people I do work with. I'm getting so tired of the two poeple I work with acting like the food cost is coming out of their pockets (instead of giving small handfuls of fries, they'll give the kids literally only 4 or 5 saying "their only 2nd and 3rd graders, they don't eat much"). I'm also tired of hearing "that's not how we did it with the old manager." As I said though, yesterday went smoothly. The kids were given "normal" amounts of food and despite being a high count (50+ kids each lunch), we got the kids out in less time than it takes for smaller lunches when I have the other people with me.
I'll keep everyone posted on the sub situation if it changes and if/when the full timer leaves for her own surgery - which after yesterday with how well it went, actually can't come soon enough for me.
How did yesterday go? (and today too, for that matter!)
I just posted, but today was a teachers only day so there was no school. I probably should have added that too but I didn't think to. I don't think my full timer was sick at all. I think she just didn't want to come to work. Wednesday was a snow day, today is a teachers only day so what better way to have a really long weekend than to call in sick on Thursday?
I know you really like you FSD but either he's not upfront with you or not the brightest. You don't need to put an ad in the newspaper. You can send an email, put a notice in the school newsletter or work through the parent teacher organization. You can probably post something by the office or where the parents pick up kids. You can target the parents of kids in your school and I cannt imagine there aren't parents who would love a job with mother's hours, even on a substitute basis.
Your FSD may get kudos for keeping his budget down but he may do it at the expense of the kids. You don't want to spread bacteria because of a food service mistake, which is much more likely to happen if you are doing three jobs instead of one.
Suggest to him alternative ways of finding help. Ask him if you can talak to your friends and Abby's friends mothers.
You can send an email, put a notice in the school newsletter or work through the parent teacher organization. You can probably post something by the office or where the parents pick up kids
.
Believe it or not, this has been done - and with no success whatsoever. Since Abby is still in school, I get the emails and the newsletters. I go on the school website and I have to go by the front office every morning so I've seen where they have the job postings. Most of the people in the town I live in that have kids in the system do not want to work. Out of 20 people in the kitchens (including my FSD and his secretary) only 7 of us even live in the same town - everyone else is from different towns. If you throw in the two subs into that count, that means only 1/3 of the cafeteria staff is from town. And out of those 7, only 3 of us have kids in the system. The rest of the town people are in their 60's with grown kids.
IMO that shouldn't be the case - most of the staff from other towns - but that's the way it is. It's just one of many, many screwed up things in this town. There's so many things I could probably write a book (i.e a secretary at the town hall gets a $5000 Food Services stipend and she's not even involved with Food Services) but it wouldn't change anything. The only time things might change is if we get new "blood" into the town hall. We got a new Superintendant last year and supposedly 3 people will be leaving - including our current really stingy Director of Finance and Operations - but you never know. We could get people who are even worse. My job is to feed the kids and since my voice isn't heard by the powers that be at the town hall anyway, even in regards to my job, I leave the office politics to everyone else and just do what I can with what I have - even when it includes subs or our lack of them.
It sounds like you've got a good handle on things. And with no one else working with you, you can always do things your way and not hear any complaints! The school district is lucky to have someone like you watching out for the kids. Now, just stay healthy!
All in all, it went smoothly - of course too I didn't go in to work all stessed out over it like some would have. Going in like that wouldn't have helped any so I just didn't do it. Plus too, yesterday wasn't that labor intensive when it came to lunches. Even if it were, I would have figured something out. .
Can I just say that I LOVE your attitude??? From reading your trip reports (*love those*!) to this post, you just seem to have the best attitude.
I need to do better-I'd be one of the ones that was freaking out in your situation. (but I'm working on it! I'm trying to do better!)