All the hats
Two days before the PSPA regionals, I had an assembly line of envelopes, prompts, and stickers on the counter in the yearbook work room. Each regional contest is organized by a PSPA board member, with our contest coordiator Paul Fantaski (a legendary yearbook adviser and high school math teacher outside of Pittsburgh) as an anchor to provide instructions, rosters, and support.
For Temple—and for the last seven years or so, with a little break during the pandemic—that regional coordinator has been me. I tried to keep all the contest materials out of sight as I crammed to get ready for December 6.
I’m confident that I kept it all hidden away, because I saw some raised eyebrows as we started the day at Temple. The seniors know how much I tend to take on. But I doubt our freshman and sophomore student journalists expected me to be chaperone, emcee, contest proctor and provider of extra pencils to all of the schools at regionals. (They found out on the return train to Wallingford that I wrote a few of the prompts, too.)
Being a member of an all-volunteer board requires a lot of hats. It’s never just the monthly meetings—it’s stuffing envelopes, writing releases, managing critiques, and trying to juggle all of it gracefully.
Some with being a journalist. Haven alumnus Chris O’Connell talked about this in his keynote presentation. Increasingly it’s rare that a general assignment reporter just holds a microphone; often, one is handling scheduling, cameras, audio, and editing, too. As O’Connell described his days of never knowing exactly where his reporting would lead and rushing to beat deadline, I found many connections to teaching, advising, and trying to stay connected to the field.
Who knows, maybe I’ll pitch a swap day to O’Connell sometime? The debrief would be epic.
Contests are funny.
When I first started with the PSPA SJCs, there was one school that was always the biggest, loudest group in the room—one school that always asked the most questions, brought the most copies to swap, and swept the awards.
December 6, 2024 felt a little different. Of course, Conestoga was in attendance, and of course, they will do very well with the contest—their program still is the strongest in our region.
But when Mr. David Boardman called out each school to recognize them at the start of the day, our little Haven engine-that-could made the loudest noise and carried the most enthusiasm. It made me laugh, and it made me proud.
It also made me feel like we’re building a strong team. That part is worth the effort.
O’Connell told the student journalists that he’s an introvert at heart, but I just don’t see it. I suppose that many people don’t see that in me, either… but if you needed proof, the exhaustion I felt after a day of wearing all the hats in front of rooms and trains full of people was proof.
Thank goodness our students were such a joy to travel with, and thank goodness for the best co-chaperone in Mrs. Drew.
Onward to what’s next.
