I constantly find that my crafting skills will cross over into other unrelated areas of my life. A most recent example is my promotional package for teaching. Along with teaching classes, my job involves a lot of other tasks such as attending meetings, participating in committees, and publishing and presenting scholarly work. The college also likes to see its employees somehow involved in the local community, which isn’t always that easy to do when you add up everything else we are supposed to do. However, between donating money and items I make, I have that covered as well.

It is also our responsibility to be able to document all of this, and one way we do that is by collecting related documentation and assembling it into a big notebook, aka a promotions package. Basically, it is really like a scrapbook. I have letters from students and colleagues, photos of me presenting papers at conferences, thank you letters, my CV, and lots more slipped into clear plastic page protectors and assembled into three 3-inch notebooks (since three copies are required).

The idea is to not only provide evidence of my work but also present it in a visually appealing way so that a committee can review and evaluate it. Of course, me being me, I had to make sure these looked pretty. I even went so far as to to break out the glue sticks and fancy paper.

I’m just about finished with them, and boy, talk about a lot of work! In fact, I could see how this could just go on and on because there is always some new event to get involved in around here. My deadline is early December, and so far, I’m on track (knock on wood). This is way too important to become a craft UFO! Hopefully, when I turn them in, those who review them will be equally impressed with the content and aesthetics of each notebook.