While I’ve had many enjoyable work experiences in life, one of my favorites was being the facilitator of the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse in the #1 viewing location in the world, Madras, Oregon! A small rural town of 6,000 that beautifully handled 100,000 visitors from all over the world for that event. Eighteen months of facilitating and planning with over 70 agencies, farmers, and business owners; helping new business start ups that were the catalyst for a new economy that has been rising in town ever since. Doing media interviews with international outlets, helping farmers turn their land into campgrounds, planning with emergency responders, ensuring we had all the resources to accommodate 600 airplanes flying into our small municipal airport, portable cell towers...the list goes on and on. Now I have the opportunity to help the new Police Chief and staff rebuild their department, construct new culture and develop a destination department. Challenging, really difficult at times, but rewarding beyond measure. Another rewarding experience was reconstructing the Airshow of the Cascades. A great community event that started at a local ranch and had grown into the 2nd largest airshow in Oregon but had no structure and was imploding. They allowed me to tear them down to the foundation, rebuild them in a paramilitary structure and coordinate their show for the next four years. But after signing on to assist the City of Madras with yet another large undertaking, I have limited my services with the Airshow now to social media, website mgmt, special projects, and emergency public affairs. The City of Madras needed someone to transition them from massive rooms of paper into electronic processes while not causing severe stress on Staff and the Council. They needed a change facilitator who could roll up their sleeves and do the work. Additionally, they needed a Communications Officer who could launch their social media and build relationships between government and the community. It’s not easy to find those skill sets in one person, but I was able to help them with those issues and be their web master. I was able to help them become more efficient, less paper driven, and more streamlined. Communication with the public and media increased and huge progress was made! My favorite things include: Digging into messy projects no one else wants to take on, developing systems that are end-user friendly and making work easier for businesses; strategic communications; and anything innovative!