A week into my SCA internship in Omaha, NE, I haven’t necessarily done any work yet that’s worth writing home about–my parents aren’t particularly interested in the ins and outs of filling out Optional Form 306–but as I’ve been settling in and getting to know my (incredibly nice and interesting!) co-workers, I’m getting a much better sense of the year ahead of me.

Because I’m stationed at the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, I anticipate a number of unique challenges that are already manifesting themselves. For instance, do I dedicate my time to the visitors’ center here, or expand my focus to all 3,700 miles of trail? Without public land to the site’s name, what types of projects can I devise that are beneficial to the trail, public, and volunteer? When I am dealing with the whole trail, how do I communicate effective with over 100 other affiliate sites, many of whom are not officially under NPS jurisdiction?Though a little daunted, I’m really excited to tackle these and see how they play out over the year, as well as to figure out how to extrapolate my experience to help other volunteer coordinators who may be in similar positions–not to mention draw upon other people’s knowledge to help myself out. This is where the CVA network rocks; I’ve already been in casual contact with a few other SCAs I met at Orientation to compare our respective challenges. Being able to call upon those peers is unique to our position as SCAs,  and such a relief to have that support, however geographically far-flung our locations may be.

This is running a little long already so I’ll stop myself short and return to writing volunteer.gov ads, but I promise to include a better description of my park and area in the next post. (Pictures to come once I get my hands on a working camera.) What an enticing reason to stay tuned!

Charlotte