Today was the first formal day of Newseum orientation. This
entailed waking up at the crack of dawn (6:35) to commute to the metro, where I
rode one stop, transferred to another train, hopped on the wrong train,
immediately realized my mistake and hopped off, proceeded to board the right
train, and finally exited and made my way to the Newseum for 8:15 check in. As
Sami had the immense pleasure of taking her APES exam I made this exciting trip
alone. I like to think I looked quite like a local in my chic business casual
outfit with my new metro smartcard in hand. My new coworkers with whom I was
oriented with, seemed to agree as there were compliments interspersed in the
small talk and greetings.
Today’s orientation was in the same conference center as
Friday’s informal session, though today our trainer was Eileen. She ran through
the same information that Sami and I covered with Sam on Friday, though her
museum tour did delve a little deeper into the Every Four Years gallery as well as the Pulitzer Prize Journalism gallery. The Newseum once again proved itself to be
a fantastically well maintained and high-tech facility with truly interesting
exhibits. I now know that while 20% of Americans can name all five Simpsons,
only 3% can name all five parts of the first amendment.
Today’s actual training set in after the hour lunch where
another trainer, Nikki< covered material that Sami (who arrived after her
AP) and I had not previously learned. Nikki’s portion comprised of radio use
and safety policies. Because Sami and I are going to be volunteers, we may not
always have a radio on us, it will depend on availability. When we do not have
the fortune of strapping electronic bricks to our waistbands we will have to
find the nearest person with a walkie-talkie to call in emergencies and the
like. Regardless of whose radio, we will be learning our newly learned codes
which range from 10-2 to 10-13. Each code ahs a specific meaning, the most
commonly known is 10-4, meaning everything is understood and the speaker will comply.
The most contentious code is 10-13 which is used in emergencies in lieu of
calling 911, while this procedure is counterintuitive it is museum policy and
eventually my fellow trainees seemed to realize that no matter their argument,
they could not change museum policy by rephrasing their questions. The
remainder of training for today went smoothly with a shorter museum tour and
some point about customer service to wrap up the day.
Tomorrow promises to be another information packed
orientation, complete with two more tours. It’s becoming remarkably clear that
the Newseum is 1) no place for uncomfortable shoes, and 2) an ascetically, if
not operationally fantastic building.
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