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My work on Monday 11/4/2013 was much the same as the previous week:

• I input a significant amount of contact information into electronic files.  This included name, email, and phone number.  Home addresses were also recorded in the case of postcards, as was whether or not we had permission to contact them again (permission was implicit with the other information, in that it was collected via a sign-up sheet for people interested in hearing and/or volunteering with the organization.  Usually this information would be entered directly into an online contact and messaging managing program, but we are currently transitioning between two programs and as such are keeping the information temporarily stored in excel files. 

• I addressed postcards to the appropriate PA state senator, based on the address written by the community member who had signed the card.  I only had to write in the name of the senator, as opposed to their full office address, because we will be dropping the postcards off ourselves when we visit Harrisburg for a lobby day in early December. 

• Lastly, I continued compiling a spreadsheet of what health plans are offered in each PA county.  Having already covered the five counties covered by my organization, I was told to start expanding outward to cover as much of the state as I could.  As opposed to last week, when the plans offered were essentially identical across our five counties, I started to encounter some new plans as I looked at new counties. 

While I do not in the least begrudge the work – I know that what I’m doing is helpful for the organization, and hardly all of the work that anyone in the office is doing can be expected to be exciting all the time – it does mean that there is rather less to reflect on this week. 

Instead, I plan to read somewhat more this week.  I will be reading two sources by Heidi Hartmann, both given the applicability of her writing to the issues and concerns to my organization’s focus areas and her relevance to my larger course goals, as well as because of her impending visit to Bryn Mawr.  I am also hopeful that letting this response sit for a bit may prompt a new reaction – one I didn’t think on last week, and that has so far escaped me this week.