Good Help is Hard to Find

My assistant recently quit. She was on a terminating contract which would have ended June 30th, but she chose to give her two weeks notice and left us last Friday. We wish her well in her endeavors, as she pursues her incredible art career more fully.

Her leaving got me to thinking about "good help" and how hard it is to find, even in this supposed recession and high unemployment rates. So with that, I give you the top ten things I will miss about my assistant (and hope to find in her replacement):

1. Great rapport with the kids. They liked her! They really liked her!
2. Good interaction with most of the teachers and staff.
3. Ability to complete a task. Sounds basic, but you'd be surprised the things that have been left incomplete in my past experience.
4. Those great book displays. She came up with some neat topics, content, holidays, events to highlight with book displays.
5. Her helpfulness to staff and students. She was the first to jump up and offer assistance in finding a book, using the scanner, making a poster.
6. Laminator extraordinaire. Let's just say that I was banned from the laminator about ten years ago by a former assistant. Heat, sticky paper, and I don't mix.
7. Avid reader. She knew her young adult literature and was able to share with the kids.
8. Covering the circulation desk. While this is the main job responsibility of most media assistants, I appreciated her being there so I could actually get lunch!
9. Computer savvy. She didn't just know how to use the basic applications, but was helpful at explaining web 2.0 tools and sharing with students, teachers, and me.
10. Incredible artist. Okay, so I can't expect everyone to be the next Eric Carle or Brian Pinkney, but we sure did appreciate her sharing her art with us all.

Accepting applications and resumes....as soon as they lift the hiring freeze...