Office Chronicles: Nacho Libre Day, hosted by the Activities Committee

I'm on what we call "Service Reception" right now, from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. Basically, I route calls throughout the Tax and Accounting Divison - which are the two offices here in Ann Arbor and Dexter. I'm the voice who says, "Good morning, Service Reception. How may I direct your call?" (I've been doing a lot of that this morning - the users are calling in like crazy!) In the meantime, between calls I have time to write about Nacho Libre Day and our Activities Committee.

This is the image that I received in an e-mail on Tuesday, December 9 - subject line: "December Nacho Liebere Event!"
Here in Customer Service, we have our own version of The Office's Party Planning Committee - the Activities Committee, or "AcCom." Pretty self-explanatory. The commitee members plan activities. Today's activity was a red-eye viewing of "Nacho Libre," which was slated to begin at 7:25 am but officially started at 7:45 am (due to technical difficulties). Four were present this morning for the viewing: Jay (our boss, the big cheese), Max (most helpful during intern training - he would always say at the end of each session, "any questions, concerns, confessions?" He also has the whole Pistons team on his desk - in the form of bobble heads), Jason (AcCom member), and me. Jason ended up having to leave due to an emergency, but the viewing continued as planned.

AcCom coordinates monthly birthday celebrations held on one morning meeting of each month. Since I started working here, I have experienced two such celebrations: October was the game Spoons with donuts to eat, and November was the game Balderdash - with fruit to celebrate. December's celebration is next week Wednesday, with another round of Spoons on the agenda. AcCom also coordinated our Thanksgiving potluck, held the week before turkey break, as well as the White Elephant Christmas Party after work last Friday.

In September during my interview for this job, I asked about the social interactions outside of work. Brian, my interviewer and present team leader, told me that the department was great about spending time with one another outside of work. Sandy, another colleague who interviewed me, said that there is always laughter heard throughout the department. And now that I'm here, I'm happy to say that both of them weren't lying. The reason that I wanted to write about our Activities Committee is because I love how it really does cultivate a sense of community within the department.

The event will continue at lunch, with a nacho bar. I can actually smell the seasoned ground beef and venison (yes, venison - our team leader Brian is a bow hunter) marinating in crockpots in our meeting area, located at the back of our department.

(I wrote the above paragraph sometime earlier this morning. And now that it is 12:00 pm, after routing a million calls throughout the Tax & Accounting Division of Thomson Reuters, I am off to lunch!)