My New Job

      From holding the government accountable, to working for the man.  This week I started a brand new job working for the Town of Gilbert, AZ.  It's a suburb of Phoenix with a population of about 220 thousand people.  I am a digital journalist with the communications department.  It's a new department with all new positions including mine, and it's very exciting for me to be on a team of like-minded people (many who used to work for tv or broadcast news) building a digital communications department from scratch.  The team includes me, a website developer, a mobile app developer, a public information specialist, and my boss who supervises all of us under the direction of the town manager.  We will be adding another position eventually, but I get to decide what that position is based on what I need.  How exciting! 

     Right now, it's a lot of set-up.  The town's website is getting completely overhauled which will include a digital newsroom page so I can post news releases, photos and video clips for the public and the media.  I am also working with the public access channel to develop more programming.  I will be shooting, writing and editing stories to promote the town and its government.  After just a week, I've already been approached by the fire chief and several other departments who want me to do stories on projects they've been working on.  It's so cool to see everyone's just as excited about our department as we are!  It's also really neat to be getting into something like this on the ground floor.

     One of the best parts about my first day on the job was what I like to call Christmas morning.  Not only will I be in charge of all things video to promote the town, but I get brand new state-of-the-art gear to do it!  I literally spent a couple hours on Monday unpacking video cameras, hard drive, monitors, light kits, and everything else you need to operate a studio!  I also get a macbook and iphone.  These are just a few of the items I'll be using:

   I foresee a lot of cool projects in my future...