Journaling Your Relief Effort Experiences

Many people are creating journals of what they are doing with, for and in the Gulf Region. Many aren't, but should.

What I am listing here are the things I've done since I started my work for Hancock County. I have learned that documenting like a journalist is darn handy. Remember - who, what, where, when, why and how. Not all of those get covered in each entry I make, but it certainly is a great foundation to start with.

I have 3 notebooks, 3 blogs, 2 email addresses, and 3 address right now. The 3-subject notebook has MS Contacts, Local Contacts and Notes.

The Notebooks

Each contact has their own page, front and back. I have as much contact infromation as I can get, listed first: Name, Organization, Address, E-mail (s), Phone # (s), etc. Then I list what I know of them - how they got involved, how we came into contact, etc. The rest of the room is for any notes (w/dates) from further contact I make with the person as time goes on. I had to redo this notebook because I wasn't so efficient the first time around - so that did allow me to put the contact in alphabetical order. By giving each contact a full page, I have room to add other contacts on the back of pages, if it's necessary - which it has been on a few occasions.

The "Notes" section is for jotting down the date, who I contacted and why, by phone, email or snailmail. Ths way I can keep track of timing, should I need to recontact someone at a designated date.

My two smaller notebooks are for rought note-taking - when I'm on the phone with someone, I jot as much down as possible - and condense it to the pertinent info for the big notebook. It's also for writing rough drafts of letters, blog posts, etc. The first of these two is almost full, which is why the second one has come into being. Each notebook's pages are numbered, with the first 2-3 pages dedicated to being a Table of Contents. I learned this in College Chemistry and won't live without it. It might seem about as obsessive compulsive as can be, but when you need to look something up, it beats flipping through every page trying to find that 3 word phrase you just know is in there somewhere! You can add the numbering at any time, but obviously is much easier when you first start using it. I put the numbers in the bottom right corner, but that's for you to decide.

The Blogs

Having 3 blogs sounds pretty outrageous as well. And in a way, it is. But since my email is through AOL, I decided to set up 2 that are variations on this one. With the "power of AOL" being what it is, many people don't surf outside it's "borders" for their internet experience. So I created the 2 extras there. One is all of the ideas that people can use to assist in the recovery, and the other is purely the needs lists. I may make them the same as this one, but for now having them split gets different demographics of surfers and interested parties. I just copy and paste this information into the appropriate one over there, so there isn't much extra effort involved.

The E-Mail Addresses

I honestly didn't know how long I would be able to assist in the recovery effort, so didn't think to set up an email address just for this effort until about 3 months into it. I am slowly getting all of my contacts moved over to the KatrinaCoalition@aol.com address, but until then, checking the two emails isn't that big of a deal. And, it allows me to keep closer track of the requests I send out by having it separate from my 'personal' address. Obviously it isn't necessary, but for the number of people I contact, it makes life much easier.

The Address Books

Again, 3 seems a bit "out there". And it is. But all of these contacts are so valuable to me that I will not risk losing them, if I can possibly help it. So, I have the contact information in the big notebook, I have the same information in a Hand-Held - which allows me to sort by organization or person's name - which makes life great when I don't have a person's last name, or they don't really have an organization that I can put them neatly in the notebook. I also have most of the contact information in my address book online. At some point I'll put it all there as well, but I'm also something of a conspiracy theorist and don't want anyone getting some of this personal contact information just by tapping a few buttons on their keyboard.

E-Mails

I have saved almost every email associated with this endeavor. I do clean them out on occasion, but it's pretty rare. Again - like the little notebook, you never know when you'll need the information. I have 8 folders in my "saved mail" section to categorize the stuff in - makes life easier to have it sorted to begin with. In "My Files" within the computer itself, I have a folder for Katrina Work that has folders for DL'd files, articles, articles I've written, letters I've written, pictures I've DL'd, pictures sent to me, etc. This speeds up the work here on the blog considerably. Plus, with my disability involving my eyes, it makes eye strain far less likely.

Conclusion

I don't keep a journal per se. I figure I'll remember the feelings a lot more than I'll remember the details surrounding the feelings. So I keep feelings in me and the details on paper.

So there can be a lot more to keeping a journal than just sitting in bed and scribbling a few notes before you drift off to sleep. But this makes the job you're doing within such an enormous national undertaking much easier to keep track of than just jotting those few sentances before sleep. And one thing I learned while being a paramedic - if you didn't write it, you didn't do it.

Without writing down the details of what you have done, there's no way to prove or disprove what you've done or not done, said or not said. I do hope this helps folks who are already working for the Recovery, or are about to start. You don't have to put something in a daily basis, nor do you have to be quite as meticulous as I. But when you've got so many irons in the fire as I do - it makes a lot of sense to keep the notes I keep.