Fortuna Government Needs a Trim

Fortuna CA

Description

According to Craigslist, Fortuna is looking for a 'Conference Center Coordinator', to support their, apparently, overwhelmed Conference Center Manager: Conference Center Coordinator (Fortuna) DEFINITION: Under the general direction of the Conference Center Manager, to provide a variety of support work for guests of the River Lodge Conference Center and Monday Club; to assist facility manager with supervision of part-time workers; to schedule and coordinate events; to do room set-up and take-down; to perform light maintenance; to do food preparation and service; to do record keeping and other clerical functions; and to do related work as required. DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS The Conference Center Coordinator is a regular, full-time position with responsibility for a variety of tasks related to the Conference Center and Monday Club. Job assignments are sometimes performed with minimal guidance and direction with the expectations that incumbents have the ability to choose among alternatives in completing tasks. Work is performed under the general direction of the Conference Center Manager with some latitude granted for the exercise of independent judgment and initiative. Work is typically performed in a general office and meeting room environment. Some work is performed in a commercial kitchen. Work involves moderate physical labor in setting up and taking down tables and chairs and performing maintenance tasks. SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS • This position is classified as FLSA non-exempt. • This position is represented by the Fortuna Employees Association (FEA). EXAMPLES OF DUTIES: Provide information to assist clients in setting up meetings, receptions and banquets, receive visitors and direct inquiries, welcome prospective customers and assist them in viewing conference center, assist persons utilizing the conference center in a variety of ways, interact with public and others in providing information regarding the Conference Center, schedule events, assist with supervision of part-time workers, set up various rooms for meetings, receptions, banquets, assist with food preparation and service, operate office and computer equipment, audio visual and sound system and cash register, perform clerical tasks and record keeping, light housekeeping duties including vacuuming, dusting, cleaning bathrooms and routine maintenance, gift shop sales, stocking inventory, and maintenance, run errands to pick up food or other supplies, resolve routine problems. JOB REQUIREMENTS • Maintain a valid California Driver’s License throughout employment. Incumbent will participate in the DMV “Pull Program”. • Employees must be at least 18 years old to operate a City vehicle or personal vehicle for work-related purposes, as required by Redwood Empire Municipal Insurance Fund (REMIF), the City’s self-funded insurance pool. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE: High School diploma or GED required. Any combination of training and experience that would likely provide the required knowledge and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to obtain the requisite knowledge and abilities would be three (3) years of work experience at River Lodge Conference Center, or a similar facility. I smell a rat! How many people does it take to manage what is, basically, a one room, open plan, schoolhouse? I see Fortuna's government wants someone who can assist facility manager with supervision of part-time workers. Help the manager manage the managed, in other words. Maybe Fortuna needs a new facility manager? It sounds like s/he's having trouble. Remember, it's only one building! Every tme I drive past that place, the parking lot is empty. It's a white elephant, built by a pretentious government whose eyes are bigger than their stomachs, if you ask me. Why doesn't Fortuna sell it? It's inaccessible, even to Fortuna's own citizens, without a vehicle - Fortuna built it on the wrong side of the freeway. Yes, I know, we were going to build a fabulous conference center, the world would beat a path to our door, but, they didn't. Driving up to Humboldt County is a gruelling process. If Fortuna wants to keep it, it's BARELY possible that, ten or twenty years from now, when flying cars are about where electric cars are, now, Fortuna might be able to attract enough people from the Bay Area, to fill it up, on a regular basis... but where is Fortuna going to park all the flying cars? Start thinking about that, now, so you don't cover your landing zone with buildings. I'm serious. Flying buses are a better niche. If Fortuna can get flying bus companies to bring their customers up to Humboldt to tour the fabulous North Coast - but, no, odds are the providers are going to do a fly over, at 5,000 feet, while talking into a microphone, and maybe touching down at Trinidad for lunch. Until Fortuna can come up with sights - or food - to match Trinidad, you're out of luck. Maybe it's just as well, because all indications are that flying buses are going to be LOUD. How about turning the Conference Center into a restaurant? Or using it to host community dinners, with local chefs doing the meal planning and preparations? Fortuna's high school DOES teach that, right? Instant local employment. It looks like Fortuna just wants a flunky to do all the stuff that the REAL manager is too, ah, busy to do: Provide information to assist clients in setting up meetings, receptions and banquets, receive visitors and direct inquiries, welcome prospective customers and assist them in viewing conference center, assist persons utilizing the conference center in a variety of ways, interact with public and others in providing information regarding the Conference Center, schedule events, assist with supervision of part-time workers, set up various rooms for meetings, receptions, banquets, assist with food preparation and service, operate office and computer equipment, audio visual and sound system and cash register, perform clerical tasks and record keeping, light housekeeping duties including vacuuming, dusting, cleaning bathrooms and routine maintenance, gift shop sales, stocking inventory, and maintenance, run errands to pick up food or other supplies, resolve routine problems. What does the conference center manager do? It doesn't seem like there is anything left, except to sign timesheets. I smell small town patronage. Who is managing these empire-building managers? Maybe the whole tree needs a good shaking. I suggest that Fortuna should hire a conference center administrator, dispense with the conference center manager, and replace them with a facilities manager that oversees the maintenance and operation of all buildings. No empire building! We have better uses for our tax money.