Today we’d like to introduce you to Annette Murray.
Hi Annette, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I spent my career in IT Management, started early at 18 and just kept working at it and moving up the ladder. I had a good combination of communication and technical skills with a strong focus on customer satisfaction and team building, I believe that background has been key to being a valuable volunteer with Basic Needs as well as previously when working within the Activities Department with Woodbury Senior Living for seven years previous to starting with Basic Needs in September of 2020 during the pandemic. I started out just working in the clothing area primarily, sorting and hanging. Once we moved to our current location about 3 years ago, I took on the role of clothing lead, doing training and more merchandising. Then I got involved in all kinds of areas like shoes, all media, and eventually pricing most any kind of item. I focused more and more on store display of merchandise and using every possible square inch of retail space. A year ago in July, I and another very long time volunteer (Lori) took on managing the store as volunteers. I as the manager, Lori as assistant manager. During this last year we have had at least a 25% increase in revenue from thrift store sales, so it appears we are doing something right!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely not a smooth road! Our current location has less space than the previous one in both the retail space and the back room working area. This has required us to become extremely creative in making the most of space and also with limited equipment, since we primarily only can use what has been donated (shelves, bookcases, racks, etc.)
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I think I blabbered on about this a bit in the first question, but one thing that has helped me here is that in my IT career I often functioned as a “fixer”. I would come into a company that was in need to some serious revamping in one or more areas of IT. For example, software and hardware conversions, automation, procedures and documentation of processes. Also building stronger and more cohesive teams and improving morale.
Again, I was considered a technical person that could explain issues in terms everyone could understand. which went a long way in advancing my career.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I can see myself as a risk taker. I once made a job change that had me step out of IT totally after many years in that field, to working for a company that did long term care administration for some of the major insurance players. It was a big pay decrease but only about 5 minutes from my home. I managed a big team of as many as 30 employees that were doing all facets of policy issue. It turned out my past skills were very useful in this capacity as well and I became the Director of that area quite quickly.
I also retired early (57) which some folks would consider a risk. But we had invested well and figured we could make the money last without too much issue. But I quickly became bored and thus the start of volunteering considerable amounts of hours weekly.
Contact Info:
- Website: basicneedsmn.org
