This is my eighth week in the Personal Property department and I enjoy being there very much. I work with a new intern occasionally but mostly we each have our own designated tasks to perform. I have been working on searching parcels and also printing off tax notices for certain parcels for each city. Now that I have finished the Early College of Macomb I can work more hours and am excited to do so. Also when high school finishes up I can work a full schedule in the office. I absolutely love Disney characters so the 15 secret rules article was an interesting read. The rule that stuck out to me the most would have to be that none of the "cast members" can say I don't know. They must instead call an operator if they don't know the answer to a question. I think this is important because tourist will know they are in good hands at the Disney parks and will get their questions answered as they need. All of the rules are important for the courtesy of the children and adults, Walt must have bee a smart man.
This week i started a new task dealing with bankruptcies and filing them into the computer delinquent tax system. There was a few different steps to filing each one and i must say i was actually quite confused at first. With each bankruptcy i had to go through and look up their name in both the personal and real database. I then had to proceed to the DBA lookup and see if these people had any other properties that were unaccounted for. I was told this is something i will be working on quite frequently so i am glad i am finally getting the hang of things. My goal for this class was to get a better understanding of the career i would like to go into and also be a valuable worker throughout the summer. I can honestly say i think i have a much better understanding of how to deal with financial issues and the way things work. I was asked if i was staying throughout the summer and i happily replied yes. Between summer classes and this internship it will certainly be a very productive summer. I am very thankful for the opportunity to do so and excited to move around the office and get more experience. Side note:The tax collectors are working on posting no trespassing signs on properties that have foreclosed. Now that it is my fifth week I've finally got the hang of some things that I will be doing regularly. I still am learning some new information and doing new tasks as well. This week I worked on some more MSU extensions and also began a new task dealing with filing bankruptcies. Things are slowing down a bit considering most people either have a payment plan for their taxes but there are still some people coming into the office wondering how to start one. I've noticed there is always some sort of food in the break room that someone has generously brought in, they're all very nice and welcoming.
I absolutely loved all of the quotes from the 50 inspiring life quotes from beloved cartoon characters but my favorite was Eeyore from winnie the pooh. His quote said "A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference". Winnie Pooh has always had great quotes about friendship and how to treat others. I think many people could learn something from this quote, people are so selfish and inconsiderate nowadays. We could all be a little more like Eeyore and have some consideration for those around us. It is week four and i'm finally settling in and getting used to things. This week i did some more work with MSU extensions and looking up parcels for people's property. Friday, since i didn't have high school i worked a full day and actually had fun while doing it. In honor of the tigers game on friday we had a little work party, everyone brought in food and someone brought in a mini grill to grill up some hot dogs. The power in the breakroom went out so they placed the grill in my office. As i started grilling the hot dogs the treasurer, Derek E Miller walked in and claimed that i will leave this position with the knowledge of how to grill, it was an interesting day fore sure.
The article The Moral Bucket List is about the inner light within us. This article talks about both resume virtues and eulogy virtues; resume virtues are your skills and achievements, mostly external things. Eulogy virtues are the one that would be placed in your eulogy, at the end of your life internally what did you achieve? Whether you were kind, loving, courageous, etc. The message I took from this article was that we often are too busy with resume virtues and eulogy virtues are most likely ignored. To let our inner light shine we must focus less on external situations sometimes. This week was very busy in the personal property department I work in currently. Thursday March 31st was the day peoples 2013 property taxes were due, if a payment arrangement was not set up in order for them to elongate their time to pay, their property was to be foreclosed. Clearly this was a huge dilemma, many people flooded the building this week trying to make last minute payments or plans for payment. This was a lot to handle the third week in but I enjoy the chaos and challenge along with experiencing this first hand. I learned a lot this week.
This picture is from the lobby of the administration building. I eat lunch down there everyday because I adore the huge windows and open space filled with various carpet designs and colorful chairs (not visible in the picture). If I could change something I would change the actual office I work in. It is sort of grey and gloomy not too much sunlight and really no creativity is displayed. Of course I understand this is a very professional place and dealing with foreclosing homes is not exactly a happy subject. But I certainly think the place could be brightened up. If I could design the office there would be more windows and glass desks with fancy black chairs. I would still keep it very professional looking, just a little more creative. This week was my second week so things are going much more smoothly. The first week i was a little dazed and confused but now i am starting to get the hang of things and am excited to see how i do in this position. The first week i was sitting at their co-op desk which was a smaller desk with a computer some supplies. Just this past Friday one of their personal property tax collectors left so i now have his desk with much more space and a phone (to answer calls from tax payers) for the time being. I started learning new things the second week and i am enthusiastic for the new tasks they will have for me next week.
I think many people could take a lesson from this video. Audri was clearly a very enthusiastic, go-getter type of person, I admire his creativity and his dedication to this experiment, He did not give up and after a few failures he succeeded, that is how things work. Even if you do not succeed you should try again and again until you do. The feeling of success is very rewarding and worth the wait, for example the first week i was very scared to mess up one of the parcel numbers on the return mail. If i were to mess up a number it could be harmful to someone else due to there being false information. By week two i was doing them quickly and efficiently. Just goes to show that if you keep working at something you will succeed in the end. My hope for this class is to get more experience in a field that I am interested in for a future career. I am a co-op at the macomb county treasurer's office and i hope to learn more about financial responsibility and how to handle others finances. So far i have been working with some of their online data bases mainly learning how to use their systems before actually putting in real information. I am mostly excited to work with the public and try to help as much as possible in the areas they assign me to work in, I'd have to say i am most nervous about possibly messing something up, there is so much important information that i am dealing with and one wrong number or word in their systems could potentially be a disaster. I will just have to take my time until i get the hang of things and record accurate information. My goal for this job would be to become a valuable worker for this job and possibly continue working this position throughout the summer. So far i have worked three days and I really love this opportunity. Lately i have been worrying about the career i want to pursue and this gives me a chance to get some experience and figure out if this is the right field for me to go into. Everyone at the office is very friendly and welcoming and i enjoy helping out wherever i can. They let me know that right now is a very stressful time for the treasurer's office because Marst 31st they start foreclosing properties in which the 2013 taxes have not been paid on. That explains why so many people have been in and out of the office. Overall I know this is a great opportunity for me and I am thankful i was able to take on this position,
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Author"The only source of knowledge is experience" -Albert Einstein Archives
May 2016
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