I get asked this question a lot. "What's it like working at the MCC office?"
Well, with workers and volunteers from all over the world coming and going through these hallways every day, MCC can't help but have a great office environment that really reflects what we do!
You're welcome to come visit and take a tour to chat and ask questions and learn more about what MCC does! Many MCC supporters and other interested people do this every month - just randomly, when they're passing though Pennsylvania, and we all stop what we're working on briefly,
to say hello!
I'd love to see you!
I'd love to see you!
But here are a few photos to take you "inside" the US's headquarters of MCC.
I love this wall of photos, (above) taken by the MCC photographer,
showing some of the work we do!
showing some of the work we do!
Straight ahead, at the tiny end of the hall in the photo above, you can see the offices of "Mennonite (and Brethren) World Conference" which is sharing office space with MCC this year, as they gear up for the 2015 World Conference events this coming Summer -- bringing the world to PA!
Though the office is amazingly decorated, MCC's financial supporters will be glad to know that most of the decorations were thank you gifts to MCC -- wall hangings, art pieces, posters, photos, quilts, pottery, etc -- gifts from international partners and international friends and beneficiaries who have known and worked with MCCers in their home countries around the globe for years! What a great way to decorate an office. I love it!
Another way that the the office is decorated is with the photos of MCCers who are serving now in various MCC service programs around the world! In the photo above is the Global Service Learning Department. They coordinate the service programs for young adults from around the globe who come to do service in the U.S. (IVEP and YAMEN,) and the programs in which young adults from the U.S. and Canada spend 1-2 years each volunteering in other international countries -- supporting the work of MCC in those places (these programs are called SALT and SEED). You can see photos of some of this years volunteers below! If interested, check out the videos and stories about each of these programs by clicking the colored names of each program, above!
Every few weeks the MCC Library - which houses many books, videos, photos and old letters related to the broad variety of work that MCC does now and has done over the years - sets some of the library's books out on a book table in the hallway, reminding staff and others that we can borrow them and read them.
This was one of the recent displays in honor of African-American History Month (February).
Above is a section of wall in the communications department -- the group mostly responsible for the great photos and stories you can find on the MCC website, and in the A Common Place magazine (that you can see online at the link here and can also sign up to get mailed to you by clicking the link above.) This wall is where they hang up photos that represent stories of MCC work they're considering highlighting that month in the magazine and/or online. I always enjoy swinging by to see what's hanging there each week!
(above) These are more great photos of MCC's work -- pages out of the 2014 MCC Christmas Gift Catalogue -- hanging on the wall in the Donor Relations Department. (That's who you contact if you want to financially support the work of MCC).
And this (above) is the department I work in: "PLDR: Planning, Learning, and Disaster Response."
As you can see we have no walls between our desks anywhere in the building. So... we all hear each other's work phone calls all day long. There are no secrets at MCC! LOL.
And this is my desk. (above). See the wall behind my chair?
Yep. : ) Like many of my MCC co-workers, who have posted photos of friends and communities they know and love from when they lived and served with MCC in other parts of the world -- I'm glad to have posted photos of my friends and colleagues who I got to work with for the past 3 years in the Dominican Republic! Love you guys!
And this poster below isn't an MCC document, I don't believe. It's just a poster hanging at someone's desk here in the office. But it has a lot of great advice on it, so I'll end this month's post with it -- for your deep-thinking pleasure!
Have a great month building community wherever you are during this March 2015!
And please do come visit me at the MCC office anytime you're in the area!
