Tidelines – April 28, 2016
The Fisherman’s Post staff has been growing and changing all year, and I think we finally have all the pieces of the puzzle in place, just in time for warmer water and increased fishing activity. It’s not so much that the timeliness of a complete staff is needed to cover the arrival of bonito, the first signs of spanish, dispersed yet increased red drum action, yellowfins/blackfins/wahoo, and more keeper flounder. No, it’s more that I need everyone in place at Fisherman’s Post prior to the end of my teaching semester. That way, when springtime commencement comes and goes, I will be able to leave the office keys with the crew and find myself on the water again.
Colby Cummings, a new and second salesperson at FishermanÂ’s Post, with a flounder caught in Masonboro Inlet using a live shrimp on a Carolina rig.
Colby Cummings, a new salesperson, is the most recent puzzle piece. And while I’m excited to have him contributing to the overall health of Fish Post Inc., I think Joshua Alexander, our Sales Manager for the last 4+ years, is even more pleased. The reason Joshua’s pleased is because while he’s been the Sales Manager for 4+ years, he has never in his entire tenure years ever had even a single staff member under him. Enter Colby, and now the Sales Manager is truly a manager.
If you’re someone involved in the fishing and/or boating industry in our area, then Colby, a recent UNCW graduate who grew up in Edgecombe County fishing the local rivers, may soon be stopping by or calling on you (he better be, at least). And if he’s not trying to sell you on something Fisherman’s Post, then you’ll also get to meet him at any of our upcoming tournaments (Topsail Spring Surf & Pier Fishing Challenge on May 20-22, and Ocean Isle Inshore Challenge on June 3-4).
Then there’s Sarah—not a new staff member but a new title. Sarah was recently promoted from Layout/Media to Managing Editor. The title change came with a lot of new responsibilities (selecting all of the photos for each new issue, editing most and writing some of our text, more marketing/promotional duties, increased responsibilities at our events, etc.). The new title also came with a big raise (but being the English Instructor I had to spend quite a bit of time explaining to her that “big” is a relative term).
Michelle Howe is our new Graphic Designer that handles all of our ad copy (and every other design need). Not only does she bring a wealth of experience to the gig, having spent several years running her own design/marketing business in the Wilmington area, but she also brings some diversity to the Fisherman’s Post staff. We have now met our self-imposed quota of one person with purple hair on the payroll.
Perhaps the biggest change, though, comes with our fishing reports. Hiring a new, full time writer didn’t quite work out, so we decided to go the part time route. After sifting through several resumes and writing samples, we narrowed it down to four people that would be great additions. So instead of making any hard decisions, the better answer seemed to be to hire them all.
We now feature Joy Christ reporting from the Outer Banks, Turner Perkerson covering the Pamlico/Neuse area down through Swansboro, Chadwick Crawford is our writer for Topsail and Wrightsville Beach, and then Steve Neil handles all of our areas from Carolina Beach on south.
Finally, I need to also welcome Seth Vickers and Barbara Moore, who do distribution for us in the Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach and Oriental areas, respectively.
With all this change at Fisherman’s Post, it seems appropriate to have a staff welcome party at the Hurley house. I can have Colby sell sponsorships to the party and maybe get some vendors to donate their services. Joshua can manage him, whatever that means. Sarah can post photos of the party on something like 15 different social media sites, and all of the new writers can tell lies and exaggerate details about the party, like the improving ratio of keeper women to throwbacks. Michelle will be two days late because we forgot to tell her about the party. And finally, Seth and Barbara can distribute everyone home at the end of the night.
Me? I can do what comes natural. I’ll show up to the party after all the setup work has been done, rearrange the food spread a little for better presentation, make some bad jokes, pretend (horribly) to be actually working, and then sneak away early after delegating any and all of my responsibilities.
Yes, the pieces of the puzzle seem to be in place.
