Today we’d like to introduce you to James Porter.
Hi James, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m an educator by training and after teaching in Cache Valley for 6 years I had the opportunity to take over as the director of the Space Center when the school district was looking for someone to take over.
For the last 9 years, I have made PG my home as I leave my family in the morning and walk a couple blocks to work. I’ve always had an interest in the Space Center from my days as a volunteer, working through high school, and then my position now. It’s part of why I went into teaching in the first place.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth seems so relative. I think there have been many wonderful opportunities that have come up that challenge me to learn new skills and grow. I came in as the program was struggling to reopen after a temporary closure due to some electrical issues and politics. Many individuals fought hard to get the ball rolling and it became my job to keep that momentum and find a better way of operating. Which meant losing some of the traditions that people held tightly to.
Once we got over some of those changes it has been a lot smoother and we’ve seen a steady growth to where we are thriving. Covid hit us pretty hard since we are entirely an in-person service. Thankfully it lined up with the construction of our new facility so we took it in stride as we were rebuilding anyway. It helped that we have a devoted community of supporters who have surged back to attending our program.
I think a common recurring struggle is that we are so unique in what we do that we have to come up with so much content on our own. There really isn’t a huge community to pull from and no one else quite does it on the scale that we do so we have some consistent challenges to meet our needs. Thankfully we also have some of the most dedicated staff and volunteers who bend over backwards to make sure that the magic of our program isn’t lost. So much of the success of our program comes from their dedication.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We have the amazing opportunity to see students succeed. We spend countless hours perfecting stories, rewriting speeches, and testing again and again on our execution as storytellers. It is very much what drives us to do what we do in our unique program because we love telling stories and seeing participants shine in ways they didn’t know they could.
It is fantastic to be the antagonist in a story and get a crew to hate you so much and then help orchestrate ways in which their ideas can lead to your downfall. I don’t know of many places where we get to be performers in this way. That’s part of why it usually takes months of training to get someone to the point where they can direct one of our flights.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Persevering and giving my all will always work out. It can be overwhelming since I am the only full-time employee and there are a hundred different tasks calling for my attention. If dwell on the struggles it doesn’t make a difference. If I plug away at projects then we keep moving forward.
The hardest lesson in there that I still struggle with is to open up and let others take control of aspects. It might mean that not everything is done to the level that I would like to see, but they gained so much by being able to contribute and grow in their skills. It also meant we got more done. I used to spend too much time away from my family, and I still am away more than I would like, but after those first couple of years when I was able to step back and let others step up made a huge difference.
Pricing:
- We price our program so that anyone can work hard and attend. Even if it is saving up from mowing the lawn.
- Our prices stay low because businesses have seen the value of our program and donated to help us be able to innovate.
- Our field trips are subsidized by outside attendance in the evenings and weekends.
- Planetarium shows $5-$7
- Simulators $90-$180
