Two fairs. One room. Zero confusion.
Project Overview- Beaubien Elementary ran two simultaneous Scholastic Book Fairs, Elementary and Middle School, in a single gym, staffed entirely by rotating volunteers with no prior experience.
Design Problem- Four cash registers. Two independent bonus thresholds. Two book credit reserves. Real-time reconciliation across systems that couldn't communicate. Volunteers needed to execute a complex financial operation correctly, every day, without training.
Goal- Make the complexity invisible. Build a system anyone could follow and trust.
Two checks.
Two fairs.
Both bonus thresholds hit.
Result- A complete operations system, onboarding, role guidance, cash reconciliation, revenue tracking, and end-of-shift volunteer recruitment, iterated annually over 12 years and $150,000 in sales.
Role- Instructional Designer, Operations Manager, Financial Systems Designer
Timeline- 12 years
Recognition- Principal testimonial pull quote (pending)
13 color-coded shelf sections. Two fairs worth of inventory. One room.
Designed for three audiences: volunteers, cashiers, and kids.
Every dollar accounted for. Every drawer balanced. Every day.
Role-specific guidance — same voice, different job.
60+ teachers. Scheduled visits on the whiteboard. Shopping tracked by sticky note. When the note was moved, the books were on their way.
