Remembering Dottie Kemps

I remember the first time I signed in at KCET to help on the phone banks for a pledge drive. I had no idea what would happen and how I would do the work that made a phone call an actual pledge. But that was when I meet Dottie. She always had complete control of the pledge set no matter what the directors and pledge producers thought. She taught us all how to do the job despite our inabilities. More important, she was able to get some of us to stay off of the front row of the phone bank so that you could see on air that we were actually live. She kept us moving around to add to that live look. Yes some are camera hogs and some just like to sit in one place all evening. Then again, some just liked to sit and talk when we were not on the air. The more important part of her job was to get enough people to work the phones at some of the weird times that pledge breaks were held. Then most of the pledge drive was actually held live on the air. Try to get 100 people to work on a Sunday morning and for a Barney marathon. “No child, Barney is busy and can’t come to the phone – but he said to tell you that he loves you and can I speak to an adult?” How do you explain that Barney is in Texas and this is tape? How do you get rid of the obscene caller who seems to be able to get into the system repeatedly and quickly so that he was annoying everyone on the phones? Dottie’s advice was to have us say “operator this is the call to trace”. I don’t know if it worked but it gave us something to try.

There are many stories about her and how she kept the place going. She was able to call on friendships that she made doing other volunteer work to bring in groups to work the phones. Getting all of the food that is needed to feed the volunteers. We were always reminded to bring in those little treats that we shared with each other to keep us going, all evening long. You can’t forget the shoes. No matter what we said about her foot pain she would not switch to a more comfortable shoe and insisted on the ones she felt looked best. Even the time that she was on crutches she came in every day, to work the set and keep us going. It took the effort of several just to get her to sit and let someone else do the running. No one could match her determination to do the job. I have known several who have worked later and they did a great job – but you could not match Dottie for her attitude and work ethic. Who else could keep the talent, the crew, the station management, and the volunteers happy all at the same time? . To show in what high regard she is remembered, they have an award that is given nationally to the best volunteer leader at all of the PBS stations and it is named for Dorothy Kemps.

All of us who worked with Dottie will always remember the time that we spent with her and how she made our lives better.