Benjamen Salata

Visitor Services Manager, The National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus

 Columbus, GA. July 2003 -June 2005

What brought me to Columbus, GA was the opportunity to work at the National Civil War Naval Museum. I felt I needed to relocate from the beaches of South Florida. It was hard to say goodbye to so many wonderful friends and family but I needed to see leaves change again as well as finally get all that sand out of my floor mats. This was my first administrative position. After working with collections it was a nice change of place to be on the other side of the office and gain some really valuable experience, especially with supervising employees, rather that just volunteers. Port Columbus is an impressive institution in both size and with collections. Any building that can fit a ship inside is always a winner in my book. I am dressed in blue holdingmy ears as Santa Claus prepared to fire a 7 inch Brooks rifled cannon.

Below is a summarization of my responsibilities.

Supervisory administrative position. Main responsibilities include: museum store marketing and merchandising, supervising, training and scheduling visitor services staff, customer service, inventory control, and general retail operations. Responsible for a 28% increase in revenues producing sales over $100,000 in first fiscal year.

Assisted with multiple special events. Participated in living history programs and assisted with loading and firing museum’s naval artillery. Appeared as living history character for programming, media, and off-site museum promotions.