[Community] Fwd: Staffing the IMC

[Nicole Pion]

Hi Beth and everyone,
This is something that has been a commonly assumed responsibility for me,
Stephen and Josh, but it is not part of our stated goals or roles at the
IMC.
While we have been trying to serve as both "staff" and VISTAS it has not
worked.  Stephen and I have each been brought on to achieve specific goals
that often do not coincide with staffing the building - in fact, thought we
have tried to balance the two, staffing the building means constant
interruption and dealing with the day-to-day running of the IMC rather than
planning the bigger picture and building sustainability, as our roles call
us to do.  For example, I am supposed to be writing and researching grants
and leaving documentation for the IMC - I simply cannot do this when I am
interrupted constantly.  Stephen is supposed to be running workshops and
trainings and cannot be called away from these at random.  As we move into
the spring, we are focused on meeting with community members and need to
have flexible schedules.  We have each been working well over the 40 hour a
week commitment and for us to say that we will be in each day from 10-5 is
not realistic.  Tonight, I did not come home from work till 10pm so I will
not be at the IMC at 10 tomorrow morning.  However, I can commit to
"staffing" a few hours per week and build other schedule responsibilities
around  that.

Staffing the building should be a shared responsibility.  If we as a
community want to have the doors open, then the responsibility of
acclimating people to the space must also be shared.  I don't mean for this
email to sound like a complaint, but I want to be sure that people
understand that Stephen and I are asking the community for help in
accomplishing something that is important to us, our work, and the needs we
see at the IMC.


Nicole

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 8:51 PM, Elizabeth Simpson <elizacorps at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Nicole (and everyone)
>
> It's my understanding that there are 3 vistas who are 'around' from 9-5
> m-f. I know that their/your primary job is not to staff the IMC, however, it
> seems ideal to focus on getting staff when there is less chance of vistas
> being around (also to focus on a smaller chunk of times, so that they can be
> covered consistently). So, my suggestion is to focus on staffing 5-8 on
> weekdays and noon-5 on saturday.
>
> At one point we all talked about you, Steve, and Jason coordinating so that
> at least one of you could be in the IMC (read: the door can be unlocked) at
> any given time m-f 9-5. Is this still a possibility?
>
> Thanks,
> elizaBeth
>
>
>
>
> A strong people need no leader
> - Zapata
>
>
>
> --- On *Tue, 3/10/09, Nicole Pion <nicole.pion at gmail.com>* wrote:
>
> From: Nicole Pion <nicole.pion at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Community] Fwd: Staffing the IMC
> To: community at lists.chambana.net
> Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 1:07 PM
>
>
> FYI, we talked abou a staffing initiative at the steering meeting last week
> and this is what is happening.  Let me know if you're interested in staffing
> or want to be part of this discussion.
> Nicole
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Nicole Pion <nicole.pion at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 12:05 PM
> Subject: Staffing the IMC
> To: Bob Illyes <illyes at uiuc.edu>, Hada Pekli <pinkbootz001 at gmail.com>,
> Brian Dolinar <briandolinar at gmail.com>, Stephen Fonzo <
> fonzo.stephen at gmail.com>, rachel <conscience.lifter at gmail.com>, Jason
> Keist <jkeist2 at gmail.com>, JOY <imcbooks at gmail.com>, Chris Ritzo <
> critz1 at illinois.edu>
>
>
> Hi everyone,
> Thank you all for expressing an interest in staffing the IMC.  Please let
> me know if there is anyone missing from this list.  This was everyone, to my
> best recollection.
>
> I think that the hours when we will need staffing are as follows:
> Monday - Thursday: noon-8pm
> (I understand that it might be hard to get staff from 5-8 on Thursday, but
> many people expressed that it's really hard to staff and run a productive
> meeting, so for now, we can leave that up).
> Friday: noon-5pm
> Saturday: noon - 5pm
> Sundays: right now the church uses the IMC from 10-2pm.  I don't think
> there is a big need for staff on Sunday nights nor is that a popular time to
> volunteer.
>
>
> I will put this out to the list and would like feedback:  it seems that
> there are a few ways to "staff" the space:
> 1.) Simple open hours where the staff can work, read, etc. and greet guests
> who may arrive
> 2.) A work day (like shows, librarians & production have done)
> 3.) Plan some kind of activity like an open gym or listening party or
> something easy that will bring people into the space for activities that
> don't require too much prep.
>
> Does that seem reasonable?  Brian, I know that you had volunteered to give
> a training on staffing the building the weekend of March 20/21.  Would that
> work for others?  We can also send a call out  to the general IMC list and
> invite people to join, since this is a project that is best shared by many
> volunteers.
>
> Let me know if there is anything I've forgotten or anything to add.
> Thanks everyone!
> Nicole
>
> --
> Nicole Pion
> Outreach and Development Adviser
> AmeriCorps CTC VISTA
> Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center
>
>
>
> --
> Nicole Pion
> Outreach and Development Adviser
> AmeriCorps CTC VISTA
> Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center
>
> _______________________________________________
> Community mailing list
> Community at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/community
>
>
>


-- 
Nicole Pion
Outreach and Development Adviser
AmeriCorps CTC VISTA
Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/community/attachments/20090310/fe093dd7/attachment.htm