[Community] staffing ideas
Elizabeth Simpson
elizacorps at yahoo.com
Tue Mar 17 18:42:55 CDT 2009
See you all tomorrow at 11 at the IMC!
-E
A strong people need no leader
- Zapata
--- On Mon, 3/16/09, Nicole Pion <nicole.pion at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Nicole Pion <nicole.pion at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Community] staffing ideas
To: elizacorps at yahoo.com
Cc: "Stephen Fonzo" <fonzo.stephen at gmail.com>, community at lists.chambana.net
Date: Monday, March 16, 2009, 6:01 PM
Certainly this merits discussion as well as practical experimentation, so we should keep it on our agenda and discuss it at the meeting this week. Also, for those who may not know, Brian Dolinar will host a staff training/orientation on Friday 3/20 at noon.
Hope to see you all this Wednesday!
Nicole
On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 11:59 PM, Elizabeth Simpson <elizacorps at yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Should we make this a key topic for our meeting next wenesday?
Regarding the 'let people choose times they want' idea, this has been done in the past and has been ineffective for at least two reasons:
-because the schedule isn't regular people don't know when they can come by and so don't
-because people don't come by the staffer feel less responsibility to be on time (or to be there at all) and either slacks off (ruining credibility for those who DO come by) or gets resentful for not being useful.
Maybe there are ways to avoid this- one would be to see what people can offer and if, out of that, a 'regular' schedule (e.g. the same time of day for a number of days) can be chosen?
Of course, the other is to ask for a small amount of time (e.g. is anyone available 5-8 on weekdays or 12-3 on weekends?) that will help shape the offers.
We can always do the first, and if people offer times all over the place, at least we have a pool of potential staff from which we can ask times in line with the desired schedule.
Identifying what times would be most effective would be in response to an inquiry that a group like us, or a person like Jason, would make of IMC members to determine when would be most helpful to be open.
Best,
elizaBeth
A strong people need no leader
- Zapata
--- On Fri, 3/13/09, Stephen Fonzo <fonzo.stephen at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Stephen Fonzo <fonzo.stephen at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Community] Fwd: Staffing the IMC
To: elizacorps at yahoo.com
Cc: "Nicole Pion" <nicole.pion at gmail.com>, community at lists.chambana.net
Date: Friday, March 13, 2009, 8:38 PM
To reiterate, I cannot predict my schedule at this point, and even if I could, my time in the building needs to be dedicated to tasks other than staffing. It's simply not even in my job description, and at this point, I've done more than my share of it and probably will do so again in the future (no commitment). I'll help make sure that staffing happens by working on space improvements, trainings, and documentation - all tasks I would like to focus on in more depth, anway (commitment).
Nicole, by offering to "staff" in your e-mail from Tuesday, did you mean setting aside time separate from your grant/development/documentation work, or mixing the two? Part of why I think both of us are getting exasperated trying to explain this is that we've been doing a lot of mixing of the two sets of tasks, and it interferes with productivity and confuses others as to why we are at the IMC. To reassure you, Jason,
staffing is not a contentious issue for me (unless someone else contends), and I think you are doing amazing things for the IMC, especially having been here a short period of time.
Moving beyond those of us with project roles, I can speak for myself that I admire the volunteer efforts of those who do not work at the IMC every day and who have other jobs, and I'm pretty sure everyone else on this list feels that way, too. If the topic seems touchy to Nicole and I, it's because there has not been a well-defined boundary between our VISTA work and "free-time" IMC volunteering, and that in some conversations others have seemed more than willing to tell us what and where those boundaries are. I'll continue to decide when my time is for VISTA work (40 hours/week) and when it is for extra volunteering - but to keep everyone in the loop, with assurance that my decisions are not capricious, my VISTA work is anything that involves
training, documentation, planning, space and technical improvements, and outreach. Sometimes this set of tasks includes working group meetings, trainings, and workdays
My broader point is that we need volunteer staffing regardless of whether or not there are VISTAs and Interns, and that we should just get people to sign up for the periods that interest them. Really, at this point we are can't afford to be picky, and I'm comfortable with people signing up for ANY period of time during which they are available. It will not hurt us to have people sign up for times when other "staff" are already there. To the contrary, it will help us and will definitely meet a need. And there is the issue of people not wanting to be alone in the building, which is real. Having the building open for a set number of advertised hours is not as important as having it open and staffed for hours that are only advertised after we can
verify it. When it is just Nicole and I around, the building may be open, but it is not adequately staffed because we are working on other things.
To get a little more forward-thinking, maybe we should discuss how to advertise staffing to the membership - as a need or a benefit, or both? Sometimes people don't respond well to "need" based arguments, because they either think the organization is failing or, as we have heard at Steering and since, resent the fact that others aren't doing it (whether or not they are or should be).
On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 6:12 PM, Elizabeth Simpson <elizacorps at yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Yay for clarification! It's great to know what VISTAs can and can't do so that we can make an accurate demand of the larger body.
To be even more clear: Nicole mentioned being willing to staff (i.e. be in the building, door open, not averse to attending to passers-by) a few hours a week.
Is this reasonable, in light of all the thinking that's happened since? For her, for Jason, for Stephen? Some but not all?
If so, can you specify slot(s) when that could happen?
If not, just say the word, again, so the most accurate picture possible can be presented in terms of need to the membership.
Thanks- it's really super to say what you can't do so that you can actually do what you say you will!
Much appreciation,
elizaBeth
A strong people need no leader
- Zapata
--- On Thu, 3/12/09, Elizabeth Simpson <elizacorps at yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Elizabeth Simpson <elizacorps at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Community] Fwd: Staffing the IMC
To: "Nicole Pion" <nicole.pion at gmail.com>
Cc: community at lists.chambana.net
Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 7:23 PM
Hi all,
As you may have noticed, Jason and Nicole wrote contradictory things (He said they do staff, she said they don't)... so there's some clarification that may need to happen for your expectations to match.
I was referring to a meeting I had with Jason, NIcole and Steve in which they said that, between the three of them, there could be someone in the space at any given time 9-5 so that the doors can be open. This is not all of them being there 9-5, but that any given time, the door would be open because ONE of them would be there.
Is this possible?
Of course having member-staff on top of that is vital and necessary- this is simply triage, especially as the door locks are changed and people will rely on it to get inside. In the past our biggest area of burning relationships is folks not being able to get in, not knowing when it
was open. At this point, faulty info or not, we've pretty heavily promoted that it's open 9-5 m-f and I think it's important to do that, while building member-staff capacity to cover that and more.
Thanks everyone for all our work- many of us are doing overtime- please take care of yourselves to prevent burnout!
E
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: Re: [Community] Fwd: Staffing the IMC
To: elizacorps at yahoo.com
Cc: community at lists.chambana.net
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 11:49 PM
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
_______________________________________________
Community mailing list
Community at lists.chambana.net
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/community
_______________________________________________
Community mailing list
Community at lists.chambana.net
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/community
--
Stephen Fonzo
Media Training Advisor
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/20090317/59b7d1af/attachment.html
More information about the Community
mailing list