Some Daily Job Details

I had a wonderful time at my friend's wedding last weekend, and a great visit with many professors and friends up at Middlebury. There is something odd returning to the institution after getting a diploma from them; public safety and I will have an epic battle over tickets until the end of time. I have to park in town next time most likely. Go figure.

Anyway, I realized that even though I love the campus, and absolutely loved chatting with the professors I managed to visit with, that I am also an ex-student. I can't go back, maybe grad school, but I couldn't imagine myself back in that world, in any true sense. I've moved on, something has changed, things are different.

I have just gotten back to work again - although I worked while I was gone as well. Things in the office are busy, but I'm so ridiculously productive it almost drives the people I work with nuts. I'll probably slow down after the initial rush wears off. Honestly though, our national office is still getting the hang of what it means to serve students - our hope is clear, but what guides our work is important. If we want to engage, empower and promote students in everything we do - it also requires that we do just that all the time. If we do not respond to them, do not solve their problems, then really - we're just undermining our own legitimacy. I am simply not prepared to let that happen - so a lot of my job involves ensuring that we as a staff are keeping up with the needs of our network. It's a small office, and there is a lot to do beyond that, but our students won't trust us, nor will they participate in our activities or work with us unless we prove that we are responsive. Just as a general context.

My day to day responsibilities thus far have been a mix. I've gone through all our old chapter folders in the office, made cover sheets, updated them and created a new list of chapters in our network. I've taken all our old google documents (shared online docs through gmail) where we kept records of last year's chapter work, formated them, printed them and filed them in the chapter folders. It is the first step towards building a historical record of work and development. A lot of the processes and systems I create and implement will be part of making the office run more smoothly and building institutional memory for years to come. For example, when a chapter orders materials, there was no centralized place for tracking all the information. My first step was making sure that a google doc got created, and then that our organizing team (regional coordinators) got shared on it - so they can update it as they get requests. The office needs to stay on top of the requests. I ask for materials, shipping addresses, quanity, date it is needed by, payment method etc. So far that is ironing out well. If a chapter needs to pay for a banner (the only material we provide that we ask them to cover some of the cost for), they'll send us a check (I needed to create a procedure for processing those so we know they paid) or they ask for a grant (I needed to make sure we have a process for tracking those). So basically, in regards to banners, we know how much money we paid, how much we "gave" as grants to chapters, and how much chapters gave us towards the total cost of those banners. Good times. The grant process applies to anything that a student asks for. By looking in their folders, we can see all the printouts of grant requests (and their approved/denied status) and know how much "chapter service money we provided). So there are things like that.

Then there is the project of building up our alumni network, both for money, but also for the benefits it offers our current students. Another project I am beginning to get on board with this week after work with a group of alumni over dinner (and two other office colleagues).

Next, we're doing our annual fundraiser soon, and it's always been a bit of a mess - I've been asked to tighten up the process and make sure it runs smoothly this year; I think I'll also end up pulling together a 2008-2009 annual report for potential donors.

Then there is follow up from our Hyde Park Summit, I sent out a survey, and I have responses from students that I need to analyze, and make a series of recommendations and observations fairly soon to help guide our work and make sure we're addressing the feedback and concerns of our membership and improving our own performance at the national office.

I'm also in charge of doing lots of website updates, and responding to a number of student questions about the site itself (for those of you who know my lack of computer skills, it's probably funny). http://www.rooseveltcampusnetwork.org/
That website does take up a lot of my time though. I'm also uploading resources and whatnot for students for chapter maintance and policy writing. My recent project was to create google web forms for students and embed them in the webpage so students can request materials (a notch above the google doc that regional coordinators enter information into) or request a policy training from us.

I've been taking care of much of the custom banners that have been ordered recently, and making sure students get them.

Another project of mine is doing the internal staff email blasts every week, so that we're all on the same page about big stuff (usually three news items); I take notes on our conference calls every other Sunday evening as well.


I figure those things will keep me busy well into October, but come the end of October, we'll be seeing more student policy work, more success stories and many regional events. I'm sure something will come from that.

As you can tell from the wordy outline above, lots goes on and there is a lot to do - it's never dull.

Vacation Already

I know I'm spoiled by my new job, in the sense that I get a vacation already. Honestly, it's a perk for accepting far less monetarily than I'm worth, and I won't be saying that often. I'm home for a wedding, as the maid of honor (best friend from high school is getting married), I wanted to be around for her as moral support. Good news? I can do that, and work from home, and relax a little and regroup. The first days of work went well, and although some whip cracking had to happen, for the most part things are peachy.

Hilary, our executive director, is going to Spain for ten days, so I'm trying to keep up with key things out of office, and we have two staffers there right now. It's going to be a bit hectic, but I'm busy making a list of things (in addition to Hilary's) that I can do from here.

They include: backing up all of last years' chapter records and filing them in hardcopy when I return to the office, continuing to update the new website for when we go live in a few days, make sure chapter swag materials are shipped to students asap, doing an analysis of the feedback we're getting from our hyde park summit in August and writing up a series of recommendations for the national office for the fall, designing google web forms so students can easily request trainings and materials online, solidifying processes for dealing with incoming checks, grant requests, material requests and travel reimbursements, and putting out fires as they (frequently) arise.

So considering I'm working Tues-Thurs and then am out of touch at the wedding this weekend, I'll have plenty to do. I wouldn't have it any other way, but still.

Then on Tuesday, I have an event I've been invited to, and provided I can make it back to DC in time, I'll begin to do all that "networking" and trying to establish myself within the DC progressive network itself. I'm finding when I pitch and discuss the organization these days that I believe in it even more than I used to. Perhaps it's being on the national level, and seeing how interactions with students empower them and make them believe that they have true power and potential. Roosevelt is a great compliment to classroom work, and it certainly was that for me for all those years. I never imagined that what was a student extracurricular that sounded a bit off the wall would result in an opportunity like this - apparently hard work and some faith do go a long way.

Friends are headed back to Midd and started classes today - the fact that I'm not going is weird and slightly unsettling, but on a general level, it was time for me to move on and I know this. That doesn't mean it's easy - but it does mean that I am ready to do this, in most ways.

My mom and I hosted our annual labor day picnic for all the farms' employees and their spouses and some alumni as well. We ate delicious food, grilled, picked blueberries from our patch and played hours of badmitton. It was so relaxing and wonderful to catch up with individuals who are really part of our greater family. I'm very lucky.