We believe interns should be able to take on projects of interest - what we call "ownership initiatives", because we want interns to take ownership over the projects.
How it works
Nick will also assign you "core tasks" each day, which you must finish before working on your initiative. These are the tasks that it is important for our office to complete, such as writing response letters, casework, printing certificates, addressing constituent inquiries, and answering the phone. Nick will give you a fixed number of tasks each day, plus a share of any tasks that come in that day (e.g. new cases).
It is expected that you will finish your core tasks in the first part of the day, and then move on to work on your initiative. You should talk to Nick if you are having difficulty accomplishing all your core tasks. It is also expected that you will set feasible goals for your initiative, and accomplish those on schedule.
How you should start
Talk to Nick about your interests, and mention any projects you've thought of that aren't on the list already. He and other staff will think about what sort of project would be feasible to start with. We'll try to generate several options, at which point you have come to the Investigative phase of the process.
Investigative phase of the initiative
You can consult with staff for advice on the investigative phase; here are some general strategies for clarifying your initiative:
- Talk to the point person on the project - that may be a member of the district staff, capital staff, majority caucus, or even possibly someone else. Ask them lots of questions about the nature of the project and how you can get involved; try to pin them down on lots of details. You should have a very clear understanding of what you'll be doing - try explaining your role to someone else, and if you find difficulty explaining something, you should go back to ask the point person more questions.
- Call other staff and offices working on the project (ask staff in our office for advice on who to talk to) about how you can help. This is important because you won't always be able to reach your point person immediately. It shows initiative that you're ready to move forward with the project even though your point person hasn't given you specific tasks yet.
- Do some research on the project, to figure out what else we might be able to do to help the project. This could mean calling a relevant state agency, calling some organizations with expertise in the relevant area, or looking around online for resources. (Talk to staff in our office before calling any outside organizations to find out if there's anything sensitive you shouldn't talk to outsiders about.) From your research, you can make some suggestions to your point person. It's an important skill to be able to anticipate things the project might need, and generate options to choose from.
Pitching a potential project
You'll also have to pitch the project and gain approval for it. For some projects, this will be easy - it isn't hard to get approval to run a tree-planting project in a neighborhood, for example. Other projects will require significant research beforehand before pitching. If you want Darrell to carry a bill, for example, you'll have to do a lot of research, some of which will be necessary before you even float the idea with staff (talk to Nick before embarking on anything).
Potential projects may not be approved, so talk to Nick and other district staff to get advice on how to improve your chances. This shouldn't discourage you from pursuing an initiative of your own design, though. Project proposals in the real world don't all get accepted, either. Even if your proposal isn't accepted, you'll earn the respect of the staff you work with.
Initiatives
- Medium-term (1-3 months to complete)
- Supporting the Arts (Jen)
- Student Summit (Anthony, Leslie)
- Autism Select Committee (John, Anthony, Leslie, Erik)
- Very long-term (more than 6 months to complete)
- Student Created Bill (Adam)
Potential Initiatives:
- Short-term (a month or shorter to complete)
- Constituent resources to the website (Mohamed did some work on this)
- Tax Assistance Workshops - these are workshops that we need help in running/attending
- Cash For College (CFC) Workshops - these are workshops our office is helping with; we could use more help on them
- 1/13 SCOE event putting together packets for upcoming CFC workshops
- 2/27 Woodland event; they especially need Spanish speakers.
- A public, community map with resources on it. Does something like this already exist? It might make sense to augment an existing map, instead of creating one new. Consider what map capabilities exist (google maps, communitywalk.com, etc.).
- Develop resources or procedures to increase our efficiency in the office (past examples are this wikidot, and our online district map)
- Medium-term (1-3 months to complete)
- Organize a tree-planting in a neighborhood
- Long-term (3-6 months to complete)
- District events - You could organize a new district event, or take responsibility for one aspect of an existing event (e.g. organizing the entertainment for an event, or handling outreach to organizations)
- Volunteer Fair (talk to Nick)
- Passport to Summer (organized by Diana)
- Graduation event (organized by Ana)
- we have other events, and you may have your own idea for an event
- Community projects:
- Organize crop swaps in a neighborhood
- Help a neighborhood grow more of its food in gardens
- Help a neighborhood association (or other community organization) set up a blog, website, newsletter, internship program, or something similar
- Develop better ways to reach out to constituents. Some examples:
- Hold "office hours" at regular times in certain places (e.g. farmers markets, on college campuses); staff will answer questions, take cases, and help people get more involved. This could possibly be in coordination with supervisors, councilmembers, and the Mayor's office.
- Send out a questionnaire (by mail and/or email) asking people what issues are most important to them, or asking them for thoughts and suggestions.
- …other ideas for constituent outreach you may have?
- Design cartoons to explain general processes (e.g. how the budget process works) or specific occurrences (e.g. exactly what's going on with the cuts, or the importance of the water bond initiative), to be spread through email, mail, and fliers to constituents
- District events - You could organize a new district event, or take responsibility for one aspect of an existing event (e.g. organizing the entertainment for an event, or handling outreach to organizations)
- Very long-term (more than 6 months to complete)
- Research a potential bill for Darrell to carry. Some ideas:
- Legalize growing and selling food from a home garden plot
- Run a "students sponsor a bill" project, in which a high school or college class puts together bill ideas for Darrell to review, and works with Darrell to carry the bill through the legislative process
- …other ideas?
- Research a potential bill for Darrell to carry. Some ideas:
- Other types of projects:
- Capitol Office projects - the CO may have projects they need help with