I promised myself I wouldn't do any work this week on vacation, either on Davis Dollars or for Senator Steinberg's office. Co-op Camp is a beautiful camp in the Sierras, and I only see most of my friends from camp once a year.
Well, I didn't quite end up doing work...but I also did end up getting involved in two different flavors of management while at camp (as the Teen Director, and in general camp management). I'm now involved in managing Davis Dollars, the internship program in Senator Steinberg's office, the Davis Cooperative Community Network, and Co-op Camp.
I've been the Teen Director at camp for about five years now, but this year I've really taken the program to a new level. While my role in previous years was really not much more than chaperon, this year I've been leading the teens in running projects and workshops for each other.
I met with them at the beginning of the week to talk about what activities they'd like to do, and particularly what skills they'd like to learn, and to share with each other. Emily led a workshop on handstands and cartwheels, for example. Keith led a handful of teens in getting video testimonials about camp from every camper, so we can share what makes this camp so special. I treated my job as director much more like my role at Davis Dollars and in Senator Steinberg's office - I'm focusing on empowering the teens to create programs they're interested in, instead of relying on me to entertain them.
I'm also making my first forays into general camp management, at the invitation of the three current camp managers. Because many of the campers come from co-ops of one sort or another, lots are interested in helping make camp a better place, but many I've spoken to have found it difficult to get involved. I know Heather, Chip and Victor (the three current managers) feel overwhelmed by everything they have to accomplish every year. (They're not paid.) I think everyone would agree that the three of them have become a bottleneck purely by virtue of the huge amount of work that has to go through them, and I think we would all like to share the work around a bit more.
So when Heather invited me to take on a management role, I took the opportunity to talk to her, Chip and Victor, and several others interested in getting more involved about how we could make it easier to campers to contribute to preparation for camp.
I started by creating a Google Group to replace our old email list so that we could have a small group of administrators authorized to email to our entire list. (Previously every email had to go through Heather, Chip or Victor, and it wasn't feasible for them to handle this all on their own.) This will make it easier for other campers to let everyone know about camper meet-ups during the year, fundraisers, and other important news.
I also created a set of Google Documents to help us coordinate on our various activities during the year. This way campers can log in and find out, for example, that we still need $1,500 in prizes for our auction, and can begin to solicit donations from businesses. (Before, this would have required prior authorization from Heather, Chip or Victor, and things get slowed down when 20 people who want to contribute in different ways all have to filter through three people.) In a lot of ways this isn't any different from all my other management experience - I'm trying to empower people to make a contribution. People want to get involved, and it's just a matter of making it easy for them to do so in a coordinated manner.
Nonprofits and community organizations are often chronically understaffed, and I'm wary of getting involved in Co-op Camp management because I don't want to be drawn into a huge tangle of tasks to get camp coordinated for next year. As I get involved, I'll insist on being given specific responsibilities, and the freedom to accomplish those responsibilities with minimal interference. As I've found from managing my hordes of interns, people are a lot more interested in doing grunt work if it's in the service of a responsibility they've been given than they are in doing grunt work that has been assigned to them.
As with my interns, my ideal contribution would be to enable campers to share their talents to improve camp. There are lots of folks who want to help put on the carnival, or bring new campers, or offer a great workshop. Right now the centralized management structure has made it difficult for some people to contribute. Heather, Chip and Victor recognize this, and were happy to hear that the Google Documents might encourage people to put their heads together outside of camp to prepare for next year.
So now I just have to figure out how to share information and responsibility in a meaningful way, while helping coordinate everyone’s contributions so collaboration doesn’t turn into chaos. Wish me luck!
Well, I didn't quite end up doing work...but I also did end up getting involved in two different flavors of management while at camp (as the Teen Director, and in general camp management). I'm now involved in managing Davis Dollars, the internship program in Senator Steinberg's office, the Davis Cooperative Community Network, and Co-op Camp.
I've been the Teen Director at camp for about five years now, but this year I've really taken the program to a new level. While my role in previous years was really not much more than chaperon, this year I've been leading the teens in running projects and workshops for each other.
I met with them at the beginning of the week to talk about what activities they'd like to do, and particularly what skills they'd like to learn, and to share with each other. Emily led a workshop on handstands and cartwheels, for example. Keith led a handful of teens in getting video testimonials about camp from every camper, so we can share what makes this camp so special. I treated my job as director much more like my role at Davis Dollars and in Senator Steinberg's office - I'm focusing on empowering the teens to create programs they're interested in, instead of relying on me to entertain them.
I'm also making my first forays into general camp management, at the invitation of the three current camp managers. Because many of the campers come from co-ops of one sort or another, lots are interested in helping make camp a better place, but many I've spoken to have found it difficult to get involved. I know Heather, Chip and Victor (the three current managers) feel overwhelmed by everything they have to accomplish every year. (They're not paid.) I think everyone would agree that the three of them have become a bottleneck purely by virtue of the huge amount of work that has to go through them, and I think we would all like to share the work around a bit more.
So when Heather invited me to take on a management role, I took the opportunity to talk to her, Chip and Victor, and several others interested in getting more involved about how we could make it easier to campers to contribute to preparation for camp.
I started by creating a Google Group to replace our old email list so that we could have a small group of administrators authorized to email to our entire list. (Previously every email had to go through Heather, Chip or Victor, and it wasn't feasible for them to handle this all on their own.) This will make it easier for other campers to let everyone know about camper meet-ups during the year, fundraisers, and other important news.
I also created a set of Google Documents to help us coordinate on our various activities during the year. This way campers can log in and find out, for example, that we still need $1,500 in prizes for our auction, and can begin to solicit donations from businesses. (Before, this would have required prior authorization from Heather, Chip or Victor, and things get slowed down when 20 people who want to contribute in different ways all have to filter through three people.) In a lot of ways this isn't any different from all my other management experience - I'm trying to empower people to make a contribution. People want to get involved, and it's just a matter of making it easy for them to do so in a coordinated manner.
Nonprofits and community organizations are often chronically understaffed, and I'm wary of getting involved in Co-op Camp management because I don't want to be drawn into a huge tangle of tasks to get camp coordinated for next year. As I get involved, I'll insist on being given specific responsibilities, and the freedom to accomplish those responsibilities with minimal interference. As I've found from managing my hordes of interns, people are a lot more interested in doing grunt work if it's in the service of a responsibility they've been given than they are in doing grunt work that has been assigned to them.
As with my interns, my ideal contribution would be to enable campers to share their talents to improve camp. There are lots of folks who want to help put on the carnival, or bring new campers, or offer a great workshop. Right now the centralized management structure has made it difficult for some people to contribute. Heather, Chip and Victor recognize this, and were happy to hear that the Google Documents might encourage people to put their heads together outside of camp to prepare for next year.
So now I just have to figure out how to share information and responsibility in a meaningful way, while helping coordinate everyone’s contributions so collaboration doesn’t turn into chaos. Wish me luck!
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