Entry tags:
After a while, you start defaulting to corporate speak in IM windows
Recent posts of note:
My feelings on this hover somewhere between "interesting" and "FIRE!" My comment to Ira's post sums up most of my thoughts. Although I misspoke/was unclear; growth and expansion aren't the same things. A committee can grow and develop without expanding its scope beyond sustainable means, which is fine, but constant expansion is Bad News. I am also worried because I am not sure who they're going to get to fill those seats and what that means for the committees and workgroups those people leave behind (and whether or not they will be left behind and turned over to new people, period). People keep making sad faces at me about Board, but I am not in a good place to go there right now. STOP IT GUYS I AM NOT READY TO SPELL MY NAME CORRECTLY, OKAY?
The deed is done, though. I hope the gamble is worth it.
Things I have been up to VolCom wise:
Writing and reviewing and testing all the tutorials will be followed by screencasts of them, to provide multiple points of entry to learning the tools.
Things I have been up to Tag Wrangling wise:
In happier news, Dylan O'Brien's FACE. *__*
- 2012 Election: Expanding the Board and Amending the Bylaws (2012 Board of Directors)
- Adding Board Seats, Elections (in the future), and Sudden Flood of Burnout Thoughts by
![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ira_gladkova (Board of Directors, second year of first term, Tag Wrangling staff) - And then there were nine by ahorbinski (Internationalization & Outreach chair)
- OTW board members, what are you thinking. by bookshop (Development & Membership staff, Internal Survey Workgroup volunteer)
My feelings on this hover somewhere between "interesting" and "FIRE!" My comment to Ira's post sums up most of my thoughts. Although I misspoke/was unclear; growth and expansion aren't the same things. A committee can grow and develop without expanding its scope beyond sustainable means, which is fine, but constant expansion is Bad News. I am also worried because I am not sure who they're going to get to fill those seats and what that means for the committees and workgroups those people leave behind (and whether or not they will be left behind and turned over to new people, period). People keep making sad faces at me about Board, but I am not in a good place to go there right now. STOP IT GUYS I AM NOT READY TO SPELL MY NAME CORRECTLY, OKAY?
The deed is done, though. I hope the gamble is worth it.
Things I have been up to VolCom wise:
- had some meetings where it was all wall-of-text, featuring: me. I honestly don't know if it's me being a loudmouth or what.
- punched the Code of Conduct in the solar plexus.
- wrote a policy document I have to put in plain English. Somehow.
- made notes on the completed Basecamp tutorial (4200 words of training people can do at their own speed, this is magical).
- wrote Campfire tutorial (documentation!).
- wrote mailing list tutorial (more documentation!).
- avoided writing wiki tutorial, made awatson cry when I said I didn't know how to move a page. Somewhere out there franzeska started laughing and has zero clue why.
- drafted copy of tutorials for a few other internal tools which I need to make screen-caps for (I love you, Skitch).
- intake revision continues, slow but sure!
Writing and reviewing and testing all the tutorials will be followed by screencasts of them, to provide multiple points of entry to learning the tools.
Things I have been up to Tag Wrangling wise:
- I went to a meeting and said actual words. It was also mildly wall of text, I just raised an issue I have multiple feelings about that may or may not come back and chew me in the face later like an angry beast.
- wrote minutes! I made it way harder than it was, as per usual.
- was otherwise a useless lump.
In happier news, Dylan O'Brien's FACE. *__*
After this, I'm going to buy the biggest waffle cone in the city.
The haps: VolCom has embarked on intake revision, which encompasses actual tool assignment as well as documenting tool assignment going forward. We emailed our first set of chairs last week. I wrote a 4200 word Basecamp tutorial, which is the tool staff and workgroup volunteers use to do a lot of project work. Then I wrote a much smaller mailing list tutorial. Campfire and our password management tool for staff will follow. I don't know how to handle the wiki. Probably going to steal from franzeska and her wiki tutorial. I'm sure she won't mind. :D
Volunteer-wise, in June we had 14 forms and we only have one outstanding form remaining for placement. We are at under fifteen tasks, too, which is exciting. :D Our technical form is good, but using it I've seen even more room for improvement. *dreams*
I feel marginally happy with where we are right now. It's not perfect, it's not the end of the line, there's still a ton of work to be done (who is going to teach chairs how to write job descriptions? a;skld;aksd) but we're slowly building the structure that didn't exist before. I am honestly not sure how VolCom got on with such a lack of documentation, procedure, best practices...any of it. How did we make it so long with all of this in our heads? How did we survive working in isolation? I know a lot of it was simply demand. We never had time to stop and breathe. We possessed and were possessed by the never-ending string of tasks. We didn't feel we could say no, stop, wait so we could all get back on the same page. Even now, we're scattered and it's immensely frustrating. I've also been struggling with internal transparency for months and have finally reached a place I am happy with, that doesn't create tons of work for me. These days when I see calls for more transparency I am pretty sure my head transforms into the eye of Sauron.
Anyway, OTW is back in the news. It's either volunteering issues or wrangling issues these days, boy, I chose the two greatest areas to focus my volunteer efforts in. It's almost comical.![[tumblr.com profile]](http://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
unofficialotwnews exists and as soon as I saw it, I went "wow, why didn't I think of that?" Dead useful. I've been doing some reading with all the posts that have sprung up, some of which have made me very thoughtful:
About burnout, cakes and expertise, not in that order byhl, former Board member:
Emphasis mine. Hey, Board of Directors, I think you should all read this paragraph. IT'S A GREAT PARAGRAPH. There could be cookies in your future if you gave this paragraph some thought. Not that I am suggesting bribery. I'm just offering to bring some cookies in for the work potluck. Yep.
Sidethought: It would be nice if Board would consider moving those open meetings from Cross-Committee to Public Discussion for the benefit of our volunteer pools who might like to see Board at work, too. Nothing's exploded yet with the open sessions. *plants idea for later*
Surprise! Being a chair is a management position, of a project, but most importantly, of people.
An older post, from the last election, OTW: Some experiences on non-profit management and org management, Pt 2, People Skills byvom_marlowe was fascinating. I read it last year but was not in the position I'm at right now, so it meant less. It means tons now! Why is there not a part three? *greedy*
I could talk a lot about how I've considered myself a bad leader for saying no the last few months: to the organization as a whole, to my staff, to people outside the organization. There's a lot of guilt wrapped up in that. I think that as an organization we have a problem saying no, to ourselves and especially to those we want to please, whether they be users, peers or leaders, and when we try it sometimes comes out all wrong.
Of course, there's also the wrangling discussions.
( jfc these are some serious feels I am going to regret opening up about an hour after I post )
franzeska and her wiki tutorial. I'm sure she won't mind. :DVolunteer-wise, in June we had 14 forms and we only have one outstanding form remaining for placement. We are at under fifteen tasks, too, which is exciting. :D Our technical form is good, but using it I've seen even more room for improvement. *dreams*
I feel marginally happy with where we are right now. It's not perfect, it's not the end of the line, there's still a ton of work to be done (who is going to teach chairs how to write job descriptions? a;skld;aksd) but we're slowly building the structure that didn't exist before. I am honestly not sure how VolCom got on with such a lack of documentation, procedure, best practices...any of it. How did we make it so long with all of this in our heads? How did we survive working in isolation? I know a lot of it was simply demand. We never had time to stop and breathe. We possessed and were possessed by the never-ending string of tasks. We didn't feel we could say no, stop, wait so we could all get back on the same page. Even now, we're scattered and it's immensely frustrating. I've also been struggling with internal transparency for months and have finally reached a place I am happy with, that doesn't create tons of work for me. These days when I see calls for more transparency I am pretty sure my head transforms into the eye of Sauron.
Anyway, OTW is back in the news. It's either volunteering issues or wrangling issues these days, boy, I chose the two greatest areas to focus my volunteer efforts in. It's almost comical.
About burnout, cakes and expertise, not in that order by
hl, former Board member:Board: same as chairs, except: don't take a lot of staff level work, or any. If you like it better, then leave the Board and managing to people who like managing, and stay as staff.
Emphasis mine. Hey, Board of Directors, I think you should all read this paragraph. IT'S A GREAT PARAGRAPH. There could be cookies in your future if you gave this paragraph some thought. Not that I am suggesting bribery. I'm just offering to bring some cookies in for the work potluck. Yep.
Sidethought: It would be nice if Board would consider moving those open meetings from Cross-Committee to Public Discussion for the benefit of our volunteer pools who might like to see Board at work, too. Nothing's exploded yet with the open sessions. *plants idea for later*
Everyone: don't take managerial tasks just because you love the org and would like more power to decide what it does and where it goes. Don't take them at all unless you're actually willing to do them.
Surprise! Being a chair is a management position, of a project, but most importantly, of people.
An older post, from the last election, OTW: Some experiences on non-profit management and org management, Pt 2, People Skills by
vom_marlowe was fascinating. I read it last year but was not in the position I'm at right now, so it meant less. It means tons now! Why is there not a part three? *greedy*This is why it is so important to be able to do say 'no'. No, we can't do a project under that deadline. No, I don't have enough people to get this done. No, the software won't support that feature. No, I won't ask my people to dress up like SpongeBob Squarepants (real example, sadly). No, no, no.
If you cannot say no, you cannot manage effectively. Period.
I could talk a lot about how I've considered myself a bad leader for saying no the last few months: to the organization as a whole, to my staff, to people outside the organization. There's a lot of guilt wrapped up in that. I think that as an organization we have a problem saying no, to ourselves and especially to those we want to please, whether they be users, peers or leaders, and when we try it sometimes comes out all wrong.
Of course, there's also the wrangling discussions.
( jfc these are some serious feels I am going to regret opening up about an hour after I post )
Entry tags:
A metaphor about monsters under the bed and end of childhood naiviety, etc.
Accomplishments:
Posts of note byawatson:
Burnout.
Writing position descriptions.
I am really happy Alison is writing and talking about her work. I met her in 2010 when I sneakily asked her to "captain" a documentation/training team, which was my sly way of making her staff on a future Tag Wrangling committee. She's taught me a lot and at least 45% of it is when to keep my mouth closed when frustrated (obviously she did not vet this post).
( Read more... )
- Open tasks: ~30. Go us. :)
- Code of Conduct is chugging along. We're approaching an internal release of the draft.
- The technical recruitment form is open. I'm really happy with how it turned out. :) Yay, VolComrades! Kudos to AD&T, especially Naomi and Elz for the job description and organization of the listed skills.
- Intake revision proceeds! We're about to start interviewing chairs about organization tools. :) Next up: revising all our drafts ha ha sob.
Posts of note by
awatson:Burnout.
Writing position descriptions.
I am really happy Alison is writing and talking about her work. I met her in 2010 when I sneakily asked her to "captain" a documentation/training team, which was my sly way of making her staff on a future Tag Wrangling committee. She's taught me a lot and at least 45% of it is when to keep my mouth closed when frustrated (obviously she did not vet this post).
( Read more... )
Entry tags:
It's like putting red tape OVER YOUR MOUTH and trying to speak.
Accomplishments:
1. We're winding down from the surprise!volunteer drive in April. Everyone is almost accounted for and emails reaching out have been sent; I am relieved.
2. Started revising intake. This has been needed for two years and it's finally underway. Slowly. We did have to make an exception and open the technical recruitment form, so yay us, although I remain convinced us handling technical volunteers for the AO3 is creating a bottleneck, because based on commentary I've seen experienced folks don't want to go through our induction process, they simply want to walk in and start coding something cool. VolCom is prepared for new technical folks now (this form and process was created in a week ha ha) but there's still one back and forth and waiting on a person on our side that stands between volunteers and some of our tools. It's something I'm constantly thinking about for tech folks. I want to make it easier for them, but I am bound by a lot of legacy structures I need time to think about and unravel. Intake revision will allow us to do that, though. :)
3. Drafts of serious documentation of tools, like Basecamp and Vault, have been started! I may or may not have gotten carried away. No one can prove anything! I hope for a future where pointing new volunteers at this and letting them read it will cut down severely on training time.
4. Met some new staffers who are awesome! I forget these days I'm in a grumpy too-much-VolCom-work cave hoarding the last of my gems and fucks like a irate dragon, so when I go out and talk to friendly people I'm always surprised when people are friendly and helpful and understanding. Hey, OTW Support Staff. ♥
There's always a lot of frustrations. I don't think there will ever be a week where I'm not tempted to throw up my hands and quit, because I was promised a lot of support and I don't feel like I've gotten it, but oh well. The good people often outweigh the bad situations, and for now, their dreams and hopes for the future keep me low-grade positive about the whole endeavor.
Ana sent me a great quote that, looking back, was one reason I decided to volunteer for the OTW. John Green said this in an interview, and he said it about fanwork of his books (I assume), but it rings true for me for fandom and the OTW. I joined the organization as a wrangling volunteer because I wanted to shape it with my ideas and my knowledge, and I stayed because I saw that people deserved to be treated better than they were and I thought I could help. That's been harder than I thought it would be to do, but for now, it's worth it.
"What belongs to me becomes more interesting, and more awesome, once it also belongs to you." -- John Green
1. We're winding down from the surprise!volunteer drive in April. Everyone is almost accounted for and emails reaching out have been sent; I am relieved.
2. Started revising intake. This has been needed for two years and it's finally underway. Slowly. We did have to make an exception and open the technical recruitment form, so yay us, although I remain convinced us handling technical volunteers for the AO3 is creating a bottleneck, because based on commentary I've seen experienced folks don't want to go through our induction process, they simply want to walk in and start coding something cool. VolCom is prepared for new technical folks now (this form and process was created in a week ha ha) but there's still one back and forth and waiting on a person on our side that stands between volunteers and some of our tools. It's something I'm constantly thinking about for tech folks. I want to make it easier for them, but I am bound by a lot of legacy structures I need time to think about and unravel. Intake revision will allow us to do that, though. :)
3. Drafts of serious documentation of tools, like Basecamp and Vault, have been started! I may or may not have gotten carried away. No one can prove anything! I hope for a future where pointing new volunteers at this and letting them read it will cut down severely on training time.
4. Met some new staffers who are awesome! I forget these days I'm in a grumpy too-much-VolCom-work cave hoarding the last of my gems and fucks like a irate dragon, so when I go out and talk to friendly people I'm always surprised when people are friendly and helpful and understanding. Hey, OTW Support Staff. ♥
There's always a lot of frustrations. I don't think there will ever be a week where I'm not tempted to throw up my hands and quit, because I was promised a lot of support and I don't feel like I've gotten it, but oh well. The good people often outweigh the bad situations, and for now, their dreams and hopes for the future keep me low-grade positive about the whole endeavor.
Ana sent me a great quote that, looking back, was one reason I decided to volunteer for the OTW. John Green said this in an interview, and he said it about fanwork of his books (I assume), but it rings true for me for fandom and the OTW. I joined the organization as a wrangling volunteer because I wanted to shape it with my ideas and my knowledge, and I stayed because I saw that people deserved to be treated better than they were and I thought I could help. That's been harder than I thought it would be to do, but for now, it's worth it.
"What belongs to me becomes more interesting, and more awesome, once it also belongs to you." -- John Green
Entry tags:
What is the monetary value for 27 unused AO3 invites, tumblr?
Accomplishments:
( This is like shipping Official/Unofficial committee communications. It's a pretty obscure ship, you probably haven't heard of it. )
- Successful draft of technical recruitment form.
- A plan of attack for some chair documentation.
- Acquisition of ScreenFlow! Well, this belongs more to sanders than me, but I am going to claim it, as well.
- Didn't miss newsletter update!
( This is like shipping Official/Unofficial committee communications. It's a pretty obscure ship, you probably haven't heard of it. )
Entry tags:
There are universes of feelings between these lines.
1. AO3's performance issues are making everyone tired and stressed, me included. I can't imagine what it's like in the middle of it all. Good thoughts to everyone, especially Systems and AD&T.
2. In a stunning turn of events, the universe said, "Hey, Renay, I know you've been feeling like a terrible chair, told you're a terrible chair by people not even on your committee, dealing with some hostility and uncertainty, snowed under by requests for your time, putting in 20-25 hour weeks for free, but I've decided that's not really enough stress so I'm just going to leave you a surprise." Nothing irreparable was broken, but this has resulted in a new confidentiality agreement for Volunteers & Recruiting, which is...drafty, but at least exists.
3. In the confidentiality vein (hahaha FML), I had a discussion with a volunteer recently after speaking with my Board liaison about the external survey. We talked about the feasibility of an internal survey, what might be accomplished, and if we could even get people to fill it out candidly. Then this conversation happened:
me: Part of VolCom's responsibility is gathering feedback about volunteer experience
which means asking volunteers ABOUT their experiences in and with the committees they worked with
Volunteer: If it were completely anonymous?
I might be okay with a blind form sent to all active volunteers.
summaries, aggregate, and paraphrased quotes scrubbed for syntax.
me: And then you'd speak?
Volunteer: might.
If my committee ran an anonymous survey, where the results were sanitized, summarized and presented to Board only and never anyone else, with confidentiality agreements out the wazoo to even look at the survey results (committee) or see the summaries (Board)... it's still a might.
So this week happened.
Yep.
2. In a stunning turn of events, the universe said, "Hey, Renay, I know you've been feeling like a terrible chair, told you're a terrible chair by people not even on your committee, dealing with some hostility and uncertainty, snowed under by requests for your time, putting in 20-25 hour weeks for free, but I've decided that's not really enough stress so I'm just going to leave you a surprise." Nothing irreparable was broken, but this has resulted in a new confidentiality agreement for Volunteers & Recruiting, which is...drafty, but at least exists.
3. In the confidentiality vein (hahaha FML), I had a discussion with a volunteer recently after speaking with my Board liaison about the external survey. We talked about the feasibility of an internal survey, what might be accomplished, and if we could even get people to fill it out candidly. Then this conversation happened:
me: Part of VolCom's responsibility is gathering feedback about volunteer experience
which means asking volunteers ABOUT their experiences in and with the committees they worked with
Volunteer: If it were completely anonymous?
I might be okay with a blind form sent to all active volunteers.
summaries, aggregate, and paraphrased quotes scrubbed for syntax.
me: And then you'd speak?
Volunteer: might.
If my committee ran an anonymous survey, where the results were sanitized, summarized and presented to Board only and never anyone else, with confidentiality agreements out the wazoo to even look at the survey results (committee) or see the summaries (Board)... it's still a might.
So this week happened.
Yep.
Entry tags:
I would be rated TV-MA.
Someone told me they consider these posts the Saga of Volunteers & Recruiting, which made me sit and think about which soap we're likely to be most similar to. I don't remember much of my soap watching, as it all took place in the 90s and I was constantly confused about the story lines. But there was one, Passions? Maybe that could be us. It had an evil witch, didn't it? I could totally play that part, but only if I get a cauldron. ( post full of terrible images and also some more words )
Entry tags:
it's the day for it, really
I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.
You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.
You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.
And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.
( Read more... )
Entry tags:
BOARD OF DIRECTORS: thanks for trusting I could steer this ship, sorry for crashing into your face
Accomplishments and goals:
This week, I have very few thoughts (mostly emotions of an undefined nature), because I am busy writing Teen Wolf fic. Example:
( No, really. I AM REALLY WRITING IT now that I am feeling better. )
So, anyway: chairing! Here is something that gets me: I don't know how I can be expected to put out fires if people keep starting fires in my backyard and going "Isn't this pretty?". I would like some breathing space, but don't know how to ask for it, or for time, or for patience or for ANYTHING for myself, because I am a complete pushover who will lay down and let people walk over her and tell her how and why she sucks at length and nod along. Furthermore, why is the entire universe breaking my BIGGEST ORGANIZATION RULE of "don't create work for other people without their permission?" followed by my new addition "wow, you're not even going to say thanks? okay."
UNIVERSE, STOP, OKAY? Thanks.
After discussing it with a colleague, I will share my week's experience in animated gifs and macros, which I will cut to prevent brains from exploding. Triggering seizures is not the kind of vibe I need to be inviting right now, considering I am fucking up as chair all over the place, apparently, and can't even go one week without some kind of crisis.
( feelings, using images that unfortunate have no alt text )
Welcome to chairing Volunteers & Recruiting, self. Welcome.
- VolCom began the process of drafting a new version of the Code of Conduct as well as the Conflict Resolution process! \o/ We have someone who knows something about non-profits keeping an eye on us as we flail around and learn new things: PROGRESS.
- I did a Vault (OTW's password management system) training and it went really well.
- Active committee tasks: 112. \o/ \o/ \o/ Before June, even! VOLCOMRADES ARE AMAZING.
- Staffer held a training on the wiki and now we're in the process of seeking feedback about the training and how we can improve and revise the process.
- Did tons of follow-up regarding the intake surge folks.
- Wrote a Best Practices essay that was apparently 1500 words? Okay. Going to executive decision this through, as well. I hope my staffers remember how to appeal decisions to the Board: they may need it, because I'm out of fucks.
This week, I have very few thoughts (mostly emotions of an undefined nature), because I am busy writing Teen Wolf fic. Example:
( No, really. I AM REALLY WRITING IT now that I am feeling better. )
So, anyway: chairing! Here is something that gets me: I don't know how I can be expected to put out fires if people keep starting fires in my backyard and going "Isn't this pretty?". I would like some breathing space, but don't know how to ask for it, or for time, or for patience or for ANYTHING for myself, because I am a complete pushover who will lay down and let people walk over her and tell her how and why she sucks at length and nod along. Furthermore, why is the entire universe breaking my BIGGEST ORGANIZATION RULE of "don't create work for other people without their permission?" followed by my new addition "wow, you're not even going to say thanks? okay."
UNIVERSE, STOP, OKAY? Thanks.
After discussing it with a colleague, I will share my week's experience in animated gifs and macros, which I will cut to prevent brains from exploding. Triggering seizures is not the kind of vibe I need to be inviting right now, considering I am fucking up as chair all over the place, apparently, and can't even go one week without some kind of crisis.
( feelings, using images that unfortunate have no alt text )
Welcome to chairing Volunteers & Recruiting, self. Welcome.
Entry tags:
The weekly chair posts begins running late (it was inevitable).
It's only two days late. I have officially put it in my calendar, so I guess I'm doing this thing for real. ( Read more... )
Entry tags:
yes, oppressive organization IS what happens when you give me power, Sam
Bullet list for great justice:
( Read more... )
- Hours logged since my last post (this isn't all, just the hours I managed to remember to track in Toggl): 18
- Code of Conduct has been given a deadline with appropriate milestones. Consultants have been acquired! Plans are being made. I love our new project management system, it is the best.
- Inducted one coder and loads of tag wranglers.
- Gained three new Volunteers & Recruiting staff members. \o/
( Read more... )
Entry tags:
Toggl is going to tell me alarming things about my dedication to the OTW
If anyone wants to volunteer for the OTW, we must first challenge them to dragon-to-dragon combat. Anyone who defeats a VolCom member may submit a WTS form. — a VolComrade
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Entry tags:
VolComrades are the best, or Some Feelings on Volunteers & Recruiting
Much like Sanders said in her recent post about her Board work, "That's what I wanted to talk about. Except I don't want to talk about it. Most days, it's enough just doing it."
I feel that way, too. I always say I am going to talk more about my job and the things I am doing. But where do I start? There's so much. So I decided to start at the beginning of the place I am in now. ( Read more... )
I feel that way, too. I always say I am going to talk more about my job and the things I am doing. But where do I start? There's so much. So I decided to start at the beginning of the place I am in now. ( Read more... )