I don't know what it is about me but something makes me look like I'm in charge???? We had an all-club field trip today to Pirate Island (picture a nicer-scaled Chuck-E-Cheese with a pirate theme). More kids showed up today with signed permission slips than expected; 140...with 8 staff and volunteers. It was insane. I ended up going over to help them out. I hadn't been planning on going nor did I really have any idea what was going on. Yet, for some reason, all the YDP staff kept coming and asking me questions about what was going on. Sometimes, I tried to take charge, other times, I had no idea and flat out told them that. I had a reporter shoved in my direction; tried to answer questions just by overhearing things about the field trip. Yeah, interesting day.
I've decided that in my position as a volunteer coordinator, I'm much more than a volunteer coordinator. Because I'm in the front office where parents see me and ask me questions, I'm expected to know and to be able to answer every little question about programming. I'm supposed to know where "Little Johnny" left his backpack, be able to answer, "Where is Sarah?" or "Where's my teacher?" oh and "I need snack. I didn't get snack." Then there's why so-and-so didn't bring home a field trip permission form (yeah, I made the mistake of taking a phone call today while the receptionist was busy talking to another parent...I got screamed at), the kids expect my office to be a locker for things that they didn't bring in a bag, I manage all of our social media, write press releases, today I was made to join the Utah Dept. of Human Services' Quality Improvement Committee...in which everything was talked about in social work terms...I was constantly looking up abbreviations and definitions. Oh my gosh. I did not know what I was getting myself into as an AmeriCorps VISTA. Yet, I love it. Odd, eh? Basically, if I don't get the Director of Operations position, the person they hire must be INCREDIBLY AWESOME at everything he or she does because hell, I do quite a lot at the club for only making $5.55 an hour on my VISTA living stipend.
1 comment:
Hi :) My name is Tracie and I just accepted a Grant Writer/Fundraiser position at the Brain Injury Association of Utah (Salt Lake) through AmeriCorps Vista. I found your blog while searching the web for stuff relating to Vista (I haven't gotten my paperwork yet so I don't know a lot about the program). I see from your blog that you've worked in Vista for a while...I was wondering if maybe we could talk :)
My email is tracie.mcfarlin@gmail.com.
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