Coffee With Polly

Location: Argo Tea

Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013; 6:30-7:30 pm

At my very first One Brick project, I had mentioned to the EM Laura that I would be interested in assuming leadership responsibilities.  Well, now was the opportunity through this recruitment event.  Polly, who is the One Brick Chapter Director for Chicago and who leads the Leadership Training and Recruitment program, was going to meet with a group who had exhibited interest in leading.  She asked us to pick a location, either in the Loop or River North, and through majority it was decided that we would be meeting in the Loop at Argo Tea.  So we would be doing an event called ‘Coffee With Polly’ at ‘Argo Tea’.  Anyone else see the irony here?  Bueller…Bueller!

The One Brick path to glory

There was a Cuban Themed Patio Party in my building, which I had given up to be at this meeting.  So I was hoping that this would be a good investment of my time.  There were about 5 of us besides Polly who had come and as is often the case with One Brick projects, there were a few no shows.  Polly started by thanking us for stepping up and then showed us the structure of One Brick organization.  Being completely volunteer run, it was quite basic where one could choose two paths to eventually be on the 'Chapter Exec Team' if they so wished.  One of the paths was to start off as an ‘Event Coordinator’ or EC and then proceeding to become a ‘Event Manager’ or EM.  The other path was through participating in various Committees and eventually leading them.  The various committees’ roles are: ‘Scheduling Volunteer Events’, where one has to work on the logistics with the requesting organization and then assigning EMs and ECs; ‘Recruitment and Training’, which is what we were currently doing; ‘Finance’, which deals with budget and fundraising; ‘Special Events’, such as organizing Happy Hours and Scavenger Hunts; ‘Funshine’, which helps with events such as EM/EC Appreciation parties and finally, ‘Communication’, which is preparing and sending Newsletter as well as all sorts of Social Media updates.  However, all of us were here to start off as ECs.

The main role of an EC is to assist an EM during a project.  It starts by connecting with the EM as soon as they are assigned, and asking if there is anything that they want.  ECs arrive at the event 30 minutes before other volunteers; carrying attendance sheet and name tags and with a post-event socializing place identified.  This place has to not only accommodate the group, but also be comfortable and cost effective, while offering a wide variety of food and beverage options.  During the event, the EC interacts with volunteers and makes sure they are having fun.  The EC takes a lot of pictures for posting on the website and periodically hands out water to the volunteers, especially for projects which are outdoors.  One of the main skills that an EM or an EC needs, is an ability to delegate, since they are there primarily to facilitate the volunteer experience.  Now, delegation is a very important part of corporate life and I personally would not promote anyone to a managerial role unless they knew how to delegate.  But there is a fine line between delegation and washing your hands off the responsibility completely and I have seen several disinterested looking EM and ECs at One Brick events.  They do not set a good example because people have an inherent need to be led, and leadership by definition is being at the forefront. 

Next, it was time for questions and there were quite a few.  First topic we dealt with was unruly behavior by a volunteer at the site.  Now, this doesn't mean that people get into fights, but rather someone who does not follow instructions about not drinking while on duty, as well as men making women uncomfortable through unwanted attention.  Polly mentioned that this is where EM and ECs would need to step in and ask the volunteer to either refrain or leave.  However, it is not that easy to get anyone completely disbarred from a chapter and would require a process to be followed, which includes written complains and testimonials from other volunteers and the organizers.  I asked what should we do if we see that there is work to be done and someone is not pulling their weight.  Polly replied that it was the EMs job to ensure that everyone has something to do and if not, they could send people home early if people wanted to leave. 

EC in training

Prior to acting as an EC, we would all need to get set-up on the One Brick web system and then ‘shadow’ someone at an event - sounds very sinister doesn't it?  I had already done so with Wilson, but told Polly that I could officially shadow an EC during an upcoming event on Sunday.  Finally, before we left Polly mentioned that people were welcome to participate in the various committees and eventually take ownership.  Surprisingly, all of us had different interests, for example one of the attendees Eric, wanted to do Finance, while another one Michelle, wanted to participate in organizing events.  I said that I would like to do Training and Recruitment, which Polly liked since it could eventually help lessen her responsibility in that area.  Michelle is also a leader at Chicago Cares and in fact used to lead the AIC project prior to Wilson.  She currently leads the ‘Read With Me’ at HGS and I said that I was signed-up to participate next month.  We were careful not to discuss too much since Polly views Chicago Cares as competition, though my views on this thought process have been previously discussed.

We left for the day, but there was one last thing that needed to be done before I could participate as an EC – get trained on the web system.  Polly was going to have group training in June, but since I would be unable to attend that, she offered to train me one-on-one and could do so as early as the next day.  On Friday we exchanged a few texts and since her office was in the loop, I could walk over there after work. Upon arrival we sat in her office’s boardroom and she showed me the way we could access the back-end of the system and not only see events that were not listed on public calendar, but also see people who had signed-up for various projects.  We had been told the previous day to not misuse this information.  For example, she said that if someone found me attractive and wanted to ask me out, they should not go creeping and find my contact information.  Obviously I was not the best example since I really would not have a problem with that!  I saw how I could opt-in for an EC role, and while I could do it as many times as I wanted, Shaun who runs scheduling generally gives everyone an equal opportunity.  Finally, she gave me my very own One Brick clip board and sharpie as well as some name tag labels.  I was ready to be an EC.

Later that weekend I updated my public profile and answered some of the questions that were posted; the idea being that everyone gets to know more about the Event Team through this.  As I completed that, I realized that it had been less than 3 months since I had even heard of One Brick and now my profile was on their website.  While not exactly a meteoric rise, I was certainly proud of how far I had come.