I love watching these relationships grow, how our captains have grown to be such great friends!
Years ago, we had a handful of burnt out volunteers that would put in their time out of sheer dedication, little direction offered to them, compelled to help out the desperate needs of the event. You all out there know who you are and God bless you for that.
At the finalization of the 2006 Guinness Event, it was brought to my attention that we needed to offer better direction for the volunteers. This was my first year in the drivers seat, so I was unclear how to properly manage a rapidly growing event. It was Nadine and I that scrambled for 2 years without support before we received direction from a few select folks from the foundations that specialized in the area of event management. As much as I hated working with an executive committee, I learned a lot over the past 2 1/2 years. What we have now developed is a healthier combination of grassroots Tammy vision and corporate play by the rules. By nature, this chic is a rule breaker, so I have made impressive progress.
In 2007 Nadine and I spent 2 solid months of developing the volunteer binder consisting of a detailed description of each task that we could think of. We were the coordinators and the managers of all areas until 2008 debrief where is was realized that we had higher needs for the event and Tammy could not manage all event items, so my Mom (Colleen / Nana) stepped in only months after the sudden disintegration of her marriage. I guess this was a healthy distraction because Mom was an amazing coordinator! She worked well with Nadine and I to eventually take over the reins and our volunteers LOVED her.
After the debrief in 08, we realized we required a coordinator that had the computer skills to place our folks into a data base so we could keep a more efficient track of them (as opposed to Mom, Nadine and myself personally calling everyone). Mom was now employed and no longer free to offer her time in the winter to do this for us, so Shelly B took the reins.
Over the fall, I revamped the manual again to include more positions, yet assigned captains to overlook all of these specific areas was still vague.
Selecting captains for each area was progressive, as each person I chose was based on their ethics, reliability, dedication, purity of heart, and knowledge of the event.
Nicki was chosen for the position this year to assist me in the managing of our friendly little monster based on these qualities.
Tyler last year, well what can I say - I just lucked out. Didn't know him when he applied but my gut yelled yes! The man has ethics oozing out of him and now works full time for Stollery.
It is of great importance to me that those I work closely with reflect these qualities because Nadine sure did and I was not prepared to settle.
As I sat in the room with our captains, I realized that we are truly a family. All of them have displayed a level of ownership in this event which means they have invested.
Unlike other situations in past (which I wont mention), hidden agendas to claim control and steal thunder have created a virus within the group and eventually get squeezed out.
Like attracts like and I am a firm believer that collectively, it is our awesome group that makes the dynamics and personality of this event.
The last item I will add is this. To clear up any misconceptions about the roles and responsibilities of a driven Mom (think I'll soon change to Diva), my role is everything (except tax receipting and data entry). Event planning is my forte, money counting and inventory is not. Even the vision - not mine, all divine. Everything that I knew would be beneficial and unique to implementing to the event, I saw before it ever happened. As I said not mine. Combine past creation (Gord's) with my divine and brilliant ideas of others, this is called success!
Thank you to my wonderful captains that have contributed to the fine tuning of the Hair Massacure! This would not be possible.
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