Volunteering? Not with First Night Alexandria

Hey, looking for something to do on New Year’s Eve? Don’t go to the First Night Alexandria events. Seriously.
I’ve volunteered for them in the past and had signed up this year to do so until an issue with a promotional event made it clear the concerns of the volunteers (who staff the event) are irrelevant to them.

Not only did I go out to volunteer in a promotional event in the crappiest day of the year (yeah, you remember when it was snowing and crapping ice and rain all day), but to no avail. Drove around up and down the street looking for the volunteers (because they weren’t where they said with said banner and balloons) and calling, leaving a message and getting no response for half an hour before giving up. Two days later, still no reponse, so I e-mailed asking what happened.

Then it gets interesting. First it’s, “Oh, the event happened. Didn’t you see us?” And the classic passing the buck “I wasn’t the coordinator for this event.”
Hmm…. You’re the only contact on the e-mail. You’re also the Volunteer Coordinator. The e-mail for the event had your name on it and was sent from you. So who’s the coordinator?
So I requested, again, restating my issues with the event organization and a clarification of what happened, an answer from someone who was in charge of the event.
And the final response I get from the “Volunteer Coordinator” is a “sorry you feel that way” and “oh, I guess you don’t want to do this”. Gee, great coordination there. Oh, and thanks for getting back to me oh so quickly. Taking a week to respond to a volunteer’s complaint and then summary booting her is going to be great PR for your organization.

How about a “sorry, we made an organizing mistake”?? Or stating anything that actually takes responsibility. None of that actually is in any of the e-mails, which you can see here.

The e-mail I sent to the Events Coordinator is posted below. Her response will be posted tomorrow.

———————————————–
Ms. Dorman,

As a recent press release for FNA states that you are in charge of coordinating the events for FNA, I wanted to bring to your attention a concern regarding the Volunteer Coordinator that has resulted in the discontinuation of my involvement with these events. My goal in notifying you is to ensure that this feedback is known to others within the organization and addressed to ensure that other current or potential volunteers are not treated in the same manner.

I recently volunteered to promote First Night at the Scottish Walk event on Dec. 5. This was an event for which the First Night volunteer coordinator, Lauren Smith , only solicited for volunteers the day prior to the event. The email that Lauren sent stated a specific meeting time and place for the volunteers and indicated that she was the contact person. Regardless of the short notice, I responded that I would be able to help and received a confirmation from Lauren. When I arrived at the designated time and place, there were no banners or other First Night volunteers, as expected per the email. After calling Lauren several times and leaving messages, I attempted to locate the group on my own but to no avail. My voicemail messages were not returned. I contacted Lauren via email to find out what happened and why my calls were not returned. She responded that she simply did not hear her phone at the time and was not responsible for coordination of the volunteers at the Dec. 5 event. The latter excuse is contradicted by her own email which stated that she was the person to call if there were any questions, and no other First Night representatives were cited as contact people in the email requesting volunteers. Her response to my subsequent comment stating my disappointment and wariness of volunteering with First Night in the future prompted no apology or even attempt to acknowledge or address the underlying lack of accountability. Lauren’s response effectively indicated that my time (or even paid attendance) at First Night events was no longer welcome. Included below is the email chain showing the correspondence between Lauren and me.

While I hope that my experience was an isolated incident, I believe that First Night can address these concerns simply by holding volunteer coordinators responsible for their performance, ensuring that those coordinators understand their responsibilities for the event (i.e. if they are the stated point of contact, then they are responsible for being available via cell phone or otherwise to handle questions from volunteers), and soliciting and monitoring feedback from volunteers on both positives and negatives of First Night events that could help to improve the volunteer experience at future events.

In the past, I actively recruited friends and family to volunteer and attend First Night events with me. However, this recent experience has changed my view. I am highly disappointed that my desire to volunteer was met with such a clear disregard and lack of appreciation. I hope that as an organization that relies heavily on volunteers, you will seriously consider these suggestions to hold Lauren and others who coordinate First Night events accountable. Their performance and professionalism (or lack thereof) reflects directly on the organization.

Please feel free to forward this e-mail to other appropriate organizers or Directors of FNA.

Sincerely,
BJL

3 Months and counting…

…in adjudication. Today (Dec 11th) is the three month mark in adjudication purgatory (as the listserv likes to call it). So I called DipSec today, and they sent an e-mail to the case adjudicator asking for an update. I’m supposed to call back next week to see if there’s any new information. [sigh]

End of wedding season ‘09

A teacher of mine once told me that you go through periods in your life; weddings, kids, divorce, and death.
Apparently, my friends and I are in the “wedding” period of our lives. It kicked off last year, though I missed them all due to being in Korea. It’s continuing though this year and on to 2010, with several “save the dates” already sent out. Interestingly, more of the high school classmates got married much earlier- early twenties, rather around 30.

I’m happy for my friends, and it’s great to be able to celebrate their nuptials. They do seem to come in a flood, though. From May to October 2009, a friend of mine (or two!) were getting married per month, with the exception of June (which was good b/c of the OA).

Just another step in our lives. It does make me wonder how my relationships with my friends will evolve through our thirties, when we are going full steam ahead in our careers and have become more settled (or unsettled). Who will be the first to have a mid-life crisis? Hah!

Circling about is amusing

I used to be on the debate team in high school. In fact, the public high school I attended was well know on the national level for policy (team) debate, and my partners and I did quite well. (It also probably helped me get into college, but that’s another story or another time.)

A big part of policy debate was to have evidence to back up whatever argument or counterargument you were laying out (at an extremely rapid clip). So I and the other members of my high school debate team would spend many hours every week digging around, clipping and preparing evidence sheets for any and every argument we could think of that may have some tenuous connection to that year’s topic.
We always found a tie in to some apocalyptic scenario for every topic; don’t you see that changing the juvenile crime policy in the United States will cause a global nuclear disaster? Yes, seriously, totally.

Now, however many years later, in those same policy journals we read and clipped for evidence, I’m beginning to see some familiar names. Some of my fellow debaters are now publishing the articles in journals we used for sources way back when, and that the high school policy debaters are now cutting. How funny is that? Don’t know about you, but it definitely brought a smile to my face.

The two week update: This time, the phone call

It’s time for the two week update on my adjudication status. I decided to liven things up by *gasp* a phone call instead of e-mail. (seriously, it was a bit of a letdown).

Yep. No difference. Still in adjudication. This time, they told me that my file was going to be at least 30 days in adjudication. Which, doesn’t really help me, as we’re past the 2 month mark now. However, when I told them that I was told in October that the adjudication would be completed by early November, they were very confused why I was told that.

Ah well. Next update, right before Thanksgiving.

Two week update…

No change. Blah…

Glimmer, my ass. It’s the long haul.

So, back about a month ago, I had a lovely of hope that I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for my clearances, and yeah… that’s been squashed like a bug. It’s one month later and I’m still in adjudication. Classes are set for the year, and the next training class is the first week of January. Those invites go out early-mid November. Time’s ticking…

But, I’m keeping busy. The editing, of course, and the random assortment of hobbies. Trying to kayaking a couple more times before the boathouses close at the end of the month, and there’s always the RenFaire, which also ends this month. And I’ve started Russian classes yesterday (Oct 13) at the Russian Cultural Center in DC. Twice a week, two hours each session, for six weeks. Nominal cost, $80 for registration and book fees. Not bad.

More waiting…

Talking to the FS registrar’s office today, I found out that a) my clearances are still incomplete, and b) all the October invites have been sent. On the upside, my score is apparently good enough to get into the Jan or Feb classes, assuming my clearances are in.

A glimmer of hope

After hearing for about a month that my clearance status was “pending”, I called for my 7-10 day check up on Friday to hear that it’s now in adjudication, which is the last stage of the security clearance process. After this, I’ve got the Final Suitability Review before the roster. Not sure if I’ll make the 149th training class (October), but I do have a glimmer of hope, as the 149th hasn’t been filled yet.

It’s hard to not get a bit frustrated, but I know that this process is going lightning fast in comparison to some of my friends. Their clearance process took much longer, over a year in some cases.

Crossing my fingers. Next call time is the 21st.

The fly

By mistake, I knocked over a piece of pottery onto a glass mug and the mug broke. This is one of those “commemorative” mugs you get when you go somewhere and attend some event. However, this one has some history.
I got this mug, from a friend, when we attended an event together. But the circumstances surrounding the event ended badly, and I kept it (though tempted to break it) in anger as a reminder. As the years passed on, the wounds of the broken friendship began to heal, and I began to forgive. Because I missed my friend, and had valued the conversations and insight our friendship had provided.

We began to communicate again, and it appeared that things were progressing to a point where maybe, just maybe, I could consider us friends once again.
But that was a false hope, as communication became more and more one-sided and I got frustrated at the 180 turn about, once again. I stated plainly that I was tired of the lopsidedness and walked away.

So I look at this glass mug, which traveled across time zones and states, to meet an ignoble end at the butt of a 7th grade pottery piece, falling on it as I tried to smack a fly. And I see the physical embodiment of the end a friendship, which, like the mug, met an ignoble end.

I do not regret the friendship. It was full of ups and downs; I learned a lot about people, how I interact with them, and some very valuable lessons about interpersonal relationships.

However, even optimists eventually see the writing on the wall. We just try a couple extra times before doing so. C’est la vie.