Well, it’s my last day working here at Community Solutions
before I start school again in a week. We all spent lunch together at the Wind’s
downtown and exchanged cards and gifts good-bye. It’s hard for me to say good-bye
to people and an organization that have truly shaped me and influenced how I
see the world. Yet, I know it’s not really the end of my time with them. I will
be visiting the office to catch up and say hello. Hopefully I will come back
and put in more work into the garden and see it through to its completion. I
will likely continue attending energy board meetings and Community Solutions
film screenings. No, it is certainly not the end of my time with Community
Solutions; I’ll be coming around often even if it is just to say hello, catch
up about classes and their film projects, and putter around in the garden.
My final month has included several projects. The procedures
manual has been in constant work. I have been searching for Film Festivals and
applying to the ones we qualify for. These last two weeks I have been training
the next Office Manager, John, who will cover my position until a full time
office manager starts working. It’s surprising how much fun we’ve had learning
and teaching the ins and outs of the position. He has learned oh-so-quickly and
I feel quite confident that the office will be well taken care of while Jeanna
and I are gone. He has also offered to give the Procedures Manual a test run
and has used it to help complete some of his tasks. With this, we have found
areas that need work. Although this was a disappointment, I’m glad we ran
across the missing pieces before I left. This past week, we have also met with
some folks from Antioch to discuss
how Community Solutions and Antioch
could work together. This is exciting to me because both are so dear to my
heart and are doing such valuable things. There is an awful lot of potential in
that relationship. Lastly, Faith and I have been working in the garden every
few days this month and Faith has been sharing her usual gardening wisdom with
me while we work. We have put up trellises for the tomatoes, mulched, pruned
plants, and planted potatoes, amongst some other things.
This co-op has been challenging for me because of the office
setting. Yet the challenge has served as a valuable learning opportunity. The
difficulty is in my resistance to working in an office, and having to face my
undeveloped ‘office’ skills. To be completely honest, I have had to battle that
side of me most days at work. Sitting in an office for several hours makes me
antsy. Organizational skills and attention to details are far from my natural
strengths. Yet I definitely see the value in offices and office work, and a lot
of incredible work comes out of this office--so if I could chose an office to
work in, I’m glad I was able to work in this one. But I still have those sides
of me that are uncomfortable around an office and the tasks it entails, so I
had to learn to get past this and let myself grow. With time, growth happened. It
was good for me to look at my weaknesses in the face every day and force those
weaker areas to develop. With trial and error and counsel from everyone working
in the office, I began developing new ways of approaching the things that I
naturally struggle with. I grew a lot this past quarter. I have developed more
organizational skills through the tasks and office organization I was assigned.
I have also become more time conscious and time efficient, thanks to Pat’s good
advice. And I have become more comfortable in an office environment in general.
Those are only a few examples of the many things I learned this quarter. And I
was able to grow more because I was lucky enough to work with caring
individuals who were gracious and helpful despite my inherent difficulties in
an office setting. That made a huge difference.
I know I am leaving Community Solutions in an exciting
place. They are at the brink of finishing the Passive House film. The Electric
Vehicle film is well under way. The garden is in full bloom. There is an
excellent new Office Manager in my place for the time being. And a relationship
with Antioch is in development. Not
only that, but the bright minds at work at Community Solutions are always at
work creating powerful ideas and plans. It has been a blessing to be a part of
their work for the time I have been there and to contribute to what they offer.
I am excited to see what the organization will do next, as I am sure it will be
a hopeful and creative step toward a solution to the climate change and
inequity problems at work in the world. I don’t know how to thank you,
Community Solutions, for the amazing opportunities you have provided me and the
invaluable counsel you have made available to me. I hope to somehow give back
all you have given me in the way I live my life, and applying what I have
learned to the direction I choose to take.
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