First, some pictures for your enjoyment.
Okay, on to non-picture-taking activities!
One of the difficulties of working at the VNCOC is my lack of Vietnamese fluency. I feel hindered when I can't find the right words or sentence structure to articulate exactly what I mean. It's frustrating but definitely motivation for me to be more intentional with practicing Vietnamese. Today I've been tasked with calling a group of our seniors and surveying them. Obviously it will have to be done in Vietnamese. I'm looking forward to confusing the seniors with my funky Vietnamese....
Another thing I've been struggling a little with is the difference in organizational culture between the VNCOC and Greater Spokane Incorporated, where I interned for the past school year. VNCOC is much more informal and less structured, yet there are some very inherent social hierarchies. Or maybe I'm just internalizing the Vietnamese social hierarchies that I've been taught since I was a little girl. I sometimes feel like I'm not quite on the same level as the other employees/volunteers of the organization because I'm young and female. And yet our CEO and our operations manager are both female and fairly young, so I do feel some comfort and reassurance there.
What I love about non-for-profit organizations is also what I hate: lack of rigid structure, flexibility and dynamic days can also mean disorganization, chaos, too much ambiguity, lack of anonymity with complaints/disputes, etc. I've mostly been working without supervision, which is great but I do kind of miss having my boss just a cubicle wall away like when I was at GSI. Reimar suggested I add some structure to check-in's by asking for a daily or weekly check-up with the bossladies. I like that idea but I think I'll make it a more casual stop-by-her-office type thing.
Anyway, outside of VNCOC work, the past couple days with LEAP have been busy but a great blessing. I am incredibly appreciative of all the networking opportunities I've had over the past couple of days. I definitely reminded myself to use John Kobara's tips on networking and introductions. What was surprising was that it felt quite natural to mingle and talk with strangers (some with very high profiles.) From executive directors of well-respected and nationally-recognized not-for-profit organizations, to senior-level managers of large corporations--I met them all and for the most part felt at ease. I think part of me just told myself not to be afraid and to see myself as being an equal in worth and standing. That dissolved a lot of nervousness and potential awkwardness.
Anyway, as of now I am about 90% done with the VNCOC website and just waiting to get the FTP information to put it all up. I've been working on some brochures for them also and those should get the final seal of approval tomorrow at their board meeting. Other things... hmm, oh, as soon as I get the website done I'm going to focus my energy on helping them plan a fundraising gala and putting together a potential mentorship program.
Also... I would like to declare my love for my LIA intern group, LEAP, LEAP's King's Hawaiian goodies-donating volunteers, and the freaking awesome BBQ food that was at THE PARTY (tnkat.org).
Peace,
Vi
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