There are two groups of staff at Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland. On one hand, we have the Administrative staff: various executives, officers, and coordinators (and the VISTA team). On the other, we have Program staff: these people work in the Clubhouses and are dedicated to day-to-day delivery of program to all of BGC Portland's kids.
The problem is this: there is a gulf between the two groups. The Admin staff spend most of their time in their offices working to keep the back end of the clubs running. They are not able to spend much, if any, time working with the kids and the Program staff. This is no one's fault: their job is vital to keeping the organization running smoothly and they take it seriously. I know that many of them, myself included, would love to take more time out to spend working directly with the kids. After all, the desire to help kids grow and succeed is the glue that sticks everyone here together.
What isn't apparent to most Admin staff though, is how huge the gulf seems to those on the other side.
The View From the Trenches
To a part-time staff member at BGCP, the Admin staff are so far away as to be almost nonexistent. Each day is consumed by a rush of programming for kids, running programs, and the paperwork necessary to keep the day-to-day running. To most part-timers, "Admin" is a monolithic and inscrutable entity, handing down edicts at semi-random intervals that inevitably make life harder.
Part-time staff understand that people at Admin are working for the best interests of the organization, and they know that they're part of the same team. But when you spend every day scrambling to keep up with your tasks in the hours you have, and it seems like more is being constantly added, it's easy to think that the higher-ups don't really understand what you have to do from day to day.
For any Program staff reading this, here's the good news: Admin cares! The people in the Admin and Program offices work very hard each and every day to make sure the stuff behind the scenes is running smoothly. Moving suddenly to the Admin side of things has been very eye-opening: I've had the opportunity to get to better know all the people over here and what they do. But, it's highlighted the gulf in understanding that exists. And, I've confirmed one fear that people at the program level have:
Admin Staff Have Trouble Knowing What's Happening at the Club Level
It's really hard to truly understand what's going on in the Clubs from day to day without being there. I make a point of talking to the staff at the Meyer Club whenever I can just to see how things are going, and my office is just off of the Games Room, where Club Meeting and many programs take place, so I can hear stuff happening daily. So while I have better opportunities to be plugged-in then an Admin person in our off-site offices, I can vouch for how hard it is to keep up with the realities of what Club staff are facing every day. Another staff member who recently moved from Program to Admin tells me the same thing, and something else: there was an immediate emotional distance between herself and her previous Club. It was as though they felt that once she moved to Admin she stopped pulling for them and wasn't really a part of the team any more.
This isn't a non-issue, either: when we recently met with Club staff to talk about our volunteering program, we had a rude awakening when it comes to how well the Clubs were going to be able to implement our plan. When we spend our time working on the systems of the Club instead of using them, even the best of us will have trouble keeping track of everything that's going on. That's why it's vitally important that we work, hard, to make sure we're doing the best we can to stay in touch.
More Site Visits From Admin Staff Will Make Us Stronger
Communication is one of the areas that BGCP knows it needs to improve in. And one of the ways that we can best foster that environment of strong communication is for people to get to know each other.
If our Admin staff have a chance to visit the Clubs, it can fulfill some important needs. It gives the part-time staff a chance to get to know them, so Admin becomes people instead of a distant, faceless block. It creates more of a sense of belonging, and being part of the same team. And, it lets our Admin people know what it's like out there. You can't design systems in a vacuum, and knowing what our Program staff face every day can only help us to give them what they really need to succeed. It lets Program staff be heard, too: getting to know people makes it easier to tell them what the issues are that you're facing.
Right now, our Admin team visits the Clubs sometimes. These tend to be under three circumstances: when they're on a mission, when they're there on a scheduled visit, or to help with a special event. The problem is, these visits don't really fulfill the needs we're talking about. Scheduled visits are supposed to, but what I hear from Program staff is that many Admin people find themselves an office at the Club and do their normal work from there. On missions, Admin staff tend to have a very narrow focus, and special events are never a good example of what the Club is normally like. Our Admin staff need to take the time to really engage with the staff at the Clubs and sit in on programs to see what's happening.
We have an opportunity to improve the morale of our staff on the ground and, in turn, the experience of the kids who count on us every day. We have an opportunity to be more transparent, communicate better, and work more closely as a team. Yes, it will take more time, and time is at a premium. But we owe it to ourselves as an organization to really take the steps to close the divide between Admin and Program, and this is a vitally important step.
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