The only reason I’m thinking we need to be a group/comittee and not a SIG is that way we aren’t taking forever to implement things because it’s a two layer vote, or at the mercy of a split budget. As a standalone it would be so much easier for the board to adjust stipends as we went later on too. I also see PR being more about outside marketing with this being internal.
I’m glad you’re helping do the proposal. I’m all in on this but noob to agenda items haha.
I did give a lot of tours back in the day (I’ve tried to start up again so that we can grow the membership numbers) and have had random people on the street stop and recognize me from those tours.
I used to be of this general opinion (only teach one class for payment) but the more I’ve thought about it, it’s an issue of the number of people willing to teach the class. If we have only a few (say 3) teachers that are qualified AND willing to teach a class (just going to pick sewing) and there are only 5 slots available, then you’re only going to ever get 15 people a month that can get cleared on the sewing machines. This becomes an issue for member retention.
I am financially well off enough that back when I was teaching more classes, I would request honorarium for the first one every month, to ‘pay my membership’ then do the rest for no honorarium. That said, there wasn’t a huge backlog of people that couldn’t get into my classes and were hence dropping their memberships.
One piece of the puzzle that is confusing to me is: Since we now, no longer have a huge backlog of Woodshop attendees, why has the churn rate not slowed? We were being told that was why people were dropping out, but that may have been incorrect information.
I AM still of the opinion that we need to take a considerably harder look at what qualifies for honorarium.
Back on topic here - One concern is the people like myself: Splitting the difference. If I teach only honorarium classes, should I be ‘honored’ with a parking spot or dinner or whatever? If I teach half and half do I get half a slice of pizza? I VERY much like the teacher wall. Every FREE class gets you a gold star or whatever. Make a nice big display in the lobby honoring those who put the time back into teaching classes. This does leave out those who are volunteering behind the scenes (BOD, Chairs, etc) but that’s not the problem that we’re trying to solve currently.
I have seen where people laser pies and sausages. Don’t tempt me to propose our first volunteer spirit award be a personalized Ballpark weenie. I’ll do it.
I have seen you reference this twice now, what is the O&D team?
In this context of encouraging more volunteer teachers I’d say your honorarium is your “parking spot” recognition.
If you did a split…say 2 classes for honorarium and 4 for none then you’d get volunteer credit for the 4 you didn’t take it on. I’d even say if we adopt the Harry Potter house system you could pick where to apply your 4 free classes. Do you want them to go to your comittee points and try to win the whole comittee a pizza party or just cash in your ticket to the shindig?
I don’t think encouraging volunteer teachers should be the only job of this committee. I honestly think that is a big piece of it, but inspiring and recognizing volunteering in general should be the goal.
Incidentally that is part of why I’m digging a house system. Behind the scenes sweepers, chairs, etc. are still contributing and it’s not hard to turn a thrift shop find trophy into an obnoxious talisman that comittees can compete for on a regular basis. I’ve seen teachers do some truly insane things so the Math Department can keep the stuffed eagle another month.
Using a ‘points system’ for free taught classes is a good idea. Gamification is a huge driver for some.
2 issues for parking spots are that 1) Parking is already a tight squeeze 2) what do we do when someone parks there out of turn. Are we really going to tow someone because they took a teacher’s spot?
I would not say we tow anyone, but I would say serious public shaming is appropriate. I don’t think parking is a tight squeeze anymore since expansion.
Not saying this is a must have idea, but let’s keep this to brainstorming where we are positive and think of ways to make things work instead of latching on one idea and showing why it won’t work.
I love the gamification idea. I think that would be something we can discuss in depth during a committee meeting if we get this initiative moving.
excellent post. thank you.
yes. rather than wordsmithing the problem it this should be explicitly addressed as stated. If the answer is to say “your services are not needed in that case” then fine, but let’s get it out there. In short HONORARIUM is dead. Lets address payment in an open and honest manner. Good Luck. cheers!
‘Officers & Directors’
‘300 honorarium-eligible classes per month’ (should the latest iteration of the program be ratified, and it’s looking pretty good right now) is not what I would call a ‘dead’ program.
We absolutely do want to continue to recognize and thank our teachers as much as our financial circumstances allow, and the new honorarium program will allow DMS to do that. In addition, the great ideas emanating from this Thread will hopefully yield even more recognition, honor and tribute to our various volunteers at DMS.
I look forward to seeing what is birthed from this endeavor. Again, it’s an exciting concept and I hope everyone gets behind it.
Agreed. Public shaming…and parking being tight is exactly what would make it a prime motivator
How do you keep track of who does what? Do people need to submit a list of their volunteerisms? Is it based off of nominations from others?
In large groups where people don’t always know everyone it could be a challenge to truly know what all is done by whom.
We will work out logistics. It won’t be perfect at first, but we will get better as we go. We can work with technology to identify teachers, we can work with committee chairs to get nominations of volunteers, and we can have online and in person drop boxes to nominate and recognize volunteers.
My understanding is that this would be based around CLASSES only. The extra volunteers (chairs, SIG leaders, etc) are partly in their respective roles because they are very much so desiring to have some form of control over the running of those areas. We generally don’t have a huge problem finding someone to be a chair.
Recognizing volunteer teachers may be our most important initial goal, but recognizing volunteerism around the space as a whole should be part of this. Many people don’t want to or can’t teach, but they can help in numerous other ways, and we want to encourage them to help and recognize that help.
I agree in principal, but also think that we need to solve the bigger problem of classes first and wouldn’t want to let the perfect get in the way of the good.
