minibees: may not work as advertised
Gardening group has recently introduced 'minibees' - ie. miniature working bees. While we have 'permabees' - permaculture working bees - we've intorduced the 'minibees' to develop small community-mindedness and connection. If you have a small job that needs doing with only one or two people then collecting one or two people who'd like to help you out is probably easier than trying to officially gather up to a dozen people to work around your yard.
The downside is that the minibees functionality is new and we're still getting used to it. There's no guarantee that you'll get people - they're usually organised a little off-the-cuff, and although an email goes out to let people know one is happening, people don't always read them and they can get lost really easily in the flow of mail into a modern inbox.
One of our committee put up a minibee about 10 days ago. She's received no interest or response so far. Both she and her friends on the committee are convinced that the reason that there isn't any response to her minibee is because nobody looks at the minibee page. Which is true at one level.
The other thing that makes a minibee effective is having someone whom people want to help. Or having friends who are willing to give up half a day in their own garden to help in yours. I've benefited from one or two friends who were willing to give up a chunk of their day to help me work out how to do tasks that were too big for just me but too small for a full-blown permabee.
Anyway, she wants to put it up as a regular permabee so that more people see it and she can send out the emails. Her position on the committee is 'Gardening Co-Ordinator' and she's the one who usually runs the permabees. She asked for permission from the MC.
I said 'yes' because if it's a matter of visibility, then putting it there might get her more volunteers, but if it's not...at least we closed off that avenue and neither she nor the friend who she complained to - the friend who called me on Sunday night - can complain that 'they're not receiving the emails' and 'nobody can see the minibees, they should be advertised on the front page of the website' with an underlying message of 'and we want you to fix this omission at 9:30pm on a Sunday night'.
Entitlement is not the least of it!
*sigh*
And i'm running for President next year, but without the reassuring confidence of my current VP and Secretary duo, who have been spectacular in leadership this year. One of my friends in the group is running for VP next year, but I don't know about Secretary. I hope someone will, but we're all really busy.
I am entirely too tired today, although it probably helps that I haven't really had lunch. Was planning to cook something, couldn't cope with the thought of cooking, gave up.
Probably should do that now, eh.
The downside is that the minibees functionality is new and we're still getting used to it. There's no guarantee that you'll get people - they're usually organised a little off-the-cuff, and although an email goes out to let people know one is happening, people don't always read them and they can get lost really easily in the flow of mail into a modern inbox.
One of our committee put up a minibee about 10 days ago. She's received no interest or response so far. Both she and her friends on the committee are convinced that the reason that there isn't any response to her minibee is because nobody looks at the minibee page. Which is true at one level.
The other thing that makes a minibee effective is having someone whom people want to help. Or having friends who are willing to give up half a day in their own garden to help in yours. I've benefited from one or two friends who were willing to give up a chunk of their day to help me work out how to do tasks that were too big for just me but too small for a full-blown permabee.
Anyway, she wants to put it up as a regular permabee so that more people see it and she can send out the emails. Her position on the committee is 'Gardening Co-Ordinator' and she's the one who usually runs the permabees. She asked for permission from the MC.
I said 'yes' because if it's a matter of visibility, then putting it there might get her more volunteers, but if it's not...at least we closed off that avenue and neither she nor the friend who she complained to - the friend who called me on Sunday night - can complain that 'they're not receiving the emails' and 'nobody can see the minibees, they should be advertised on the front page of the website' with an underlying message of 'and we want you to fix this omission at 9:30pm on a Sunday night'.
Entitlement is not the least of it!
*sigh*
And i'm running for President next year, but without the reassuring confidence of my current VP and Secretary duo, who have been spectacular in leadership this year. One of my friends in the group is running for VP next year, but I don't know about Secretary. I hope someone will, but we're all really busy.
I am entirely too tired today, although it probably helps that I haven't really had lunch. Was planning to cook something, couldn't cope with the thought of cooking, gave up.
Probably should do that now, eh.