Building a Strong Staff Community
Letter to Potential High School Counselors:
We believe that the High School program at Gathering is a transformative experience for many staff and participants. We also recognize that past staff members have experienced years where there were unmet needs, fraction within community, loss of trust, burn-out, and differing expectations (of ourselves as individuals, the staff team, the program, and participants’ abilities). As a result, the coordinators have met regularly with a small working group during the fall of 2007 to try to identify the root causes of these issues, to envision what a stronger staff community and program could look like, and how we might facilitate change toward that vision. The following are fruits of this labor.
Our vision is to create a spiritually grounded community of staff members that
- fosters trust
- shares a common vision of expectations
- invites understanding of others’ gifts, strengths, limits, and challenges
- provides a safe space for dissention by caring for each other through our differences
- not only works together, but plays together
- provides opportunities to learn about each other
- provides a space for the communication and acknowledgement of needs, both individual and corporate
This list is not exhaustive, but is rather the beginning of a vision which we hope to develop as a staff through the coming year and beyond. The first steps which we have identified toward realizing these goals are as follows:
Before Gathering
- Conducting phone interviews during parts of the recruiting process with focus both on interviewing the applicant and the applicant interviewing the coordinators/program – the goal is a meeting of the minds when it comes to expectations
- Creating a formal buddy system which would begin before Gathering, between staff, both new and old
- Having most logistical/administrative work completed before Gathering
- Creating space for and inviting dialogue between staff prior to Gathering (beyond logistics)
During Staff Orientation/During Gathering
- Having non-staff administrative support (via a new work grant) during staff orientation & during staff meetings each morning
- Holding meeting for worship and worship sharing together (as a High School Staff) during orientation & continuing throughout the week
- Lots more play and hang out time during staff orientation
- Having discussion surrounding needs – what are our needs, collectively & individually, & what needs can actually be met
- Making scheduled space for staff support group time during the week
We are excited about the work we’ve done so far and are looking forward to collaborating with a group of F(f)riends who are also excited about cultivating this vision.
In service,
Cari Burke and Andrew Esser-Haines
2008 High School Gathering Coordinators
