6/26/16

Dear friends,

Constantine Faller, Athens’ Own IC/Liaison recently invited me (Kathy Jacobson, Broadwell Hill IC/Liaison) to serve again as a collaborative mentor within the Athens’ Own Internship Program.

Halley Davidson joined the Athens’ Own team in May, 2016 and began working as an intern in the Athens’ Own home office located within the Broadwell Hill Off-Grid Learning Center.  My office is also located on ‘the hill’ so this arrangement provided me with  the opportunity to spend time with her while also interacting as one of Athens’ Own collaborative business partners.

Athens’ Own is a business network and a family of diverse individuals working toward similar goals in a collaborative fashion.  Many employers are reporting great difficulty finding people with solid work ethics and skills.  The Athens’ Own Resilience Worker Certificate Program addresses this need within the American workforce and helps prepare individuals for success in the working world.  Individuals who successfully complete the program are awarded a certificate with employment assistance via the diverse business network, including other American Sustainable Business Council members.

I mention this because Athens’ Own also provides its interns with opportunities to interact with other collaborative business partners, such as myself, as a way to deepen their collaborative Athens Community experience while identifying strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for employment skill development.

My experiences with Halley have been most enjoyable and productive.  The resilience worker mentorship involves on-the-job training and feedback per the resilience worker criteria chart; Halley has scored very highly in many of the worker readiness categories.  Plus,  I have greatly enjoyed her company, our diverse conversations and her help with farm chores.  Her desire to learn about forest stewardship and the diversified farm ventures have brought great joy to my heart.

My role as a resilience worker mentor helped establish a relationship while setting the stage for  role as the mentor regarding the Intern Log assignments   My experience as a Registered Nurse, grant writer/manager, emergency management planner, etc., certainly provides a foundation in the realms of documentation, communication, teamwork, etc.  But, in order to step into this mentorship position, it needed to orient myself to the Athens’ Own Internship Program.   In Athens’ Own lingo, I had to enter into a phase of research to know what was being asked of me and how I could best help Halley and the broader team.

So, I re-read all the Internship Information, took notes and did my best to winnow the instructions into workable keywords, concepts and goals; keeping in mind that this is a collaborative, co-learning experience to help us all manifest greater compassion, sustainability and resilience.  I created a synopsis, as well as an even briefer checklist, to not only help me stay on an objective track while reviewing Halley’s log entries, but also as a contribution to the whole team effort.  These documents are drafts awaiting further team development.

It takes a community to raise a child.

I am therefore  honored to serve as Halley’s mentor and look forward to our collaborative efforts to further develop the Intern Log component of the Athens’ Own Internship Program, especially since the logs are inherent components within the Athens’ Own marketing strategy.

Thank you.

Please contact me if you have suggestions for improvement and/or any other feedback.

Kind Regards,

Kathy

Kathy Jacobson, RN Transition Midwife

Athens’ Own on Broadwell Hill

RE: DRAFT: Internship Collaborative System Development
From: Kathy Jacobson, Broadwell Hill
To: Constantine, Athens’ Own, Halley, Intern and others interested in the internship program collaborative venture
Date: 6/24/16

Process Description:
Internship Project Collaboration:

• Athens’ Own Internship Program
  • IC/Liaison: Constantine Faller, Athens’ Own
    • Internship Guidance Synopsis

Collaborative Unified Command System:  Broadwell Hill – Athens’ Own

• Broadwell Hill Stewardship
  • IC/Liaison:  Kathy Jacobson, RN Transition Midwife & Forest Farmer

SMART invitation:

• S – specific
  • collaborative co-learning process experience via Athens’ Own Internship program
  • review Intern Log and provide feedback
• M – measurable
  • feedback will be posted within the on-line Internship Communication Hub
    • collaborative web site architecture –  draft submission
    • review of guidance documents, development of synopsis and system check-list for all team members  – draft submission
• A – attainable
  • personal passion, skill and available resources:   weak link – time availability
    • wearing too many hats within the BWH ICS system; need to expand ICS – team member delegation
    • need to improve writing efficiency and skill; scale back writing time to increase efficiency with time management, maximized effort
• R – relates  (personal, business, collaborative goals; is it a win-win, mutually beneficial opportunity?)
  • personal practice, continual improvement processes, life-long learning, co-learning community
  • professional RN assessment and life coach services, health & well-being basic need sector group
  • shared visions, goals, ventures toward sustainable systems of preparedness, mitigation, response and resilience
  • Internships: shared interests in collaboration, systems development/precautionary principle, communication, Holistic Management decision-making/seven generation stewardship, ICS/UCS team management system, focus educational co-learning outreach to help address needs, develop skills, enhance the collaborative conduits for the local town-gown flow while also conveying information about our autonomous businesses and inter-independent systems of collaboration.
  • fulfills both of our desired quality of life goals, heart of service:  assisting our younger collaborative partners, future generations and maximizing our adaptive abilities to numerous high risk, high likelihood risks.
• T- time
  • 24 hour turn around upon receipt of documents
    • but documents not received via email
  • self motivated direction: access on-line documents, participate in conversation
  • self motivated direction:expand assignment to include homework and systems building:
    • review of all the Internship guidance materials
    • synopsis
    • checklist
    • collaboration hub
  • feeling stressed but also finding the effort to be very invigorating and meaningful
  • co-creative process; I hope to have my collaborative contribution in the conduit at the end of the day.
  • Time accounting:
    • 6/24/16 10 hrs
    • 6/25/16  10 hrs

Draft Guidance Document: Intern Log checklist (in-development to be winnowed down, possibly with on-line form and check boxes)

• initial author: kj
  • subsequent revision dates – author
• Target Audience:
  • Athens’ Own decision-making and project development team, including interns and collaborative partners
  • Specifically to help future collaborative mentors
    • Log Checklist, SWOT analysis for review of logs are in process
    • Resilience Worker Readiness program criteria checklist is also in process
    • Printable and On-line forms are in the realm of vision

Remember:

• Interns may be pushing the boundaries of comfort as this is a Resilience Recruit boot camp experience
  • situational co-learning within a new paradigm, new territory for most
  • Fun collaborative learning adventure
    •  Mentors should:
      • input to help meet the needs of the intern
      • fun, positive, goal-oriented, self-improvement processes, win-win
      • learn to learn within a continuous improvement feedback loop
      • Provide objective feedback related to key concepts inclusion – checklist, criteria
      • Provide subjective feedback related to personal interpretations of concepts and suggested improvements
        • SWOT analysis format in process

A log entry does not have to include all of the following, just note which ones jump out at you from the document.

• Does the log entry address any of the following:
  • Title
  • Date, author
    • improvement?  hot link to personal info page – bio, cover, resume, holistic goal?
  • link with incident command management system
  • clear assignment  (SMART format)
  • target audience
    • Supervisor, Mentors, Cohorts/peers, collaborative partners, interested individuals?
  • big picture of activities and linkages
  • connectedness:
  • how it relates to personal life, academic, career goals?
  • how it relates to learning objectives?
  • how it relates to win-win, mutually beneficial collaboration with Athens’ Own?
  • how it helps answer “what does Athens’ Own do?”
  • does it include information that should go into FAQ?
  • does it offer helpful info for collaborative partners around the globe?
  • writing skills
  • spelling & grammar
  • thought development
  • organization
  • motivation
  • timeliness
• misc. concepts as touched upon in the Guidance documents:
  • Here is what I know, here is what I can do, and I want to learn more. How can I help?
  • Learning Journey – be present every day, every task
    • life-long learning
    • desire to learn
    • openness
    • questions
  • active participation
  • enthusiasm
  • Teamwork
  • Collaborative Culture
  • Community Building & Networking
  • Sustainability
  • Resilience
  • Skill development
    • overlap with holistic goal, academic, career goals, etc.
  • processes & systems
    • Holistic Management
    • Incident Command System
  • Resilience Recruit
    • positive adaptation to perceived adversity
    • adaptation strategies & tactics
    • initiative (self-motivated, self-directed)
    • take notes
    • ask questions
  • Historical and Reference documents

   

  • Athens’ Own Motto: Vision, Act on Your Vision, Network Your Actions
  • Athens’ Own Vision re: educational internship program
    • collaborative, win-win, mutually beneficial
    • address gaps / weak links
    • increase understanding of sustainability / resilience
    • situational learning
  • Athens’ Own Resilience Worker Readiness Certificate
    • affirmation and reference: employee is the best of the best; can keep up with a modern business’s innovation, ideas, and creativity

   

Summary of points identified:

• About US & faq
  • … help you evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses
  • … assign you tasks to help you improve areas
  • … real-world business and resilience skills
    • …  finances, DIY/repairs, communications, computer/ web skills, and much more.