My Other Job

I belong to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) http://www.naswdc.org/.  When I joined the local leadership was tightly held, almost secretive and closed.  I was not happy about this, and because of my angry comments, I was included in the leadership circle. I started trying to work for the local branch, including trying to do recruiting activities. 

But, then, I got on the committee that produced the yearly workshop.  That was a niche I really liked.  I have been engaged in that activity since the early 1990's. I have seen this committee morph over the years: We did workshops with other agencies in town. We did workshops with a large committee doing the planning . We did workshops with two or three of us doing the planning.

The last few years, two of us have done most of the work, except for contacting the speakers and getting their presentations approved. I have even helped with that, but only by default.

Some 10 or so years ago, I took over the job of sending out the monthly meeting announcements.  These have morphed, over the years from a newsletter (before my tenure), to a postcard. I told the steering committee I could do the postcards, and not need labels, but print the addresses on the postcards. From their we started collecting emails and have converted to sending out emails about our meetings to those for whom we have emails addresses.

And from our monthly meetings, and annual workshops, we have collected email addresses, and added those to our email list.  I now have an email list for members, non-members, and other interested professionals (marketers, non-social workers) depending upon what the message is. 

We send out monthly meeting announcements, job openings, community resource information, and requests for help for clients by email.  Usually, we do not send out political information, and marketing or fundraiser information.  If something is questionable, I consult the steering committee, people who are thoughtful about what we should send out and how I should use my time. If there is a request from an NASW member outside of the usual, the steering committee helps to determine the appropriateness of the request.

I also review the licensure list once a year to find new names for our mailing list, for our annual workshop.

Keeping up with the email addresses, and mailing addresses of people is a lot of work.  I do "group emails" sent bcc.  Many get returned, sometimes because they are treated as SPAM, sometimes because I have entered the email incorrectly, sometimes because people change their emails.  I tell new members to the list  to add the email address I use for NASW: naswlbbnews@suddenlink.net to their contact list, so the group emails are not treated as SPAM. I try to keep up with who is being added and removed from the email list. Recently, my email provider has started suspending my email account, if I get too many returns, so I have to edit those right away.

This is all very time consuming. Added to that, I try to make sure that not only the people for whom we do not have emails are on the snail mail mailing list, and anyone for whom we do not have a valid email is also on the mailing list.

For most of the year, this takes a few hours every month. But in the beginning of the calendar year, things get busy.  March is Social Work Month.  We send out ballots to nominate people for Social Worker of the Year, Citizen of the Year, Agency of the Year, and Elected Official of the Year.  We then send out a ballot to elect the nominees. And an invitation to the dinner we host to honor these people.

And, in the spring, we do our annual workshop. So, the brochure gets emailed to those folks for whom we have valid emails.  And, this is the time of year I cull our snail mail addresses, add to them for those for whom the email address we have is invalid, and search the licensure list (if I have time.)  And, then we print labels for brochures for the annual workshop.

So, this is my other job.   I enjoy working on the computer.   I enjoy having something to do as I watch TV.   This is the beginning of NASCAR season, and it is too cold to be outside playing unless I am doing vigorous yard work. So, the fit is good, as I can watch the races and work on NASW activities.

This is my other job.  I am not allowed to do this at work because of security reasons: concern about viruses and such.  But the truth be known, if I did this on work time, it would severely impinge upon my work duties, as it is very time consuming. And, the truth be known, I do not mind doing this at home, in my comfortable clothes, in comfortable surroundings watching TV or listening to music.

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