Followup to Phoenix Rising's Chase Giving Winnings?

[caledonia]

In Sept. 2012, Phoenix Rising won $10,000 in the Chase Giving Contest. This money was to be used for the Community Rising project http://phoenixrising.me/about/projects/community-rising-mashup-site
which would give PWC's hands on help where they lived - practical stuff - shopping, cleaning, doctors, etc.

I haven't heard a peep about this since the contest, and that was a good 7 months ago. What is going on with this? This is a great idea and is sorely needed.

 

[golden]

ooooo I sorely need the black mould cleaning from my home...

And a big basket of organic fruit (particularly cherries) and veg plus a mountain of supplements would be very welcomed too

 

[Mark]

The short answer to this question is that this, and other projects, all have to be created and run by volunteers, so they will only happen if enough people step forward to help out with the core jobs that need to be done to keep Phoenix Rising running. Before we can begin again to think about projects, we need help with a variety of jobs.

In particular, I need a group of volunteers to help out for a few hours every week or two, reviewing, editing and publishing articles on the blog. The main requirements for that job are good written English, good proof-reading skills, and a general attention to detail and quality. It's all done in Wordpress; technical skills or knowledge of Wordpress are not necessary but you do need to be wiling and able to learn to use the editor. Anyone interested in this can contact me by Conversation - I'll be very happy to hear from you.

I'll try to post a longer answer to this question here in due course, but please bear in mind that there's only a small group of us running the organization at the moment, and due to illness and personal commitments we're struggling to maintain the services we currently provide. There's no spare capacity to do anything else at present, but hopefully volunteers will turn up to change that situation in the near future.

 

[caledonia]

@ Mark - question - is this like a grant where you have a certain amount of time to complete the project, then you have to report back on how you've used the money? Or is it more open ended? I'm worried about us losing this money if we don't do the project in a timely fashion, or use the money for something else.

 

[Mark]

I don't want to make any definitive statements on this in case I'm inaccurate on any details. I don't have all the details in my head; Karen has done most of the work on this (there's been quite a lot of admin to sort out) and she's very busy with other things at the moment. It's going to take us a bit of work to get you accurate answers to your questions. But rest assured, the board are paying due diligence to the terms and conditions of the Chase grant and we won't be losing the money. As I understand it we have to account for it separately to the rest of our finances, we are budgeting for that account separately, and there are conditions on what it can be spent on, but I don't think there's a 12-month limit. There will be more information on all of this soon, and an opportunity to ask any questions then.

I know this question is intended as a helpful reminder, and I don't really want to discourage people from asking questions, but the reality is that we are short-staffed at the moment and, because there are so few of us, answering questions often (ironically) just takes up time we could be spending working on the very things people ask about. We don't need any help in knowing all the various things we need to do, or with suggestions, ideas or prompts on things we ought to be doing. We just need help with actually doing the work. Just a few more volunteers would make the world of difference.

 

[caledonia]

Thanks for answering my questions. That makes me feel better. I totally understand the overwhelmed volunteer thing, as I've done much volunteering in the past.

Why don't you put out a list of what volunteers you need for what. I had no idea you were looking for volunteers. Is it just this editing thing or is there more? Some idea of what the job is, what kind of skills are required, how many hours and so forth.

I have so many unfinished projects on my plate, I promised myself I wouldn't take on anything new until I caught up. But let me think about the editing thing.

 

[Mark]

Why don't you put out a list of what volunteers you need for what. I had no idea you were looking for volunteers. Is it just this editing thing or is there more? Some idea of what the job is, what kind of skills are required, how many hours and so forth.

We're preparing that at the moment. The first article in the series should be up within the next week or two.

I have so many unfinished projects on my plate, I promised myself I wouldn't take on anything new until I caught up. But let me think about the editing thing.

Thanks; I know everybody's time is pressured so it's very difficult to find people who are able to help, but if we do find 2 or 3 more to help with reviewing content I think it would really help us to move forward much more quickly on everything else.