How to run Sanctuary

We are starting this page in 2019. The intent is to fill it with a bunch of information that will make running Sanctuary in 2020 much easier.

Proposed structure

Problem statement

Running Firefly Sanctuary to its full potential is a ton of work. However, with enough forethought, it could be spread out over a large group of volunteers and several months, instead of the usual situation where most of the work falls to one or two people in the last month before Firefly. However, it doesn't do any good just to enlist a lot of people to help, if there aren't clearly delineated responsibilities: You end up with a bad situation where people are frustrated and not working because they're always waiting to be told what to do, or they're always stepping on the toes of someone else with an overlapping role.

Proposal

One vision is to have one or several people signed up for each of the roles articulated below, and also have a backup person for each role, since inevitably someone always ends up being too busy, having a life crisis, or burning out. If all of the people in these roles pick a weekly meeting time starting in April, it would set aside a certain amount of time each week to get work done, it would eliminate the hassle of trying to work with everyone's schedules ad-hoc for in-person meetings, and it would create a social element that is appealing to many people.

Role 1: Lead

1 person

To Do list and deadline tracker

This should be the person everyone (internal to Sanctuary and outside of Sanctuary) can go to to ask "What's the latest on task ___?" or "What's the latest on our question about ____?". The person in this role should be prepared to answer with "As of X days ago person Y was the one in charge of that, Y@ff.org is their email, the most recent update they gave me was Z, and I have a check-in scheduled with them about that task in W days."

Email triage

Someone should keep track of each email (in a spreadsheet? With labels in gmail?) and make sure they got followed up on in a timely manner by the right person

Role 2: Policies and procedures

1 - 2 people

Updating all the materials in the binder

• Volunteer manual
• Sexual assault guidance sheet ->> Add information about the services of local hospitals, including about the evidence collection kit
• Child response guidance sheet
• Suicidality guidance sheet
• Zendo
• Extra readings
• What to do when someone visits and is looking for someone
• The background of each SME, LS, and the EMTs
• What the EMTs can do
• Cheat sheets: For example, what to do when you arrive at the Sanctuary tent ("Sign in! See who's on the radio. Flip through the binder. Discuss strengths and weaknesses with your co-Support."

Lead the trainings

You must practice

There were six trainings this year, maybe they can be split up so one person doesn't have to do all six?

Role 3: Volunteer liaison

2 - 5 people

Track individual volunteers

I think we should keep a file (probably a Google Doc template) for each individual volunteer. This would help us get people caught up if they're coming into the process late, and help us remember a volunteer's context when they reach out to us for information. The file would keep track of:

• What training is this person signed up for?
• Did they attend?
• Have their credentials been reviewed for potential SME status?
• Are they interested in doing an LS shift?
• Are they signed up for shifts?
• Do they have signup permissions in the schedule system?
• Do they have a ticket to Firefly?
• Do they have any flexibility to move their shift to an understaffed time, or to take on more shifts?
• Are they in the Boston area and should be invited to the picnic or other social events?

This year we have 73 volunteers; I think it would be nice to have a Volunteer Liaison for every 20 people

Sign people up for trainings and create a waitlist

We're very happy we used a waitlist: About half of the people confirmed for each training showed up; it's good to have a backlog and send several reminders.

We can probably use volunteer.fireflyartscollective.org better as a training signup system than a shift signup system

Tracking shift coverage

Do some math like

There are 13 Logistics Supervisor shifts we need to fill...

We have 82 days until the even...

Let's hustle harder if 82/13=6 days have passed and we haven't filled another shift

Deciding who should be Subject Matter Expert On-Call

One person should do all the volunteer liaison duties listed above, but for a group of pre-selected SMEs they pluck from the pool

Record their credentials in the "Profiles of the people on call"

Role 4: Communications

1 person

Write the updates to the webpage and the emails that will go out to many people. The main task here is to write really clearly and concisely.

Role 5: Event planning

1 person

Booking training spaces

Have an accessibility contact

Think about bathroom door length, someone lifting themselves onto the toilet, getting a wheelchair there, and being able to reach the sink if they are in a chair.

Can you make the bathrooms gender neutral?

Organizing another picnic or other social events

Let's make Sanctuary a social thing!

Role 6: Sanctuary setup

1 - 2 people

Look over Sanctuary materials while on a work weekend

Requires a car

Smelly or wet things should be cleaned

Be prepared with a brush and soap, or a way to get something to a washing machine

Determine if more bins are needed

Getting the Sanctuary shelter up there and getting it set up

Decide way ahead of time which work weekend this will happen on

Requires a car

Role 7: Planning the space

1 - 2 people

Design the space

How can we create privacy, coziness, etc, with how things are laid out and what is available in the space?

At least one participant refused to enter sanctuary because they didn't like the vibe, it didn't feel cozy.

Creating a budget and ordering new materials

Get new bins if you buy a lot of new stuff

Sanctuary needs a first aid kit

We have tapestries but not a good way to hang them up

We need paper weights

We need pillows

We need a way to keep the case forms dry

Role 8: Ambassador/Collaborator/Historian

1 person

Ambassador: Compare notes with Sanctuaries at other Burns

enjoyingthedance@gmail.com was sanctuary co-lead at Constellation Burn

mysticgreene was Sanctuary Lead at Nectr

esd@lakesoffire.org "My name is ____ and I am the Emergency Services Lead at Lakes of Fire in Michigan"

Collaborator

We'd love to work more closely with

• Accessibility
• Touchpoints

Historian: Read through materials from previous years to find ways to improve the present year

• AARs
• Case logs
• Feedback form responses
• Extra credit: Old emails to sanctuary@fireflyartscollective.org

Other ideas to consider

1. Creating shifts where Sanctuary volunteers wander, perhaps with or perhaps without Rangers
2. Use the online volunteer system for TRAININGS signups, and use a Google Doc for the schedule.
3. Set up weekly "Sanctuary Committee" meetings right from the start (April)
4. See if on each shift you can have
   1. People more or less likely to drop out last minute or be pushed out by us because they didn't show up for a training. Namely:
      1. People signed up for an early training or who are already trained are likely to not drop out
      2. People who are deep on the waitlist are more likely to drop out
      3. People who are not getting trained until FF might miss that training and then be pushed out last minute
   2. Someone available with the following skillsets:
      1. Suicidality
      2. Sexual assault
      3. Substance addiction/abuse
      4. IPV
   3. Different genders
5. When people sign up ask for the minimum and maximum of what they'd like to do. For reference, give them a chart that shows "In 2019 48 people did 4 hours, 10 people did 6 hours..." etc.
6. Have accessibility info: "At Sanctuary you can sit, here's how you get up there, if you're on call we want you to be able to head straight to Sanctuary..."
7. Anyone who helps--especially overnight--with a case of psychosis or mania, should be dismissed from all Sanctuary duties for the rest of the event. Otherwise it creates burnout.
8. Have comfort food, in a cooler

Other mistakes to learn from

1. We accidentally ordered enough t-shirts for everyone who had signed up for trainings, when many of them didn't need t-shirts because they didn't actually get to the point of signing up for shifts
2. It would be nice if we could get our own webpage updated without having to email communications
3. If you're doing an online video conference training, make sure to check that the video conference solution doesn't have a cap that's below the number of participants you're expecting. Last year we tried to use Hangouts for a 20-40 person training, quickly hit the 10 person limit, and then had to scramble and were lucky to find out someone had a business account on Zoom.