PLS 595 JOURNAL ENTRY 5

In Journal Entry 3, I explored my strengths and weaknesses. I also discussed some of the "career anchors" that have motivated me. Primary among these has been the search for technical competence, which I believe may be linked to an unexpressed need to reaffirm my overall competence as a human being. This issue may have driven the first half of my life, but I do not have to let it drive my whole life. In my conversation with Kevin Lee recently, I expressed my desire to commit to a cause. That is how I see my new anchor shaping up. Thus, what opportunities and threats exist to my changing anchors?

Technical competence will always be an issue, of course, especially given the quickening pace of technological change in all sectors of society. We live in an increasingly wired world and that will be reflected in our career paths. The computer network and web metaphor are becoming manifest in living reality. Long career trajectories are being replaced by a series of lateral or completely non-linear career "vectors." The simple will inevitably give way to the complex. The microscopic details of our careers and our lives, therefore, may lose a certain amount of originality and uniqueness under the pervasive influence of technology.

In my case, I see high tech replacing many of my job functions and rendering them irrelevant. While there will always be a need for art and design, much of the craft is being relegated to secondary consideration. It is becoming automated and "clipped" (as in "clip art") out of existence. This is a direct threat to my livelihood. While I am in no danger of losing my job to a computer any time soon, there seems to be a general degradation of professional standards from both inside and outside my field.

I theorize that more organizations than ever before place a low premium on design as mere surface detail. Though they appreciate good design when they see it, administrators and executives seem more willing to satisfice--to settle for something less customized to their needs, especially if there are resources to be saved. In other words, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Design. Not only do I see less aesthetic appreciation overall, I also see less critical discernment. Driven by pixels instead of ink, standards are being watered down to nothing. Craft is all but dead. In other words, design is becoming less of a profession and more of a "start up" career. Now, thanks to technology, ANYONE can be a designer. Indeed, our mass media is flush with the DIY concept. Being an "amateur" means being driven by the love of the thing. The hard fact is that you cannot fight love.

I saw the writing on the wall a few years ago when I was an art director at an ad agency. I saw what was valued and it was not craft. It seemed to me that change was inevitable and I had better be prepared when it hit. So, I enrolled in the MPA program. I have looked at other other successful examples in my chosen field--nonprofit management. Now, as Mintrom suggests, I must "model my career" consciously. That means spelling out goals and planning my career path.

CAREER GOALS
Choosing goals for my career change means I have to consider not just the "what?", but also the "how?" and the "when?" The idea is to create a model on which to base rational decision making about my direction. So here goes:

1. Develop a Case for transference of Skills: By the end of my Capstone project, I must be able to make a case that many of the skills I already use daily will help to make me an effective administrator. This means making the most of my strengths and opportunities with an eye toward my weaknesses. That brings me to my next goal.
2. Manage My Weaknesses: By the time I begin to search actively for another job, I will need to find ways to change what I can change about myself that will help to make me a better candidate. That especially means fine tuning my listening and speaking skills and trying to become a more effective communicator. It also means becoming more empathetic and less impulsive. I see commitment to a cause serving other people and their needs as a means to that end.
3. Gain More Volunteer and Team Experience: Serving on committees and teams has helped me gain a greater sense of my purpose at New Hanover Regional Medical Center and at UNCW. I feel that based on my own experience and the advice of my models that more commitment will benefit my career in ways that I cannot foresee. Thus, it is a goal to expand my roles after the completion of my studies and to involve my family in as much as I can. I am a role model now too.
4. Expand My Technical Repetoire: If I am to make myself even more marketable, I must continue my recent experiments in distributed computer networking, learn new applications such as Donor 2, Drupal and HTML, master ones I already know such as SPSS and Excel. By the time I am ready to change careers, I must become a font of technical knowledge that will help me to help others.
5. Increase Management Roles: I need to expand my responsibilities in order to gain more experience working directly with people in a supervisory role. I have some experience doing this, but I need more to help round out my skills.
6. Seek a Balance: I want to establish more of a balance between my family and personal life and my career. Upon graduation, I want to try to make up for lost time and recommit to being a better husband, father and friend to those that I love. Refocusing my attention on them and their needs will help reestablish the balance that has been missing for so long. Whatever aspect of nonprofit management I go into, the position had better take into account that family comes first with me.
7. Find a Cause: Whatever opportunity comes my way, the cause must be just and it must be of a strong benefit to my community. I cannot picture myself just being in something for the paycheck anymore. I need something more substantial to satisfy my needs. I expect market-based compensation, of course. However, I must set an example for others to follow, whether it be in resource development or in some other key role aimed at producing social goods. When that opportunity comes along, I will know what it is. Better yet, I may just have to go out and make it.
8. Continuing Education: I will continue to take tutorials and in-service trainings to help expand my skills. Furthermore, I will decide whether further certification from professional organizations would be of practical value. I cannot make that decision, however, until I know more about my career's new direction.
9. Reflect, Reflect, Reflect: In order to keep track of my goals and maintain perspective, I will continue my blogs on my progress and my life. Not only will this be a record for me to refer to, but for others who may be attempting to change careers as well. The challenge will be to keep it interesting and fresh. I don't want to wind up with a bad case of blog rot. Weekly entries will suffice.

THE FUTURE
It is supposed to be simple to project out five years where I will be, but not so for me. I have some idea of the areas of nonprofit management I will want to focus my efforts, but I am not entirely certain where this is leading. I am definitely interested in playing a key role in resource development. This is an area in which I am deeply committed to helping to make a difference. Where that might be is difficult to say. Most of the advice I have gotten is to try to start out at a small agency, possibly as a volunteer on a board, and to gain more experience in fundraising that way. The other possibility is to accept a lesser role in a larger organization, such as the New Hanover Health Network where I am now. I could also try to seek a position at UNCW or a large foundation.

At any rate, at the five year mark, I expect to be in a supervisory position at a small to medium sized nonprofit. I think I could make good use of my skills in an arts agency or organization, given my fine art undergraduate degree. However, I would definitely not restrict myself to that part of the job market. I am also quite interested in technology, healthcare and emergency management positions. Perhaps, I could start out in an analyst position and move up that way. Ten years out becomes pretty fuzzy. However, I think it is fair to say that I expect to be running an agency or organization in ten years. I fully believe that the combination of my MPA and a possible future certification will round out my qualifications to handle executive responsibilities. Once I decide where my best opportunities lie, I will follow Yogi Berra's sage advice: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

PLS 595 JOURNAL ENTRY 4

Excellence can be quite expensive. Just ask Aline Lasseter, New Hanover Regional Medical Center Foundation's new Executive Director. She understands this better than most. I interviewed Aline just recently to talk about her line of work and the challenges she faces. As the new kid on the block, she is responsible for spearheading the Medical Center's big push to raise over $10 million toward its biggest expansion ever. Indeed, the $190 million plans are well underway. Thus, there is little time to waste mounting a comprehensive new capital campaign.

Lasseter was tapped by NHRMC CEO Jack Barto last year to take charge of the campaign. He chose her, among lesser reasons, because she was a seasoned fundraising veteran who had recently raised $7.7 million in 16 short months. She had organized that $10 million capital campaign for Savannah's St. Joseph's/Candler Hospitals' expansion plans. That campaign included a $3 million naming gift. Such proven success brought her to Jack's attention as a natural fit for Wilmington.

The job he had in mind for her was daunting, but Lasseter is no shrinking violet. She is, after all, a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE). The requirements for this certification, as laid out by the international Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, are fairly steep and only the most successful practitioners can qualify. Candidate eligibility for examination must be preceded by meeting specific point totals for employment, education, performance and service. In other words, candidates must be active, engaged and consummately successful at what they do. Lasseter has been certified to be all these things. Naturally, she is a busy person, meeting with donors, making appearances, serving on multiple boards, attending events or simply taking care of the business of philanthropy. Thus, her position requires her to wear many hats. Among the most important are hats for:

1. Fund Raising Strategy: How institutions approach fundraising.
2. Donor Development: How donors are cultivated and moved through levels of giving.
3. Donor Relations: How good relationships are maintained.
4. Fund Raising Management: How the business of fund raising gets done.
5. Fund Stewardship: Managing funds to satisfy donors and, most importantly, maintain the letter and spirit of the law.

A typical day for Lasseter is half-comprised of making contacts or, more precisely, making contacts of contacts. The technique might be aptly described as social snowballing. She relies upon her ample strength as a nouveau arrive. Since she is so new to the area, she has an "in." People want to meet her and donors often ride along. So far it seems to be working. Her new ideas and expansive vision have already had a positive impact on the Foundation's efforts. What is more, people seem to genuinely like her style which is thoroughly professional, yet always warm and accessible.

What does it take to be successful in such a highly competitive business? Lasseter lists fund raising experience at the top. To gain fund raising street cred, she says, one has to come up through the ranks and "pay your dues." Most times that means starting out small, like she did, and working the way up. Her bacherlor's degree in marketing laid her career's foundation. After that, she credits her experience in "fast food marketing," working for the likes of Wendy's International and McDonald's Corporation. Those experiences helped her to build her marketing savvy. Raising $1 million for the Savannah-based Children's Miracle Network in the mid-Nineties demonstrated her uncanny ability to form lucrative donor relationships. She later cultivated a $5 million gift for the Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Institute campaign. That is the kind of donor cultivation success that gets one noticed.

Is it marketing savvy, donor cultivation or is it salesmanship? Perhaps it is all three, she suggests. A little PR experience doesn't hurt either. For her fund raising is all about the relationships she forms with people, which, if early returns are any guide, seem to be strong. In the managed care competition for healthcare dollars, relationships are what make the difference. Just as patients want to feel good about the institution or their physician, hospital donors want to feel good about not just the cause, but the most visible representative of it as well. The two are inextricably tied together. If one loses face, so does the other.

At the same time, she believes that a fund raiser's main job is to keep the cause uppermost in the mind of the donor. The more obsessive the cause, the bigger the gift. Eventually, one gets to mega-gift territory where the sky can be the limit.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to have the right personality. She recommends going into fund raising only if one is outgoing and has a LOT of energy. It is a relentless search for support that only the brave dare undertake. Just like the U.S. Mail, the search never stops. Of course, it doesn't hurt to be smart, upbeat and genuinely funny like Lasseter. Those kinds of traits can only serve one well when it comes to the merely impossible, which fund raisers must frequently contend with. A good sense of humor, in particular, can save one's sanity. True to form, she downplays the more difficult aspects of her job (and there are many.) Nevertheless, she has little patience for people who are not team players or who think nothing of wasting her precious time. She is too busy to put up much with that sort. Then there is the well-known pressure of working with CEOs and boards. That can be nerve-wracking for those without the stomach for it. To be a success, a fund raiser must thrive on it.

Would she still recommend a career in fund raising? You bet. Though it can be a real high wire act, there are many personal and professional rewards to be had. Fund raisers help connect donors to their passion. They are like the bodhisattvas of giving. The best ones can lead whole communities to enlightenment. What is more, they are legacy builders. They are instrumental to capital building and a force for positive change. They can help take a blueprint and turn it into an institution that will change lives forever and long after they are gone.

What could be more rewarding than that?

PLS 595 JOURNAL ENTRY 3

If you ask most people to describe their strengths, like me, you will get a laundry list of positives that desribe in glowing terms everything right about them. For example, I am an excellent archer. Now, what I might not tell you is that I mean 1 time out of ten shots I am excellent--a sin of omission. However, there is no denying, in my own estimation, that I have made some excellent shots. That I am not William Tell is simply "extraneous" information. Of course, even the blindfolded may score a bullseye once in a while. Thus it is with many self-assessing candidates. Asking me my strengths is easy, even without much in the way of reflection:

• 20 years of professional experience in design and marketing
• Life-long learner
• Pleasant disposition
• Helpful and knowledgable
• Thorough and dilligent
• Highly-focused
• Ambitious
• Strong project management skills and planning abilities
• Strong technical skills
• Strong conceptual ability
• Abundant creativity
• Strong writing and verbal skills
• Strong research abilities
• Works well independently or in collaboration
• Logical and organized
• Well-educated
• Open-minded and fair
• Highly ethical and considerate
• Naturally inquisitive
• Strong intuitive problem-sovling abilities
• Big picture thinker
• Commited to improving self and lives of others
• Flexible and highly adaptive
• Enjoys challenges... and so on.
  

Less easy and, as a result, less exhaustive is an honest account of weaknesses. Let's face it. Would you really want your obvious weaknesses floating out there, possibly sinking ships that might otherwise come in? Am I some kind of Rainman, boasting about his own driving while not mentioning that whole autism thing? Myers and Briggs tell me that though I am certainly all of those wonderful things above, I also have problems:

• Feelings of inferiority
• Highly critical
• Skeptical
• Stubborn
• Argumentative
• Impulsive
• A tad quirky
• Distractable...and that is enough.

You see what I mean? Short list! That was a strain. Of course, there is much more, but the nature of my weaknesses is not deterministic. For sure, these may be stubborn traits, but they are not character flaws. Indeed, they are mostly unexpressed and may even be fully surrmountable. For a prospective employer, the question might be put this way: how might these strengths and weaknesses translate into workplace performance? However, from my perspective as a career seeker, it might be better put as: what is the best career for someone with my gifts? Is there an apple out there that I can hit again and again?

All of my professional career, I have worked in a creative capacity--that is my forte. People are frequently touched by my work. I have even make them laugh and cry from joy. That makes me feel good about myself and brings confidence for my daily challenges. I have even been told that I have the "gift of excellence," a thing not to be squandered. These compliments notwithstanding, I know that, just like anyone else, I have my unique limitations. Finding my place in the world, therefore, means acknowledging them, controlling for them and, if possible, using them to my advantage. Then my strengths will take care of themselves.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Okay, ALL weaknesses ought to be acknowledged. However, a few can ONLY be acknowledged. I can always try to improve my aim, but improving my vision might be impossible short of surgery, which I reject. Glasses offer correction, but I cannot do well without them. Therefore, a position in which I cannot wear corrective lenses would not be well-suited for me. The same may be said of my quirkiness. The leopard cannot put off his spots. I guess I'm just a little spotty sometimes and that is that. Nor would it be easy to repress my impulses, which are significant. My gut tells something and I listen. Others may take that as being unreasonable. I take it as an opportunity for honesty: to express myself in the moment. Being aware of that, however, provides me with power to cut through to the heart of the matter which can make some folks a little uncomfortable. Finally, I am always the skeptic. Call me Thomas, but I think doubt does present a deficit of faith. Knowing that, I seek evidence to make the leap, which because I am an incurable intuitive, I do gladly. Some may take that as a burden that I impose on others. I just think it's the right thing to do. I ask questions expecting straight answers. I may choose not to ask, but the doubt will persist. Perception is one of my clear preferences for reaching my conclusions about the world. Judgment I withhold. Others may assume, if I do not tell them, that they have already been judged. Selah!

CONTROL
More weaknesses can be controlled. I may be inferior in some situations, but that does not mean I will always be so. Elanor Roosevelt famously said that "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." No matter how degrading the situation, one can always excerise personal freedom. Furthermore, one can always improve one's situation, as in my case through education, hard work and so on. In addition, being stubborn cuts both ways. In some situations it is strength, others, a weakness. The trouble is knowing which is which.

Technical/Functional: Enjoy using core skills; skills don’t have to be technical in nature; can be a human resources worker or a secretary and enjoy using the skills needed for those positions; motivated by learning new skills and expanding current knowledge base.

Type of Work: What turns these types on is the exercise of their talent; satisfaction with knowing concepts. If it is not a challenge, technical/functional types feel bored and/or demeaned. Content of actual work more important than the context of the work. In other words, it is the actual work they are concerned with not the organization or the overall mission of their work; teaching and mentoring offers opportunity to demonstrate expertise.

General Managerial Competence: view specialization as limiting; primarily want to manage or supervise people; enjoy motivating, training and directing the work of others; enjoy authority and responsibility, and when someone strips of control it is “demotivator;” thrive in three areas of competence – analytical, interpersonal/intergroup, and emotional.

Type of Work: high levels of responsibility, varied, integrative, leadership.
Autonomy/Independence: need and want control over work and want to be recognized for achievements; can’t tolerate other people’s rules or procedures; need to do things their own way; independent consulting and contract work would be a good fit for these people; want to be left alone to do their work; just give them instructions on what you want, when you want it and let them “go to it!”

Type of Work: seek autonomous professions such as consulting, teaching, contract or project work, or even temporary work; part or full-time acceptable.

Service/Dedication to a Cause: motivated by core values rather than the work itself; strong desire to make the world a better place.
Type of Work: high concentration of service-oriented professions, motivated by pursuit of personal values and causes.

PLS 595 JOURNAL ENTRY 2

I met with Kevin, Alyson and Alli today to choose instruments and discuss data collection issues. Knowing that we are going to pursue a program monitoring approach vastly simplified the next steps. The essential questions I sought answers for included:

1. Who will be included in the population(s)? Parents/caregivers, child victims, MDT members, other agencies, the general public?
2. Will clients be sampled or will the entire population be polled? Will that continue in the future, or will a less-representative sampling technique be adopted later when it is more convenient?
   
3. Given those answers, which instruments will be best to use? Will data be collected through direct interviews, phone surveys, or self-administered surveys?
4. Who would best conduct the interviews or administer the surveys?
5. When would that process best occur so as to maximize usable feedback?
6. What privacy issues or issues of subject protection are there?
7. Who will enter the data?

POPULATION
After some discussion, it was decided that the including separate polls of the MDT members and parents/caregivers were essential for best practice comparisons. The question that I brought out was whether the value of the feedback that would come from child victims would exceed the opportunity cost of burdening the child with an additional interview (since that type of data collection would necessarily have to be via in-person interview). I pointed out that NOT taking the risk to invterview child victims would ignore feedback from the Center’s primary clients. That, in my mind, would be a costly mistake. After much discussion and review of the intstruments, we decided that child victims really ought to be polled since what they said could be essential to improving service delivery and fulfilling the Center’s mission. Other populations, such as those of cooperting agencies or the general public, were assumed to be beyond the resources and time available right now.

REPRESENTATION
All MDT members would be polled, of course. But what of clients? Since time is a premium, every single client will be recruited until mid-November. After that, recruiting on a time-limited quarterly or annual basis is always possible. Alternately, if the ongoing costs associated with program monitoring become too great, every fifth client, for example, could be sampled. While the Center serves over 15 Southeast counties, only New Hanover county clients, for the foreseeable future, will participate. The reason for this circumscribed population limit is that CAC certification is concerned with service to a single county. Furthermore, comparisons between urban and rural clients may be somewhat tenous since they are so qualitatively different. Lumping them together might be ill-advised. A separate poll is always possible.

INSTRUMENTS
After reviewing one-by-one the wide variety of program monitoring instruments that the DOJ evaluation manual offers, we selected the following instruments:

1. Parents/Caregivers:
   a. Family Satisfaction with CAC Services (Appendix C, page 76-77)
   b. Parent/Caregiver Questionnaire—3-Month Followup Telephone Interview
   (C-85 through 86)
2. Multi-Disciplinary Team Members: Agency Satisfaction Survey (C-11 through 13)
3. Child Victims: Child Satisfaction with CAC Services Survey (C-133)

Parents and caregivers should be interviewed twice, it was reckoned, to provide the Center with some longitudinal follow-up data that could yeild useful comparisons. Since the first survey would be conducted anonymously via a self-administered survey at the Center after initial interviews and services were rendered, it seems fair to assume that a more balanced assessment might be presented later on, given time to adjust to the experiences and digest them. This will help maximize usable feedback. On the other hand, further interviews with the child victim would probably be considerably less fruitful and, moreover, might tend to add to their stress unduly. They were ruled out.

DATA COLLECTION
In order to settle remaining issues regarding data collection, I asked Ali and Alyson to provide me with a revised flowchart of program activities such as the one provided in the evaluation manual. Based on their work, it was determined that the most efficacious time to administer the initial evaluation would be immediately after the second team meeting, before family and victim leave the Center. (A revised flowchart will be uploaded to the Basecamp soon.) Therefore, participants would have to be recruited during the initial interviews with each client. Of course, permission would have to be obtained from the non-offending parent or caregiver PRIOR to asking the child victim to participate. This is key to maintaining the trust of all parties. A script is available for this recruitment. Participation must be voluntary, of course, and strong emphasis should be placed on its anonymity.

This brings up subject protections. Subjects have the right to expect that all question and their responses to them have absolutely NO bearing on their own case and that they have the right to expect the same high-quality services either way. The responses are purely for the improvement of future service delivery. Furthermore, their private information will not be shared with any other person or agency, only their responses. Finally, if there is any objection from any party that NO participation will be assumed and that non-participation will not be penalized in any way.

In order to maintain privacy, only neutral, non-service delivering personnel will administer the evaluations. This entails also, that only Center staff, volunteers or contractors be involved in direct data collection. Volunteers and contractors, if any, will sign confidenitality agreements. No one from UNCW or any other agency will be involved. This last point is essential: NO ONE involved with direct service delivery to the clients can ethically collect the data. Not only will this ensure subject privacy, it will ensure that data collection is not skewed by interviewer effects.

Finally, I will be designing the database soon. As for data entry, Heather or some other neutral party may be available for this task. If not, I will certainly do it. We will make this determination later. Certain modification to the survey forms were discussed last. I promised to deliver those within a week or so. It is essential that data collection get underway by mid-September. That is our next milestone.