How helpers can help at Dadamac. February 6, 2011

Do you want to be actively involved with Dadamac? (or do you know someone who might be interested? - if so please forward)

You would be doing work that we would value - but it's not "work-for-pay". This would be joining in with some of our  "work-cos-you-want-to-do-it"  initiatives.

I should explain that most of the things that John Dada and I do as Dadamac, we do simply because we think it's worth doing (for a variety of reasons) - so  it's often "work-cos-we-want-to-do-it" rather than paid work. If we were driven by doing "work-for-pay" then we would have never started anything. Work-cos-you-want-to-do-it is Dadamac's main way of going about things. If opportunities for paid work happen as well - all well and good (we all have to find ways to pay the bills) - but earning money is not our primary objective.

Who we need

We need someone (it could be more than one if we are lucky) who has some spare time, is intelligent and pro-active, able to work effectively online, and interested in the kind of things Dadamac is interested in.

Maybe you are retired, or an "empty-nester" with time on your hands, or maybe you are a job-seeker. If you are really looking for paid work, but decide to fill in time with Dadamac during a break in your employment history, we hope you will see benefits by joining us. You will work at times that suit you, and are likely to use your time productively, develop your CV, increase your network, and gain new skills and knowledge.

Working with the dadamac community

Whatever your reason for joining us, if you do decide to "work-cos-you-want-to" at Dadamac then we will help you to become effective in our community. 

You can do as little or as much as you want - once we get used to working together. The more you want to do and are able to do, the more we'll be able to help you find interesting things to do - but there is no pressure to do a lot. As long as it is a win-win arrangement then we are happy with whatever help you can give. Even an hour a month, or help now and again, can be useful - as long as we are in agreement about what is expected and when it will be done.

Starting small, learning and getting to know us

Even if you come in with high grade skills, you have to come in ready to learn. Dadamac is a very fluid kind of organisation, and learning together is a great way to discover complementary interests. It may take a while to discover the optimum overlap between what you bring and what dadamac is doing (or hoping to do). Whatever you do first, no matter how small, it will help you to start learning more about us - and help us to get to know you.

Once you have found your feet through the small tasks then we will gradually want to find the ideal role for you. Ideally you'll develop a role which is beneficial for you and beneficial for dadamac. If we can find that kind of win-win then we will have the motivation to keep working together and to do useful work that really makes the most of your skills and interests.

However, to start with, we need something that you can get on with quickly - something that won't take too much explaining.  Once you have helped to lift the burden of the "routine but necessary tasks" then there will be more time available to discuss what you really want to do while you are with us.

Lifting the "routine but necessary" burden.

An anecdote will illustrate what I mean about lifting the "routine but necessary tasks" burden - to our mutual benefit. 

Many years ago I spent some time on secondment (from my post as an infant teacher) to work on a research project.  It included regular visits to six classroom teachers in their schools. They were all involved in trialling some training materials. They had standard feedback sheets to fill in, but my visits were supposed to pick up extra bits of information about "how things were really going". As a teacher myself, I knew it would be hard to find a good time during the school day when they'd have time to talk to me - and I certainly didn't want to hold them back at the end of the day.

At first I tried to visit during break times, but even so, the teachers were always pressured and I found it difficult to get useful information. However, by the end of the project we had built some trust and the best plan had emerged. If I turned up at a school during the morning I could go into the classroom and help to "lift the burden" from the teacher I had come to visit. When children were doing creative writing they'd ask me for the unknown spellings they wanted for their "word books", I'd hear readers, I'd do the little routine things that could make life a bit easier for the class teacher. Then, by the time it was break time, the teacher was a bit more "ahead of the game" than usual, and could spare some time to help me with the work I needed to do while I there - getting feedback about the training materials.

Similarly, if you can start off by helping me to get more "ahead of the game" than usual, by doing some of the comparatively simple routine things that I would otherwise have to do myself, then we can spend some time together to find out what work you would really like to be doing in dadamac.

Contact me.

Interested? Tell me a bit about yourself - contact me pamela.mclean@dadamac.net  - put "helping dadamac" in the subject line - or send me a Direct Message on Twitter  @pamela_mclean