I have worked in both the front (not quite all the way in front, I’m currently Director of Operations) and back of the house-or Boys & Girls Club in my case. I miss the day to day contact and transformational relationships with members. I still know a lot of kids and teens by name, but I certainly don’t have the same relationships that I used to have with them. That is the benefit of working in the so-called back of the house. We attempt to make that our front of the house, because that is what is important. Our building has tons of windows, so just driving by you get an idea of what we do and you have to walk through program space to get to our administrative areas. We have also made efforts to raise salaries for program staff. While they aren’t as high as we’d like, they are better than the other agencies in town that I talk to. Working in administration is still very fulfilling though. I get to have impact (albeit less personal) on more youth (3,800) in my current position than I ever could as a program person (maybe up to 500 hundred). I am part of a team that has built a new building, rehabbed some of our other spaces, doubled our average daily attendance, developed a talented staff and cemented over 30 partnerships with local law enforcement, higher education and youth agencies allowing us to expand the scope and quality of our programs. Obviously a lot of people contributed to these achievements, not least of which were the great program staff but I wouldn’t have been able to improve our program staff or work on partnerships if I was tied up with program 7 out of the 8 (or 10 or 12) hours a day. I still love going to work every day. I just spend my time developing staff and working to give them the tools they need to do their job as opposed to working directly with the kids. My old Executive Director would be laughing as I used to tell him I would never leave program. As for the money, I could still make more in the business world. It has never been a motivation for me in moving up. I have always just been looking for the next challenge and how I could impact more kids.
COMMENTS
BY Joe Hungler
ON September 11, 2008 03:40 AM
I have worked in both the front (not quite all the way in front, I’m currently Director of Operations) and back of the house-or Boys & Girls Club in my case. I miss the day to day contact and transformational relationships with members. I still know a lot of kids and teens by name, but I certainly don’t have the same relationships that I used to have with them. That is the benefit of working in the so-called back of the house. We attempt to make that our front of the house, because that is what is important. Our building has tons of windows, so just driving by you get an idea of what we do and you have to walk through program space to get to our administrative areas. We have also made efforts to raise salaries for program staff. While they aren’t as high as we’d like, they are better than the other agencies in town that I talk to. Working in administration is still very fulfilling though. I get to have impact (albeit less personal) on more youth (3,800) in my current position than I ever could as a program person (maybe up to 500 hundred). I am part of a team that has built a new building, rehabbed some of our other spaces, doubled our average daily attendance, developed a talented staff and cemented over 30 partnerships with local law enforcement, higher education and youth agencies allowing us to expand the scope and quality of our programs. Obviously a lot of people contributed to these achievements, not least of which were the great program staff but I wouldn’t have been able to improve our program staff or work on partnerships if I was tied up with program 7 out of the 8 (or 10 or 12) hours a day. I still love going to work every day. I just spend my time developing staff and working to give them the tools they need to do their job as opposed to working directly with the kids. My old Executive Director would be laughing as I used to tell him I would never leave program. As for the money, I could still make more in the business world. It has never been a motivation for me in moving up. I have always just been looking for the next challenge and how I could impact more kids.