Transitions

Thursday, July 26^th

TJ and I finished netting the office!! It looks so good and I’m happy I can go in the office now without getting bit by all kinds of bugs! The rest of the day was spent organizing and talking to volunteers. The past week or so I have been going through a job transition. The position I accepted was one as a research assistant. My responsibilities were to include: collecting data, entering data, training volunteers to collect data, organizing patrols, takeing care of the hatchlings, etc. However, what I have found myself doing more and more is giving volunteers tasks and mediating for them. 

 One part of the office

 

The other part of the office

Glenda, the park director, is very sweet, but she also has a ton on her plate. She doesn't have time to direct volunteers constantly and lack of organization has caused some of the volunteers to be unhappy, so more and more I have found myself to be the one to making decisions and organizing everything. It has actually been kind of stressful. I had a long talk with Alejandro (the volunteer coordinator at the other ARCAS site) about what it takes to be a volunteer coordinator. He has been here the past couple days doing some mangrove research. He gave me some great tips and told me he can see a lot of potential in me. He advised that we have a daily meeting here to go over the next day’s schedule, any updates, and hear any complaints or concerns from the volunteers.

Listening to his advice, I held a meeting with the volunteers. It was long and tough, but I think everyone aired their concerns and we were able to make some progress. Sadly, one of the volunteers was disrespectful during the meeting. He spent the whole time rolling his eyes and shaking his head. I called him out (respectfully of course) and told him that I could tell he had something to say so he should just say it. We ended the meeting with highs (or good things) of the day and we all felt better. I think by taking control and holding the meeting everyone kind of accepted that I’m the person to come to from now on. I don’t mind stepping up to the plate and doing more, but I wish I had more of an idea about what this job had entailed from the beginning. Alejandro was apparently listening to most of the meeting and congratulated me at the end, which was nice to hear. 

Hopefully, it is smooth (or smoother) sailing from now on!