How I brought together a team

Recently, I brought together a team of volunteers and now board members for the nonprofit Friends of the Oak Park Open Space (FOTOPOS); and here’s how I did it.

Where I started

I got an email from FOTOPOS, requesting a webmaster from their community. I replied to it immediately, and had the opportunity to serve as their webmaster volunteer for the school year (of which I will continue next year). I met the crayfish project leader Bill Ning, a senior at Oak Park High School, as well as the president of FOTOPOS, Debbie Sharpton. We hosted meetings about once a month, and a few changes to the website and to the project would occur.
Bill mentioned he would be graduating and going to a college most likely out of state (or out of the area), and Debbie said multiple times she doesn’t know how the crayfish project will continue without the youth leader.

In the meantime, I volunteered with the Circle K club at Moorpark College and met a range of people of varying interests. Among those people, I made friends with Nolan Turner, Alex Synder, and Natalie Azadian. All three of them majoring in environmental science, biology (wildlife biology), and environmental education (the goal of becoming an environmental science teacher), respectively).

The Planning

Toward finals, Bill annouced that he is going to go to college out a state, and so, I asked Debbie and my environmental friends if they would be interested in working with each other. Debbie gets help with the projects, they get experience within their field, and overall progress is made toward bettering the environment of Oak Park.
From there, I split the interests of the college students to match each project;

• Nolan Turner was already interested in the removal of the Gold Spotted Oak Borer Beetle, so he was assigned to that project
• Alex Synder is interested in wildlife biology, so they get experience working with wildlife by removing the invasive crayfish (and other aquatic) species
• Natalie wants to teach, so we can have her educate students on our cause and the state of their community, as well as onboard volunteers for Nolan and Alex’s project
• Nolan is also the president of the “Moorpark Trailblazers Club,” so we assigned him to the trail betterment project in hopes of improving the state of the trails in the Oak Park community.

I consulted with Debbie and she was happy with this distribution of the work. I then planned a meet-up in person, because I’ve found more gets done once you meet the person and get to know them. People are more committed to things that feel real.

The In-Person Meeting

I planned and hosted our first in-person meeting. I planned and brought an agenda, and we gave everyone a task to do. By meeting in-person, I ensure committment from the college students, and create an environment where Debbie is more approachable (thus, progress can be made because we know each other enough to openly communicate). By bringing an agenda, I can ensure we set our plans in motion and set them in stone. If we keep talking about ideas, nothing will ever actually happen. The team was very excited and passionate at the meeting about the opportunity, and I was grateful that I could help Debbie and FOTOPOS in more ways than just their tech management.

Conclusion

I think from this a few things can be learned. Beyond going above my initial role, I believe that it is important to utilize the resources you have around you, as well as uplift the people around you. It is an important skill to be able to set up a team for a task, and I’m glad I got the experience of doing such myself. Thank you for reading, and I will see you next time. :)