Executive: Difference between revisions

What do you do for the convention/What is your purpose?

• Your purpose is to oversee a branch of departments and get your new staff setup with their emails, access to the drive, mailing lists, etc.
• You are their first line of defence when your branch Leads need help
• You are to help the chairs by providing reports on your branch instead of each lead in all branches taking their problems directly to the chairs.
• You are also there to help the chairs in decision making and problem solving during the year.
• What skills are handy for those in this position?
• Communication is a must (email, skype/telegram, voice calls, etc.)
• Organization and recordkeeping (You need to know where your staff are, how they are doing, their plans, etc!)
• Problem solving/Managerial skills
• Being able to play to each branch leads strengths and weaknesses and to motivate them.
• Time management skills are helpful for any job on staff.

What is your staff email?

• Operations Exec: [email protected] & [email protected]
• Business Exec: [email protected] & [email protected]
• Media Exec: [email protected] & [email protected]
• Events Exec: [email protected] & [email protected]

Yearly Responsibilities:

• What do you need to do during the year for your departments to function before/ at con?

• Send a welcome/introductory message to your staff at the beginning of the year.

• Include a brief overview of the branch and where they can find the Contact sheet, the Org Chart for the staff hierarchy/who their bosses are/who they should contact first with problems, and any other information they may need.
• If they haven’t already been added, they need to be added to the google drive (Go to the vancoufur materials base/root folder, at the top there is a round icon with two people shapes. Click this and it will open share options. Please add their personal address -ask them if they have a gmail- as well as their person VF email once it gets setup) and the yahoo groups mailing list @ https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/vancoufurstaff/info. (If you aren’t sure how to do this or are having problems, check in with your other executives as they might be able to help. If not, the Admin and Chairs should be available to help.) After they are in the google drive, please show them to their folder and their GUIDE and tell them to please read it and use it to work from. They weren’t made to be ignored.
• If they haven’t already been added, they need to be added to the chat groups (Telegram, etc. Whatever is that years chat service for the event.)
• Multiple ways to contact you but SHOULD state emails are the primary contact for VF staff as they are used to keep good records of what’s been done, etc. All conversations outside of email should eventually come back around to email for confirmations/record keeping. This helps is have the clearest understanding going forward!
• Encourage them to contact you if they have issues or are feeling overwhelmed/confused.
• Encourage them to send in monthly updates sometime before the monthly meetings so you have an idea of where your branch is and can bring any immediate needs to the Chair/Exec meetings.

Assist your branch departments

• Make sure they know their department and what it entails
• Make sure you review the department guideline with your lead
• Make sure you communicate with your lead and seconds
• Make sure they know what is expected of them

Help your departments solve issues

• Deal with 'fires' fast and effectively
• Help find the correct contact point for inter-department issues
• Help liaison between your departments and your chair
• Answer questions about major decisions
• Help your leads solve problems
• Help them get the most of their department

• Check in once a month with each department, before each monthly meeting, to see how things are going. Make sure you get responses. If you do not, use alternative contacts and poke them a few times.
• You will be required to get updates from them and during the executive meetings (before staff meetings) you will tell the chairs who needs assistance/who needs to take something to staff discussion. This helps keep the staff meetings shorter and to the point if we can get fires addressed and have a course of action to take so it doesn’t need to be brought up at the meeting unless it needs public direction from staff. Otherwise, the other branch departments that have nothing to say/no new updates of significance, will not need to talk about their department during the meeting. They will of course get to talk about other subjects/give feedback or input, etc.
• Make sure to report incidents or issues to the chairs if it needs resolving from them.

6 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• Make sure all your departments are on schedule (Be asking them about their goals/plans so you can follow up on them. You can utilize their guides as well.)
• Continue to check in with them every month
• Check their guides to see if anything is missing that they should be doing
• Make sure they are doing any needed training sessions with their staff that need to be done
• Make sure they have sent all needed information to the website team if applicable
• Make sure that your departments are getting ready to order products they need to order.

3 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• Make sure all your departments are on schedule
• Continue to check in with them every month
• Check their guides to see if anything is missing that they should be doing
• Make sure they are in contact with volunteers about getting enough volunteers for their needs.
• Make sure they are in contact with Logistics for all their logistical needs weekend if applicable
• Make sure they are in contact with IT if they have at-con IT needs weekend if applicable
• Make sure they have their staff scheduled for the weekend if applicable
• Make sure they are doing any needed training sessions with their staff that need to be done
• Make sure they have or will be sending all needed updates to conbook for printing if applicable
• Product ordering should be done by now! Make sure your departments are doing it NOW if they have not! Creating and shipping takes time!

1 Month before con, what do you need to have done?

• Make sure all applicable departments have sent in their BEO’s to the hotel lead. (Banquet Event/Equipment Order. This is what the hotel needs to set up for your room if applicable. Tables, chairs, etc. You also need a layout of how the room is to be put together with those items.)
• Make sure all your departments are on schedule
• Check their guides to see if anything is missing that they should be doing
• Make sure they are in contact with volunteers about getting enough volunteers for their needs.
• Make sure they are in contact with Logistics for all their logistical needs weekend if applicable
• Make sure they are in contact with IT if they have at-con IT needs weekend if applicable
• Make sure they have their staff scheduled for the weekend if applicable
• Make sure they have done any needed training sessions with their volunteers or its happening ASAP if they haven't.
• Make sure they have or will be sending all needed updates to conbook NOW for printing if applicable

After the Convention/Before the Firing Party

• Make sure all your volunteers (and yourself) got inputted into the system for their hours.
• Update your guide with any new/relevant information/changes.
• A staff feedback survey will be emailed out and sent into the staff chats. Please fill this out ASAP!
• Make any staffing suggestions to the next years’ chair. (If you want to work again, staff who excelled and where, etc.)
• If VancouFur owes you money for department spending, PLEASE PLEASE send your reciepts to [email protected] & [email protected] and then fill out [[1]]

Break down of contacts

• The departments in your branch may change year to year so make sure to get an updated list every year from the chairs! So please always consult the Org Chart and Contact Sheet if you need to know who’s in your branch and what their contact info is!

PLEASE REMEMBER

• Always respond to emails/contacts, even if it is just to say “I recieved your email and will get back to you soon!” / “I don't know the answer but I am looking into it for you!”
• Be sure to contact the Chairs or Admin to make sure you have access to the materials you will need for the year like your Staff Email, Access to any folders/sites with materials, etc. (Be on the lookout for invites or emails to these things and check your junk mail too!)
• Make sure you TEST your new staff email (if any) and report problems immediately to the Chairs! (if you haven't gotten any emails in a while, do another test!)
• Make sure you keep all of your information up to date with the convention staff! Contact the volunteers lead to update your information if the volunteers spreadsheet is not available for direct editing!
• Do not WAIT for someone to contact you. If you have a moment to reach out, do so! Depending on who you are working with, the communication road may not be a 2 way street and you will have to do a lot of poking. Please be proactive!
• Do not edit any staff members’ documentation without permission!
• Keep all VancouFur related documents INSIDE the VancouFur Materials folders. Keeping things on your own gdocs and not inside the VancouFur specific folders makes it incredibly difficult to find needed information for all parties without hassling a lot of staff.
• If you need to make something private in the materials folder (Googledocs or wherever it moves to in the future) Make sure that the Chairs, Admin and Executives CAN STILL SEE IT. We need to know where you are and if your files are all hidden we cannot proactively offer help, guidance, or corrections. Otherwise, just keep things public/view only to prevent people from messing with your info.
• Need help? Communicate with the other executives as well as the admin and Chairs! We works as a team and are here the help! Need the chairs? [email protected] / [email protected] or use the Contact Sheet