Changing Gears

So this week I finally started training for my actual position that I will have for the next year, and everything feels like a total 180 from the last month.  No more learning by doing, since it's a brand new program that no one is actually doing yet, at least anywhere near here.  No more not knowing what my issue will be next month or three months after that.  Now I have classroom training, role playing practice, and just one issue for a whole year.  Not only will I be officially non-partisan, I'll be completely "non-political" (although I definitely agree with one of my coordinators who said that action is inherently political, but Americorp draws the line at advocacy and lobbying so I guess I'm on the correct side of that line).  I've been enjoying observing some of the parallels between these two completely opposite volunteer opportunities I'm putting back to back in my life.  Both are for organizations that inherently flirt with important Americorp boundaries, but one to the side of politics and one to the side of religion.  Both have a strong community aspect as an organizational characteristics, but one from the traditional familial aspect of religious people and those working to serve families and the other from the tension of being full-time activists when it's kind of cool not to care.  I will also be doing some similar things, teaching kids and working to make small changes to adapt homes, but this time I'll be teaching conservation not tutoring English and my caulk gun will be to keep in warm or cool air not keep out bugs.


One way that my volunteer experiences will be very different, which I'll have a better feel for soon enough, is the separation between my Americorp time and personal time.  Americorp has A LOT of rules about how you can spend your time that you submit for hours.   Not only can I not lobby elected officials about legislation or policy, not only can I not endorse candidates or parties, I also can't register voters (and somehow unions get grouped in with political parties...I don't totally get that one).  I'm not allowed to do anything that can be interpreted as proselytizing or trying to push my religious viewpoint on others.  All this was pretty easy to do last year while still remaining politically and religiously involved.    I only represented Americorp within the walls of my agency, and even there a lot of people didn't necessarily think of me as an Americorp member since a minority of volunteers participate with an Americorp grant.  This year, I'll be representing Americorp much more regularly, as the entire program is funded with an Americorp grant (I'm not sure I've ever used the word Americorp so frequently).  I won't have an office or an agency to create a separation between my personal life and my work life (although apparently I'll have to wear some sort of Americorp pin or something when I'm working).  I'll be the face of WISPIRG Energy Service Corp in Milwaukee; I'll represent it where ever I go, whatever I do.  I've already experienced the fact that people recognize us as PIRG employees:  I followed up with a business owner (who I actually didn't think was going to sign our petition in support of high-speed rail but did) and she told me she recognized me from something or other I was doing on campus.  So after coming in to her store once and talking to her about a political issues she hadn't really thought about or decided how she feels about it, she was able to recognize me when she drove past me standing on a street corner registering college kids to vote.  This is what we want in PIRG, for people to notice us doing things.  This will make a lot of stuff I could easily do last year by just making it clear I was not submitting those hours for Americorp impossible this year, including attending political rallies, lobbying elected officials, wearing clothes or pins or stickers with a political position, participating in high-profile religious events (like the peace and justice stations of the cross walk I went to last year during holy week).  This will definitely pose a challenge for me, staying away from anything that can be conflated as political advocacy or religious proselytization.  But I'll do anything once, and a year isn't that long.


I also have met the other Energy Service Corp (ESC) member who will be in Eau Clair and is also training this week.  We are pretty much completely opposite as people (she grew up the youngest of 9 on a farm, has never been on an airplane, and on and on with differences), but I've sort of gotten used to every time I do something new I feel like everyone I meet is completely opposite of me.  I kind of love that no matter how many people I've met from how many different backgrounds, I can still be surprised.  I guess when I'm not surprised any more I'll know I've met every kind of person or something.  Or maybe that will be a sign I've gotten stuck somewhere.  Anyway, still no pictures, although I actually do have a couple that I need to put up at some point.  But in my mind I've decided pictures are too big a hassle to not just make entirely their own post, so I'll wait until I have more.