For a summary of what I’m hoping to accomplish in this blog series (in the second week of every month of 2018), I recommend reviewing my explanation here.
Administration. It’s probably not the most inspiring part of my job, and maybe it’s an odd choice for where to start for this series. But honestly, if you were to ask me what I do every day, I feel like my (slightly cynical) response would be, “I answer emails and create agendas — all day.”
That’s certainly not accurate, but it can feel like it. The never-ending tide of responsibilities that come from managing a national non-profit with over 20 staff can be overwhelming. What I do love is that all of this administration fuels such awesome work; the long-term benefits from our investments are worth the administrative slog and all of the meetings.
A large part of my job in the administrative department is casting vision and guiding the organization down the path God has for us. This means I am the one who is tasked with creating many (but not all) of the agendas for those behind-the-scenes leadership discussions. I spend on average 4–6 hours a week on agenda creation and another 3–4 hours a week in the meetings themselves. Quick math tells you that this portion of my job alone accounts for almost a quarter of my work week.
Like anyone else, I have those typical administrative tasks: answering email and submitting expense reports. I also have seasonal demands like budgets, annual reports, and staff conferences; each of these seasonal events has their own set of administrative responsibilities. None of this touches the basic ministry administration of working with my students: planning our activities, promoting for attendance, scheduling and communicating the plans, deadlines, and involvement needed.
I have often heard people comment about how everyone wants the finished product, but nobody wants to do what it takes to get there. Well, administration is certainly a big part of the finished product of campus ministry. Without it, we would never Impact the U. Impact the World.
Embedded below is a video diary I made of some of the administrative tasks I have (and the physical context for where all the magic happens).
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