Wuh! OK, so I've just given this my full attention and I'd like to weigh in.  There were so many great insights.  

Josh, your organization is as unique as you are.  Its challenges are similar and different to everyone elses'.  Like others have said before me, find out what everyone else Thinks.  Find what your core volunteers Do.  What they Say. What they Feel.  That will help form a common narrative that will be unique to your org.  You can do this by interviewing everyone for the Who What When Where and 5 Whys.

 

Interviewing everyone can take a long time.  What we did at MoBo is come together as the core group and did a workshop together.  We each shared what was important about the shop, what we saw for it in the future, and decided together what we needed to focus on to get MoBo there.  That was 10 years, over 200 annual members, and money always in the bank.  That took the shop from a shed under a walnut tree to a storefront.

When we were strategic like that, we grew stronger.  When we simply implemented processes and policies without working together, those usually didn't last long, or were highly problematic.

In regards to training - I'm an advocate and I've been exploring the strengths and weaknesses of regular focused training once a week for 10-30 minutes.  Definitely more strengths than weaknesses.  But it's not about what works for me, but what works for the Mechanical Garden.

Play with it.  Try stuff and be willing to except it might fail, then try something else.  Keep adjusting it if it feels right. 

If you're interested, I'll be in Brooklyn around the 1st of May and can facilitate a group workshop to help determine what you all feel is important, what that means, and how to begin to achieve it.  We can also look at how your Volunteers and Patrons experience the shop.  You'll have to provide your own sparkles.

Hang in there.

Rob Grossman