IDDS 2011 - Other Work

On my team I was a partinizer (participating organizer), which meant that I was in charge of making sure my team had all the resources we needed. From tracking down a high-precision scale so that we could measure how efficient our machine was to keeping tabs on what other teams were working on in case there was scope for collaboration*. I also made sure that all of our documentation was taken care of so that we can continue work after IDDS. And partinizers are supposed to make sure that the team is working together well, but that was the easiest task for me.

I was also on the evaluations committee which meant that I wrote up the weekly evaluations and then helped to compile the data after the fact. The evaluations committee is my favorite part of IDDS since it's a great way to identify areas where we can improve and act on it right away. I also love the people on the committee and it was a great way to get a lot closer to them (a lot of our work seemed to happen in the 1 AM to 3 AM timeframe). Of course, it's not all about filling in surveys--a big part of what we do is just talking to everyone and finding out what they're enjoying and what they'd like to see change. At times it was a bit overwhelming and it made me realize that as much as I love working on a team, I can probably accomplish more if I work as an organizer and put more time in as a problem solver, so I expect that next year I will do just that.

Then there's all the random odd-jobs that come up during the summit. I was on photocopy duty once, which involved a 45 minute search for a shop that was open. I was helping with some of the IT tasks, which mostly meant configuring people's computers to the hostel's internet settings--I felt sympathy for the IT team that spent a lot more time with random computer issues. I was also a back-up for the health committee which meant checking in on some of the malaria cases (there were a few fierce cases and Amit spent a lot of time making sure everyone received the care they needed) and cleaning a few wounds.

All in all, I felt like I was doing less than usual and it felt like we were a bit short-handed on the organizing team. But still, I was pretty impressed with everything that we pulled together this summer.

* In this case, there was one team that was working on a moringa sheller and another team that was using neem oil to help reduce the spread of malaria. We were able to help one another a lot with our projects.

Introduction
My Project (Part 1)
My Project (Part 2)
Other Work
Delivering Content
My Team
Language
Where We Stayed
Suame Magazine
New Longoro
Maker Faire
Food
Potluck
Ramadan
Transportation
Accra