Internship Journals

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Specific topics

       1. People (staff) management (policy, procedures, supervision, equity, etc.)

       2. Place (land, water, buildings, program areas, etc.)

       3. Program (scheduling, delivery, activities, etc.)

       4. Administration (how everything is managed to fit together)

       5. Safety (risk management, incident/accident, equipment, competency, training, etc.

other weeks:

*  Describe the event or situation -- what, why, who, where, when!

    * Describe your reaction to the event or situation (feelings, thoughts, actions, etc.)

    * Describe how you would change the event or situation in the future.

    * Describe what you learned.

Week ending June 10^th

 People

 Earlier this week one of the other employees re-injured a strained muscle in his side while lifting something heavy. It was a particularly heavy spool of cable, so two employees were working together to lift it. My immediate reaction was one of sympathy, since I knew of the previous injury. My second thought was of prevention of further injury, encouraging the employee to try and limit work that would further aggravate the injury. My next thought was of concern with how the employee was going to have time to rest and recuperate, considering the hectic schedule at ERI. It will be hard to recover working around 28 days a month. Part of the reason for the re-injury was failure to properly recover from the first injury. It will be interesting to see if the employee manages to recover more fully this time. It seems to me that this is an issue of not having enough personnel for the amount of work. If there were more employees it would be less of an issue if an employee needed a day off. It seems like this is a difficult business to find and keep enough employees, but it seems like the company really does needs a few more employees right now.

 Week ending June 17^th

 Place

 ERI has a different sense of place since 90% of the time is spent on the road. Perhaps instead of discussing place, I should discuss lack of place! ERI works in a variety of places. The majority of places are outdoor sites at summer camps, but some jobs are indoor climbing walls. The places tend to be outside of major metropolitan areas. Often there are several camps together in the same general area. Geographically ERI does business all over the country- from Cape Cod to California. ERI is capable of building on nearly any site in any weather from 100 degree heat to snow and ice (although cold jobs are not remembered fondly). Some sites have existing trees that can be used, other sites use treated telephone poles to create elements, and some sites use a combination of trees and poles. The home office of ERI is just outside of Bloomington Indiana. The main office is located in the former garage of the owner. There is a second shop at a different location on loan from a local Girl Scout council for storage of equipment and materials. ERI has a business arrangement with the same Girl Scout group to use their course to perform ERI trainings. ERI also does some training sessions at Berry College in Georgia.

 Week Ending June 24^th

 Program

 The Eri schedule is pretty crazy! There are only occasional breaks between work during the peak season, including weekends. This requires a great deal of careful scheduling, along with a good deal of wild guessing. There are several different factors that come into consideration when scheduling a program- first is the needs of the client, second is the ability of ERI to make it there, and third is the availability of the necessary supplies, since ERI obtains many of the necessary supplies on site. The delivery of the construction segment is non-stop until the job is done. When available, lodging on-site is preferred since it provides more time to work. When the construction segment is complete, a trainer visits to provide the necessary training generally somewhere between a few weeks and a few months later depending again on both parties schedules. The trainer often makes necessary small adjustments to the course and sometimes delivers ordered equipment. After that, ERI recommends yearly inspections, which can be performed by either a trainer or by some of the construction crew. ERI creates many different activities- climbing walls, tango towers, low ropes elements, high ropes courses, zip lines, portable elements, and more!

 Week Ending July 1^st

 Administration

 ERI uses a distributed administration system. There is a lot of overlap between persons responsible for fitting everything together. There are four people responsible for most of the administration. The training director has the most independent responsibility in scheduling trainings, but is assisted by the owners and by the administrative assistant in contacting clients and maintaining client relationships. The training director oversees around five other part time trainers and is responsible for their schedules as well. The other three ERI employees- the two owners and the administrative assistant- are responsible for the administration of the rest of the ERI building and inspection business. One of the owners works primarily out of the head office doing necessary paperwork, billing, and contacting clients. The administrative assistant has similar responsibilities, but with somewhat less emphasis on client relationships and additional responsibilities for logistics and supply of both building supplies and materials ordered directly by clients. The second owner does most of the scheduling and consulting with clients for the construction side of ERI, as well as directly overseeing construction and scheduling many inspections. ERI manages its communication primarily through cell phone calls, with email being the second most common method. The four ERI employees keep their efforts coordinated through daily, or more frequent, contact.

 Week ending July 8^th

 Safety

             Ropes course construction is inherently dangerous. ERI does take many steps to insure the safety of its employees. There is an element of challenge by choice present at every job- and employees are never directly asked to do anything they feel is unreasonably dangerous. ERI provides necessary safety equipment and official company policy encourages its use when appropriate. Risk management for training is provided for through the use of a legal waiver. On the construction side, ERI strongly discourages use of climbing structures by organizations unless they have been properly trained- almost always by ERI. ERI always posts access prevention signs on all structures it builds, and builds all structures with access prevention in mind. Incidents and accidents are infrequent enough to not need a structured recording and reporting system. Accidents involving claims to worker compensation would be investigated by the company insuring ERI. Equipment used by ERI is inspected by employees before use on a regular basis. Ropes, climbing hardware, and harnesses are replaced on a frequent schedule- approximately every year to two years depending on condition. Training is provided on-site in an informal manner by experienced employees.

 Week ending July 15^th           

 Personnel

             ERI has a difficult time maintaining an optimal level of employees. As previously mentioned, the schedule of the ERI employee is extremely hectic- consisting sometimes of five weeks or more of work with no days off other than time spent traveling to the next jobsite. The schedule of the head trainer is similarly difficult, but with the added difficulty of having scheduling and paperwork to complete on a regular basis. The schedule at the head office is more traditional, but the work is more stressful. The owners have the most work of all, having to always be on call for clients and having to be able to step in for anyone else in any aspect of the business when necessary. The high stress and hectic schedules mean that employee turnover is relatively high- the average ERI builder lasts approximately two years. Training personnel generally remain employed significantly longer, but training is also a much smaller portion of the ERI business. It is especially difficult for ERI to retain lead builders who are capable of successfully overseeing a construction project from start to finish. The lack of such personnel prevents the owners from being able to grow ERI by focusing more on finding and retaining clients. ERI is already one of the leaders in the ropes course construction industry, but with the addition of a select half dozen individuals with the appropriate knowledge and training, ERI could easily become the most dominant force in ropes course construction, inspection and training of the 21^st century.

 Week of July 22^nd

Transportation 

            ERI lives on and by the road. The vast majority of ERI employee time is spent away from the headquarters near Bloomington, Indiana. Travel is required for the building crew, trainers, inspectors, and for the owners to meet with clients. These transportation needs are met in a variety of ways. The building crew travels in a large pickup truck capable of towing a trailer containing necessary tools and most of the harder to obtain building supplies. These two items are ERI’s largest capital investments. There are few expenses spared on these items, but they still must be replaced about every five years due to the great amount of use that they receive. This is more difficult with the trailer, since it takes approximately 3-4 days to outfit each trailer with the necessary shelves and storage areas. The owners and the lead trainer have several cars available to them for use on trips starting from the Indianapolis area. Trips originating outside of the Indianapolis area generally use rental cars for local transportation. Trips more than a few hundred miles, or when schedules are tight, generally involve flying, then renting a car. ERI employees on official business also have the option of using their personal vehicles and being reimbursed for travel expenses by the company. Part-time inspectors are the most likely to use the reimbursement option. Gas for official ERI business is purchased on company credit cards, or employees can be reimbursed if they pay from their own pocket, but this is generally discouraged.

 Week of July 29^th

 Equipment and Supplies

     ERI uses a LOT of equipment. The majority of equipment is owned by ERI and carried from job to job in the ERI trailer. About half of the supplies and equipment in the trailer are power tools and hand tools. Power tools used include both corded and cordless tools- mostly for drilling, driving, sawing, and swaging. Power tools receive a lot of hard use and must be replaced on a regular basis. Construction in trees and poles is difficult on cordless drills and drivers. Luckily for the battery-powered drills, holes in trees and poles are drilled using corded drills on generator power. Hand tools include digging and tree trimming equipment, cable cutters, measuring instruments and assorted wrenches and pliers. Hand tools seem to have a longer life-span and are not replaced as frequently. The second half of the trailer is occupied by difficult to obtain building supplies. The largest portion is thimble-eye bolts, nut-eye bolts, and large machine bolts. Ground anchors, galvanized aircraft cable, spools of ½ inch and ¾ inch rope, assorted carriage bolts, lag screws, and other specialty fasteners make up the majority of the rest of the supplies carried. Bulky and infrequently used equipment- for example, metal cutting and welding equipment- is maintained at the ERI shop facility south of Bloomington. The shop is also used to store quantities of some materials used more frequently, but difficult to keep large quantities of in the trailer- like ground anchors. The shop also holds excess fasteners that are often purchased in bulk quantities. Climbing materials- rapid links, climbing ropes, carabiners, etc- are kept at the head office. Wood and generic construction supplies are purchased locally near the job-site. Other necessary supplies are ordered from the office and delivered directly to the job-site. Climbing equipment for clients is either brought by the building crew, the trainer, or shipped directly from the office.

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