“You live and learn. Or you don't live long.” -- Lazarus Long, In Time Enough for Love by Robert A Heinlein
I am a survivor and learn by my
mistakes. My life narrative consists of Vancouver
bound, Learning for career choices,
Personal and Professional Ethics,
Honesty in the workplace, Test driving retirement, Learning
for learning sake and Self- awareness
I have lived in three provinces because of my conviction that
I had to follow my heart. Twice I moved to unusual locations for personal relationships. The first unusual move was from Vancouver, British Columbia to Thompson, Manitoba. The second was from Thompson to Norway House, Manitoba.
Two of my three most recent major life shifts were made independently of personal relationships. First was moving back to Vancouver and second was moving to
Victoria. Both moves resulted in educational endeavors but for different
reasons.
Several events precipitated my move back to Vancouver after fourteen years in
Manitoba. My job at the provincial government was being downgraded to part-time;
a five-year relationship ended and I was staying in the basement room at my girlfriend's
house. Since I was planning a trip to Vancouver for my mom’s 70th
birthday anyway, I decided
it would be another one way plane ticket.
1973, my first foray to Vancouver, was a
graduation present from my parents. They gave me a set of luggage and a one-way ticket.
They were not trying to get rid of me, well maybe a
little, but their main motivation behind the one way ticket was to encourage me to get a summer
job. I would work
and then pay for my own ticket back to Regina and the end of the summer. I got the job and decided I liked
working and living in Vancouver and stayed. But I digress, back to 1990 and that
experience.
I gave notice at work and packed the possessions I had with me. My family agreed that I could live rent-free for at least six
months as I did not have a job. I allowed myself a three month break before finding
work became critical and a financial necessity. I arrived at the beginning of February and by the end, was settled into my sister’s apartment for the weekdays, my mother’s apartment on the weekends and
had a four-month work contract. In some ways I resented the work opportunity being handed to me before my vacation was over, but practicality won out.
The work was Office Manager for four non-profit organizations. The newest and potentially the largest non-profit was the Disabled Sailing Association of BC (DSA). The Executive Director, a quadriplegic, needed someone with a variety of skills in accounting, management, human resources and customer service. My skills were a perfect
fit and the first project was to take the four “shoe boxes” full of receipts
and turn each one into a year’s worth of sequential general journal entries, balance sheets and financial reports.
This information was needed for the annual filing for the Society’s Act and Revenue Canada
and the Annual General Meeting.
In addition to the accounting, I hired sailing instructors and, while working with a graphic designer, I learned Ventura software. We created brochures for the non-profits and produced the first DSA newsletter.
My background in non-profits was limited to what I had done as a volunteer for the Variety Club, Muscular Dystrophy and Toastmasters International.
My membership in Toastmasters did provide me with the confidence to speak in public and the training to write speeches. As well, through
facilitating Toastmasters Public speaking courses, I learned the skills to train other people to speak in public. Despite my limited non-profit background I believe that my skills in general business, restaurant management and the operation of an air charter business transferred well to the new situation. The term position became full-time and another person was hired to assist with clerical duties and the sailing season.
Half way through the summer sailing season I felt like I was missing pieces of information such as the BC Society’s Act and the purpose of a Board. I was passionate about the sailing program and how it helped the disabled and I wanted to do everything I could to make it successful. So, I found the Certificate in Non-Profit Management program at Vancouver Community College to help fill my knowledge gaps. At that time, only twenty-five people per year were accepted into the program, so I was thrilled to be one of them.
This began my first major educational Endeavour in many years. After a busy summer, working with sailing instructors, various volunteers and the four Non-Profits Board of Directors, I was eager to learn.
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With trepidation and excitement I arrived for the first class, Human Resources Management. The instructor, Bob, immediately became a role model.
He is one of those teacher's that I strive to become and even years later I can recall him and his classes with clarity.
Within the class were other adults, working in the non-profit sector, or making a transition to that sector. Out of the twenty-five students, fifteen of us were doing the fast track ten-month program versus the two-year program. The group, as we dubbed ourselves, became great study buddies as well as contacts for help at work. Many times during my years in the non-profit world, my buddies & I would bounce ideas off each other or exchange information in and out of class.
During the next ten months we spent every Monday and Wednesday evening and alternating Friday evenings plus Saturday and Sunday together. There were ten courses encompassing the history of Non-Profits, Boards and their roles and responsibilities, plus legal liabilities. Time and stress management was an important component as the non-profit industry has a high burnout rate. In addition we covered fundraising, planned giving and financial management, volunteer management, marketing, program planning and evaluation and working with groups. As I went through each course, my school assignments were based on real-life situations in my job and at the end of my ten months of school the four non-profits had media kits, marketing plans, fundraising plans and board liability insurance.
Part of the “ group” attended and proudly wore the graduation regalia as we accepted our certificates in June 1991. After that, I was confident in my abilities and ready to chair the committee for the
inaugural Disabled Sailing Association of BC Sailing Regatta. By August of that year, the Sailing Association had gone from one boat to five, had had a successful regatta, and had a volunteer training manual and a second successful season of sailing. The other non-profits, although not as
popular, were equally on the right path for success.
Knowledge is a powerful “eye opener” and before my courses were over I had become distressingly aware that the Executive
Director was not the person I thought he was. At first I believed that he
was working in non-profits because he was altruistic and wanted to help other disabled people. However he actually operated
from a Machiavellian mode. He had no qualms about using his fellow disabled friends, staff and general public to achieve his personal goals. These personal goals were for both status and financial gain. As he said to me during one of our heated disagreements, “disabled people do not have to sail, it is just expedient for me that they want to.”
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Psychologist Richard Christie,
creator of the Machiavellianism personality scale, believes that
“Machiavellians demonstrate a distorted view of human nature … they
view people as objects to be manipulated rather than as humans with whom to have
empathy; no conventional morality -- all interactions are viewed as
utilitarian (based on what is accomplished or what's in it for me). And Christie
further states that “Machiavellians manipulate and exploit others to advance
their personal agendas … represents the core of bullying. (http://bullyinginstitute.org/bbstudies/why2.html) As one of his former board members described him “XX
and his self servitude societies.” This may sound like a cliché but he actually did go into civic politics.
My personal ethical standards are high and I have little tolerance for anything less. The director asked
me and the CGA student to sign documents that we knew contained false information. We both refused; shortly thereafter I quit. Since that time, I have utilized my knowledge of non-profits as a volunteer board member or consultant to assist various other non-profit organizations. Additionally, my learned knowledge of fundraising and donor recognition, marketing and volunteer management assisted me in securing my next job in Vancouver.
In September 1991 I started working at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The official departmental title was Ceremonies and Donor Relations, Development Office, External
Affairs. My title the first two years was
Administration
Coordinator – Special Events and Communications, but that does not accurately describe what I did. The unit I worked in existed because of
UBC’s major fundraising campaign and was comprised of four people, an events coordinator, a publications/media person, the department Manager and myself. For each new building, resulting from funds raised by the campaign, there were groundbreaking and official opening ceremonies. As well, on an annual basis we hosted a campaign event for all the donors and university stakeholders.
As the Admin Coordinator, I was the
donor information and invitation "guru" all campaign events and
publications. At that time the information was in an IBM mainframe computer system running MVS (Multiple Virtual Storage).
To extract the information was not an easy task. At first, I had programmers begrudgingly provide me with limited information on a disk that I would then import into Excel. I linked WordPerfect merge features with the Excel pseudo database and created a master list. As time went on I gained the trust and respect of the programmers and was able to run my own requests using an application called Crystal Reports. The application retrieved data from the MVS system and created downloadable text files. By this time I was using Excel and Word and the entire process was much faster.
Besides being the information guru, I was the invitation design person, the donor recognition database designer and publications expert. I worked with outside suppliers such as printing and mailing companies. In addition, for large events requiring volunteers, I was the coordinator,
the trainer and assigned the duties. Myself and another person designed and implemented the post campaign donor recognition clubs.
(e.g. The Heritage Circle, for planned giving donors).
My other on campus job was part-time work for Continuing Studies. The WordPerfect facilitator Vicky Smith with myself as her TA became the dynamic duo of WordPerfect, teaching beginner through to desktop publishing. We later migrated to Word and continued the duo until I left UBC in 1995. By this point I had investigated further education,
possibly in computing, but was not sure what area to pursue. My investigations lead me to find the Certificate in Adult Continuing
Education at the University of Victoria, which I found intriguing.
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An interesting turn of events was
when in February 1993, the Advancement Services Section at the Development Office hired my
sister as the first LAN Administrator. We had taken totally different life and career paths, she doing a variety of general clerical work before re-entering academia and I going the management and financial route. Then, twenty plus years later, we were working together. As the campaign was winding down, my computer skills were being utilized more. I assisted my sister in the PC support area learning from her the hardware aspect of the job and teaching her the software. After the campaign ended my position was transferred to Advancement Services where I was part of the team testing and installing a LAN. My sister and I spent many frustrating Saturday afternoons installing memory and network cards in sixty computers.
My title was now PC Support/Business Analyst and my new immediate supervisors were two people: Ron for the
donor information and Paul for the Business analysis side. The former was obnoxious
and took my ideas as his own. The latter, Paul added a breath of fresh air and became a mentor and a friend. He was my supporter and tried to champion my position reclassification and sole reporting to him. Paul and I worked with the MVS information and met with the various departmental units to determine their information requirements.
Every few months the director would provide hope and indicate the reclassification and change in reporting structure would happen. However that change did not materialize. I had another work friend Mary, plus Paul and my sister as supporters but that was not enough. Since the majority of the people I worked with were dysfunctional and
I was no longer enjoying playing political games, I felt the need to try other things. So, the “Escape from UBC,” plan was created in Excel
and it detailed my finances, expenses for moving and options for work. Finally in the fall of 1995, as another milestone was approaching I decided that my fortieth birthday present to me was
temporary early retirement.
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This plan included quitting my job at UBC and moving to Victoria. I decided that, once and for all, I needed to see what else I could do. I wanted to explore the possibility of making a living being creative. I started a company, unregistered, DeBrix Designs and Deskworks. The design side was sweaters
that I would design. At first I would do all the work, knitting or crocheting but later, depending on how the business went, I could hire people to do piece work to my specifications. The Deskworks side, using my computer skills to help other businesses
was going to keep the money coming in.
Throughout all the changes, trials and tribulations, in the background, I was honing my computer skills. During most parts of my working life I was involved some way or other with computers, starting with mainframes and key punch cards. I progressed to the Commodore 64, and then a Mac with a mouse. One of my “selling” features at the beginning of the 1990’s was my advanced knowledge of WordPerfect. I knew all the functions and commands; I could walk a person through a mail merge, over the phone, without a keyboard or template. I learned applications such as Word and Excel quickly and as thoroughly as WordPerfect. There is an intuitive connection between software and me.
Software to me then and even now, is an art form. I approach learning about applications or creating documents within those applications the same way I approach any creative
Endeavour. I enjoy creating and have spent a large chunk of my free time crocheting afghans, designing and knitting sweaters and designing and sewing clothes and home decorations.
The Deskworks part of my business involved working with computer software and, occasionally, hardware. I did some temporary assignments with a
staffing agency, worked as HR generalist at that same agency and then spent three years as a business consultant. One of the company’s that I consulted for specialized in Public Policy, research and report writing. The report writing side prompted me to take a grammar course and then hone my skills by reading everything I could about grammar and sentence structure.
Another company I consulted for specialized in computer application customization, web development and training. I provided technical and training documentation and acted as a software trainer for Microsoft products, specifically Outlook.
I realized that to pursue my creative activities, such as designing a sweater as a business took the fun
away and the contracts for both companies dried up, so I needed a salaried job again. After two temporary terms at the Empress Hotel, when a full time administrative position came open, I took the job. Within a very short time my software knowledge was made public and I assisted people with their issues. As well, I was assigned to spearhead, in conjunction with the Systems Manager, the conversion to Outlook and provide the needed training. With consultation and specific course requirements from me, twelve people, one person from key departments, attended an Outlook training session at PBSC (Polar Bear Software). I attended so I knew exactly what was covered and could provide hotel specific examples for the instructor’s use. As the hotel was also switching from WordPerfect /Lotus to Word/Excel I was asked to provide training in the latter. I held one small group session but mainly
provided customized training via one on one sessions. I helped people to learn the new software and specifically apply it to their jobs.
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In the fall of 2001, I felt I needed to take courses again, but not to help me in a specific career. As I had spent most of my career training people on job specific
skills so learning about adult learning intrigued me. Also, for the past year or
so I had spent time on self directed learning, specifically Alzheimer's and how
the brain stores, recalls and loses memory. These two areas of interest fit
nicely into the online Certificate in Adult Continuing
Education, University of Victoria, which I had researched a few years
prior.
However, I was not sure if I could be an online learner so I enrolled in my first online course, the Foundations of Adult Education. What a revelation,
the frustrating parts of my former learning, such as rushing to class, were absent. I set my own timetable and work schedule. I attended “class" via the web board when it fit my available time. It was up to me to learn rather than the past
when all I needed to do was show up, listen and not have to do any additional reading or homework to obtain a reasonable mark.
I rediscovered philosophy. Although I had read a few books and discussed the
concepts with my sister when she was taking those courses I did not see the relevance at the time. I was too caught up in management,
business and the here and now to bother with that subject. Suddenly I was immersed and enthralled with many topics, and
I was learning for learning sake. I was not doing it to help me at work, or get a better job. I was learning for me and for no other reason than because I wanted to. I skipped the next semester as I had bought a condo and needed time to participate in self-directed learning about decorating, paint types, balcony gardens and then time to actually complete the projects.
In the fall of 2002 I enrolled in the CACE program and have not stopped since. One course, Adult Learning and Development, challenged the norms with assignments such a paper answering the question “Can we teach Wisdom.” Similar to my excitement at the start of each school year
when I was a child, I approach each semester with renewed enthusiasm.
There is so much to learn and I am not sure if I will ever have enough time to do it all. I have a stack of books to read, when I have time. The topics vary from Plato’s Republic to
mystery and forensic novels. I want to learn more about philosophy and ethics and how we learn and what constitutes intelligence.
At first, just finishing a semester was an accomplishment. Now I cannot imagine
life without learning and I am already planning my Masters degree and
considering whether I want to do a PhD. I always joke that once I reduce my
working life to semi retirement, I will get my degree in law, just because the subject interests me. That may become a reality.
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Seventeen years later, through
self-reflection and critical thinking I understand myself
better. I know that I have no tolerance for manipulative people, ones that use others for their own benefit. I know that I
have little patience for bullies. I know that I do not work “for” anyone, but that I work well “with” people. For some it maybe semantics but to me is an important distinction. I know that I want to help this world in whatever small way I can, that I am altruistic and wish more people were. I learned when my friend and mentor at UBC, Paul was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and quickly died, that life is too short.
We must take advantage of the time we have and spend it with the people we care about and do what
makes us happy. And, whatever we do, we should do it with conviction and passion and enthusiasm.
"I
cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of
friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let's face it, friends make life
a lot more fun." Charles R Swindoll.
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