Go to Austin for 2-4 weeks! Whoops, just kidding. I meant 2.5 days.

This is a story from like a month ago and there have been other things to write about between now and then. But I like to do things chronologically, so bear with me.

During third round when I was in Flagstaff, Vaughn said that since the projects department had so many projects they wanted us to do, there was a possibility of forming a composite team or two (where they pull like one or two Corps Members from several different teams to form a new team) that office Team Leaders would lead. I told him I would probably be interested, mostly due to the fact that I felt I was really good at being UDA (and Vaughn had been saying something about how great I was like every week), but being in the field was way more challenging and another round in the field would benefit me more than another round at something I’m already good at. He said he really didn’t want to lose me in the office (which of course I take as a compliment), but that he’d keep that in mind.

It turned out there was only one composite team, which another office TL really wanted, so he got it. Ashley (the STL with the media department), Jourdan (the logistics department STL), T-Lou (short for Therese Louise, the program STL), and myself were selected for a special project in Austin, TX. We found out we were going the first day back in Denver and needed to deploy when the rest of the teams left, so we only had about a week’s notice. Things we didn’t know until maybe three days before we left: where we would live, how long we would be there, how we would eat, what exactly we would be doing, and how we would get there. Things we still didn’t know when we actually arrived in Austin: how long we would be there and what exactly we would be doing. A few days before we left, we found out we would be living in a “converted garage apartment” (I just can’t get away from those garages) called Smoot Cottage on the campus of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary with two beds, a restroom, and a house two feet away with a kitchen we would use. We would have a budget of $4.50 per person per day for food, which is what teams usually get on spike, and would cook in that kitchen nearby. We would be driving the one minivan AmeriCorps has. We were also told that we would be helping set up a call center to be used in times of disaster (hurricanes, etc.) for the whole state of Texas, but had exactly zero other details. No one, including the NCCC staff or the Austin people who were asking us for help, knew how long we would be there. It was pretty much just that we would leave when we were done. The best estimate anyone could come up with was two to four weeks.

We set off on the same Monday morning when all the teams left, feeling very much like we were going on family vacation in our minivan. We got there Tuesday evening and met Liz, the President and CEO of the organization we would be working with. She actually used to be the Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which is in charge of all AmeriCorps programs. (Side note: I now kind of want to become a Chief Operating Officer someday, just so I can add “COO” after my name. I had never heard of that title or seen that acronym before.) So she knows all about AmeriCorps and LOVES NCCC. She calls us the Green Berets of AmeriCorps.

Wednesday morning, we showed up for our first day of work. We were put in a small conference room (the table could only seat six people), each given laptops, and told that this would be our work space. Liz told us that one of the biggest problems with disaster response is unaffiliated volunteers. That seems strange at first, but totally makes sense when you think about it. Liz basically said it can be more if a hindrance than a help when “Dickie Bob and his friends jump in their truck with their three dogs and a chainsaw and head down to Alabama and say they want to help.” (That most likely wasn’t the exact wording, but Dickie Bob, his three dogs, and his chainsaw were definitely involved in her scenario, and we thought it was hilarious.) This call center would not be for people affected by the disaster who needed help, because they already have the 2-1-1 hotline. Our call center would be for Dickie Bob to call and ask what he can do, so he could be matched with a specific organization that could put him to work. It had not been decided yet if our call center would also be for people to call and say they have a microwave and five bags of clothes they want to donate and ask where they can send it. The Department of Child and Family Services, or Department of Child Protective Services, or Department of Family Protective Services (I can’t actually remember the name, but I feel like the acronym is DFPS, so let’s assume it’s that last one) was supposed to be setting up and running this call center, but they changed their minds. The task was then sent to Liz, who asked for NCCC to help. After she explained all of this to us, we thought about what kind of tasks it seemed like would need to get done and attempted to divide the work into four parts. Jourdan would put together a list with contact information for all volunteer disaster services in Texas, T-Lou and Ashley would work on scripts for volunteers to use for answering phones, and I would work on finding out what software and equipment such as phones, phone lines, and computers would be available and what we would need.

Liz was absolutely wonderful and helped us as much as she possibly could. This is the President and CEO we’re talking about here. She did some of her own research and scheduled a couple conference calls and meetings for us with various people, and let us in on a crazy meeting where we had a projector hooked up to a computer that was somehow showing the computer screen of the guy in Washington DC (maybe?) who was running the meeting, so we could see his presentation and see him move his mouse around to point at things as he talked on speakerphone. Technology these days, I tell ya. Anyway, most of what we found out was that this was going to be an ENORMOUS job that we didn’t actually have any idea how to do. We spend most of our time in that room attempting to do research on other states’ disaster services, other call centers, etc., but the more we found out, the more it overwhelming it seemed.

We were scheduled to have a couple meetings with I don’t even remember who anymore on Friday afternoon. While we were out wandering the city during our lunch hour like we always did (and by always, I mean for the three lunch hours we had there), Liz emailed us and said that the meetings were canceled and could we please come to her office when we get back from lunch. When we got there she told us that she informed whoever needed to be informed that she refused to do the call center. She assured us that it had nothing to do with us and that we were wonderful. She said there were just too many state organizations and other non profits who were involved (which is the main reason it became so overwhelming for us, because it was really difficult for us to tell who all was involved and what we needed from them) and that none of them were making decisions. Also, her organization’s budget (which I think comes from the state, but I’m not entirely sure) had recently been cut by like 84% and they were having to let go of eight or nine of their 22 staff members, so they just didn’t have the money or the manpower to take on this big of a project. These other organizations just weren’t coming through with allotting a budget, giving authority, and in general just making decisions the way they were supposed to. We talked with Liz for quite a while about her life and how she got to where she was. She’s really kind of incredible. And she said that one of the most important lessons she’s learned is when to cut her losses and say no to things. With all these organizations not doing what they were supposed to, she felt like our time was being wasted because we couldn’t actually move forward on things. She said our time was too valuable and she couldn’t stand feeling like she was the one wasting it, so she told the state (or whoever) that she wouldn’t do the call center unless all these other things happened first. And she told us that we were free to go back to Denver whenever we wanted to. So instead of working on this project 2-4 weeks, we worked 2.5 days. We called our various Unit Leaders and told them that we could come back whenever, but since we had only been there 2.5 days, we’d really like to be able to leave Austin on Monday so we have a little time to explore and so our entire weekend isn’t taken up with driving since it’s a two-day trip. They agreed, so we got to spend the weekend in Austin!

The weekend was pretty fun. Unfortunately, I don’t quite feel comfortable telling the best story of the weekend (which occurred after a rally on Saturday morning with all the various AmeriCorps people on the steps of the capitol to celebrate the end of AmeriCorps Week) on a public blog because it involves some public people, but please feel free to ask me privately. It’s nothing too embarrassing for anyone, I just don’t want to post it on the internet.

Other highlights of the weekend:

The bats! Underneath the Congress Street Bridge in Austin is home to the largest bat population in the country, or something special like that. Every night at dusk, a couple hundred people gather both on top of the bridge and in the park next to the bridge to watch the millions of bats all pour out at once. We got there about 45 minutes before it started and we could hear all the bats under there making their eerie screeching sound, and then they all came out to start their night of hunting. It was crazy. Millions of bats just fly out from under this bridge and all head the same direction. We left about 20 minutes after it started and there were STILL bats coming out. I wish I had internet right now as I’m typing this so I could look up how many bats live under there. (I’m doing like I did last year in New Orleans, and typing this in a Word document at my internetless housing and saving it until I get internet and can post it.)

Jourdan and I went to something called the Renegade Craft Fair on Saturday. It was like a regular craft fair, but slightly funkier and geared toward a younger crowd. I bought some earrings from a guy who makes jewelry out of broken skateboards.

Ashley and I went to breakfast on Sunday morning at Austin Java while T-Lou and Jourdan went on like a 10-mile run. I had breakfast at Austin Java twice with TK and Lindsey last year when a bunch of people went to Austin for spring break. It is SO GOOD. If you ever find yourself in Austin, it’s at 2nd and Lavaca. Seriously. I saw other places in the city called Austin Java, but they looked different and I can’t speak to the quality of these other ones, but 2nd and Lavaca is delicious.

That afternoon, we went swimming at Barton Springs Pool. It’s like a natural spring pool that they built walls around. Or something. And by “went swimming,” I mean swam for like 15 minutes then laid out in the sun for an hour and a half. Jourdan and T-Lou both went in another time or two, but I just soaked up some vitamin D. And yet, I’m still as pale as ever.

We stopped for the night on the way back to Denver on Monday in Amarillo, which is really close to where T-Lou is from. She insisted that we go to Palo Duro Canyon. Ashley didn’t feel like it, but the other three of us went. I didn’t quite feel like doing the hike that T-Lou and Jourdan wanted to do, so I just drove the giant loop road through the park then sat and watched the beginning of the sunset at a nice overlook spot. We were there at like 6pm so there were hardly any other people. I was alone at that overlook spot for quite a while. It was really nice. I love sunsets.

So that’s the Austin Adventure. Then we all came back to Denver and went back to our regular jobs in the office. Until, that is, I got sent off on my next unexpected, not-much-notice adventure. This post is getting to be quite long, so that story will have to wait for another time. Here’s a hint though: I’m not in Denver right now. 