Time Manage Me : a balance ACT
In an effort to volunteer and keep-up with my art activities ; I am limiting my volunteer work to two engagements; and this way I can still stay on schedule with the artistic side of my LIFE. Though somewhat un-connected to my professional goal of, for the time of now, remaining a volunteer only; my reading outside of research for one volunteer engagement, has been suffering significantly; when this happens I use a skim method, to quickly sift through text material; from several books in for example, one day; often I have found that this method of reading invents art, and still leaves me time for research–related READING. (Perhaps this would be better placed in my other blog? Though, I think not.)
A QUICK SUMMARY : PIECES OF MY VOLUNTEER NOTES.
a quick summary:
By Goura Fotadar
Date: 05/07/2015
Copyproof’d by Goura Fotadar on same date to reduce confusion and causes of communication errors. This includes the definitions as used in American English of standard and non-standard words.
An attempt in a manner that is accessible to the public.
Participators of this project will be interviewed and their interviews will be brief in-length; approx. 30-minutes to 60-minutes in-length. My goal at recording is to record audio-only interviews, as mentioned on an earlier post, though keeping details confidential, as much as possible; for a variety of reasons, (i.e., the use of audio-only recording to turn into the project); the project requires some form completion, but rarely have I ever seen any participator struggle to complete these. All-in-all, the process of being interviewed should be straight-forward, simple, and non-threatening. After the data have been submitted to the project, the participators and any they wish to inform, can access their interviews through an on-line database available to the public.
My Resume Date: 05/05/2014
Brief Resume, Goura Fotadar
Updated 05.06.2015
Volunteer, (Please see https://gouravolunteer.wordpress.com/ for at-present volunteer–notes-of-mine. Thank You.)
Work performed during overlapping period,
(November 2014-May 2015, see below for exact months of time period & categories)
(A) Proofreading
Pariyatti.org
(Remotely)
(January 2015 – April 2015)
Proofread publications connected to the Buddhist Tradition.
Completed proofreading projects:
A translated version of The Noble Eightfold Path and Its Factors Explained
About Pariyatti page, everything after title About Pariyatti: http://www.pariyatti.org/About/tabid/60/Default.aspx
Manual of the Excellent Man
(B)Donations & Marketing
World Women and Children Mission, Ghana (Remotely)
(January 2015 – February 2015)
Disclosure: In late February of 2015, I was informed by
another volunteer for the organization that it: the organization, was
partaking in fraudulent activity; and I was shown evidence of this. I
proceeded by reporting the organization to all appropriate authorities;
which, I found through research; and also to all contacts I had made
on behalf of the organization. Obviously, at this point, I also officially
resigned from the organization. Upon resignation, I received a brief
confession from the director to engaging in fraud activity. I also
passed this forward to appropriate authorities, and in some cases;
contacts made on behalf of the organization (the confession of fraud).
Nevertheless, please see below, my volunteer duties; while with
the organization, and prior to being informed of its fraudulent
activity:
Increased public awareness for WWCM, and its mission; by spreading
the message and the needs of WWCM with organizations in the
United States. Methods used include:
1. Researched various systems and organizations.
2. Communicated with parties and their specific interests in
contributions to WWCM (examples are: relevant volunteer
opportunities for college students with WWCM, and
donation needs of WWCM (international funding and gifts for
sponsors)
3. Created marketing materials, such as copy for emails and
contacting organizations, copy for volunteer recruitment, and
copy for fundraising in the United States
4. Participated in volunteer recruitment, this includes, posting on
researched college websites, and communicating with
Director of WWCM about the needs of the organization and
its capacity for holding volunteers; began the process of
creating a direct-service fellowship type opportunity with
WWCM; upon the request and needs of US-based colleges &
Universities, and their students in contacted list
5. Generated Lists of all organizations researched, contacted,
and communicated with, and the results of these
communications
6. Created Task Lists for WWCM, with regard to work being
completed and or discovered in the United States, and
sent these to the Director of WWCM in Ghana, for review
and feedback
7. Frequent emailed communication with the Director of WWCM about inquiries that came
from interested institutions, and also with regard to professional questions of information on WWCM and its distribution
(c)Front Desk, Library / Internet Café &
Special Projects
Billy DeFrank Silicon Valley LGBT
Community Center, San Jose, CA
(November 2014 – March 2015)
Served as a Straight Ally to the Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Communities in the South Bay,
and affiliated communities (Bisexual Intersex
Questioning Communities)
(November 2014 – March 2015)
Helped direct visitors to Community Center
Responded to phone calls / inquiries placed to the
Community Center
Ensured safety of the center by performing
security checks and communicating frequently
with the Manager On-Duty
(November 2014 – March 2015)
Oversaw Library and Cyber Center at
Community Center (involved meeting &
communicating with library committee
members about pertinent issues; completing
on-line updates on the status of library issues;
and recruitment of volunteers for specialized
projects)
Projects Worked On:
* Resources (November 2014 – March 2015):
Researched and Updated Resources for the
Transgender Community; involved
contacting local research study project and government agencies connected to
the transgender community; and
creating lists with relevant and useful
information for the center;
communicating with fellow community
volunteers in resource project group
about organization and compilation and
storage of these lists for the public and
visitors to the Center
* Donated Books (Febraury 2014 – March 2015)
Book Catalog Group: Sorted through & organized book donations and their
relevance to the LGBT(IQ) community.
Completed a process of classifying and
inputting selected books into
LibraryWorld.com. Shelved inputted
books in the Billy DeFrank LGBT(IQ)
Community Library. Organized books
and book spaces. Separated donations for other growing and
upcoming LGBT(IQ) libraries
worldwide. Communicated with Group
and Superiors about pressing and
relevant changes with regard to all
donation books.
(d) Literacy Person for Partners in Reading
(March 2015-April 2015)
Completed a required literacy training (February-March 2015)
Met with assigned English-learner twice a-week
at a San Jose Public Library, to work
on American-English literacy;
As of The Week of April 13, 2015 informed by PAR staff
that my assigned learner can no
longer meet with me, and so I was placed on a waiting list
to be matched with another learner. However,
after waiting for three weeks to be re-matched, I left this position;
because I am determined to volunteer in
a situation that actually needs me.
Please Note:
From late 2013 to late 2014, I went on a homeless, cross-country pilgrimage in the United States. During this period
I completed a fictional series on my experiences called Soul Pieces: http://www.amazon.com/Goura-Fotadar/e/B00FMILNLA/
(most books on Amazon ranked 1-15 of 100 in genre group while advertised)
Earlier this year (2015), I stared a fictional blog: https://gourafotadar.wordpress.com/
Education
MA, Counseling Psychology, 2009-2013,
(dropped out just short of completion due to repeated personal conflict with the Program’s Educators),
Saint Mary’s College of California, Moraga, CA,
GPA, 3.92
Honors: Selected as a stand-out counseling student to train / mentor incoming counseling students (in first-year)
Campus Activities: Women’s Resource Center Graduate Student Internship
Volunteer and Work Engagements Outside of Campus: Crisis and Suicide Prevention Counselor at Crisis Support Services of
Alameda County (2010-2013); Veterans History Project Coordinating Volunteer (2012) through San Ramon Senior Center; The Spirit Work Out
(Owner 2012-Present; but no longer active; an alternative meditation/relaxation technique practiced with various
populations in the Bay Area from 2012-2013; Volunteer/Intern with Senior Center Without Walls (2012); Graduate Student Counseling Intern (Brief) Prior to
Dropping-Out, at Mills College and Saint Mary’s College of California School of Economics and Business Administration
(2013)
Activity Leader Certificate, 2012
Care & Compliance, Hayward, CA,
Completed three-day training; a how-to lead groups of elderly clients in nursing home type residences,
and the legalities involved.
BA, Psychology with English Literature Coursework, 2006
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA,
Psychology Major GPA, 3.6
English Literature GPA, 3.3
Undergraduate Activities: NASA/Ames Student Research Internship; Foothill-Deanza Community College; Stanford University
Psychiatry Department Research Assistant; YWCA English In-Action Volunteer; San Jose State University Engineering
Training Seminar; UC Berkeley Psychology Department Research Assistant; Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly
Volunteer; Crisis Support Services Volunteer (became future employer); Research Writer for Schizophrenia.com (also became future contract employer); Ulysses Press Publishing Intern; UC
Berkeley College of Engineering Alumni Outreach Assistant
Misc. Employment: Contractor in Proofreading at MPR, Associates (Berkeley, CA)
Clothing Stylist in Women’s High Fashion Riki (Berkeley, CA); selected as top selling stylist in work-hour group
Contractor QA/Editing/Proofreader at Netopia then Motorola (Emeryville, CA)
Administrative Work while a community college student (examples, include: Receptionist at ActionPoint (San Jose, CA) & Accounting Asst. at Wazwan (Fremont, CA) & Misc. Temp Work through a-variety of Bay Area Temporary Agencies)
research & interview questions ( a couple) & some other information, updates Date: 05/05/2015
OK; I have been performing quite a bit of research for–volunteer capacity work in and with regard to this Project.
First; after some discussion and based on the rules, I have decided against non-audio only recordings of interviews;
From my notes:
*Audio-recording, only:
–to simplify the complex process involved with each interview in various stages
–to better preserve the data collected for future generations and interested parties
–to reduce the superficial components of the interview process
(back–up recording device present brainstorm idea: seems un-suitable; will be a phone; until,
a better idea comes forward.)
To keep information reasonably confidential; this comes from past educational experiences; the
tendency to feel it appropriate to implement this based on the information and resources provided–available;
for now: I will only be sharing a couple of my own interview questions which should be mainstream in their
cultural relevance; I would hope:
(1) Classism: To tie your experience in the – – – – to the world & its issues:
Briefly, what if any experiences did you have with
class-ism; while in the – – – -?
From,
dictionary.reference.com,
“Classism” is defined as: “a biased or discriminatory attitude based on distinctions made between social or economic classes.”
(2) Mentoring: While transitioning into –; and while in the -; did you feel the need and usefulness of mentors and/or mentoring. If so, did you receive the mentoring you felt useful for your own career; and did you provide mentoring, for others in their careers. Please provide one brief example.
From My Project Notebook on 05/02/2015
On the side of a business and a job and another volunteer project; I worked on this project through an organization. I was not satisfied with the results; and after volunteering through four-different organizations for the past five months, I decided to give this project another try (this time independently). (As of now.)
Working now as a professional and independent volunteer means living without an income for me;
and staying with family is not the best situation but it enables me to have access to resources that are not available via a homeless shelter situation.
For this project, I am currently compiling a summary based on the detailed materials available, so that
not every participator will have to review the details and spend a lot of excess time which I can do instead by providing them with a summary and directing them to the details for further inquiry.
Currently I am also working to get a back-up recording device in case my primary one should not
function appropriately during interviews; in addition, after talking with the Head of the project, I am planning
requesting a donation of unused DVDs to transfer the interviews onto.
Today in addition to adding a brief version of my notes on volunteering here, I have also spent some time on
calls to ensure that the project is complying with the set guidelines, while also working to make contacts to recruit appropriate candidates for this project. I am also loosely planning my first interview though a date has yet to be scheduled. I have already started the process of coming up with appropriate questions for this test interview. I will post more on the summary, potentially making it accessible through this site.
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