Visioning 2019

Recently, WALES went through a process called "Visioning". This is something that happens every 3-5 years, and is meant to determine our goals and strategies as an organization moving forward. I was present for a Visioning session once, about five years ago, as a student during my first student placement. Really interesting to experience it a second time, as an actual employee with experience in the field.

During my first session, we rented out a meeting room at a bar called The Huether. This time around, we were limited to the board room at the Extend-a-Family main office.

We each developed an individual dream for the future of the organization, then read it aloud and assessed them for commonalities. We split into groups of three and wrote our shared visions, then we put them on display and compared them with the other groups. After that, we each attempted to condense our goals into a "vision statement", broke up into different groups of three, condensed our answers, then came together as a group, taking each of our vision statements and condensing them into one.

Then we broke the vision statement into three parts and came up with steps for each section. I wound up being a part of the "People leading people" group. So I'll be collaborating with my two group members in this next vision piece for up to two years (presuming I maintain my position).

During my original goal, I managed to include "It is five years in the future, I own my own vehicle..." and somehow, by the end of visioning, there is an image representing me driving a Volkswagen Beetle.

....Aside from this, I recently needed to get a new phone. During this past Summer Program, in a game of Mission Impossible, I, with the intention of staying as close to the ground as possible, opted to army crawl and then roll sideways to the next hiding place, forgetting that I had a phone in my pocket and subsequently hip-checking it into the floor repeatedly, shattering the screen. I was therefore thankful for the fact that it would continue working after this incident for about half a year. During the later stages of its lifespan, it developed chargeport issue, becoming picky about the type of cord being used and it's own position while charging.

I kind of knew that this could happen, but the night that it chose to stop working came before a day that we had ice storms on the horizon. Usually, I am not in charge of alerting people due to bad weather, but since we had so many staff absent, this meant that I would be in charge of this duty.

So, if I planned to call people to let them know about the organization shutting down, I needed a phone.

After work, I went to the mall to get a new phone. When I arrived, Phone Guy wasn't there. I asked where he was. He was on break. I waited until break was over, then attempted to make a purchase. Turns out I got a bill from my cell phone provider during the time my phone was broken and they can't grant access if I have a bill owing. He directs me to a kiosk in the mall, but the kiosk says they can't accept payment. I attempt to connect to my cell phone provider's website but I got the password wrong and they froze access after one attempt, then I attempted to get into my banking account with the mall wifi and my work iPad, but they need to to verify my identity... by calling or texting...

So I have to go home. Bus misses my stop.... I finally get into my home and through some song and dance I manage to figure out what I owe, pay it, and return to the mall. The bus was late on the way back, too.

Wound up to be necessary, as the next day was a snow day and I needed to call people to let them know that the organization was closed. Second time in two weeks...

 A least it was a good trial run for my new phone :)

And at least I managed to get a phone out of it. I managed to copy my contacts, so I should have your number. Text me!