Tuesday, 18 January
Much of NYC observes Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (just a few more than Hanukkah observers) and so Monday was spent lazily. However, Sunday, I spent a good two hours doing research on this upcoming Panel Discussion; I was reading the speaker's published works (the ones related to homelessness) and taking notes, thinking about what questions I'd like to ask her come Thursday. Also, the CEO is moderating the event and has been grilling me on my analysis of the speaker's works to see if I have an understanding of them, if can provide him more thoughts on questions to ask the speaker.
Tuesday I got started immediately on researching building code violations on those apartments. I knew that the Advocate needed some numbers today (because she was having a phone conference with the Coalition later in the afternoon) and if Friday's attempt at extracting information was indicative of today's, it was going time to decode this information.
So I set straight to work right away, chipping away at the tedious task of data information, wait, download web page, absorb, record, repeat. After accumulating all of it, I started calling the borough offices for more assistance. They were generally friendly, however unhelpful. So I worked to analyse the data I had, see if I could make any sense of it as is, try to understand the bigger picture of what I was looking at. Once I changed my perspective, I decided to make tallies of all the violations and break them down individually, to give the Advocate some statistics and be able to explain everything I didn't know, in order that she could draw general conclusions from my work.
I worked right until 12.30, which was when the Advocate's information session started. She explained to an internal dozen of us what the new changes in NYCDHS housing vouchers system, a more thorough explanation of her explanation to me on the project she handed me. It was a very informative two hours.
After that, she and I sat down to discuss my findings. I found myself nervous, unsure of how I would explain all of my findings; I felt unprepared, but I managed my way through. She drew some conclusions from my numbers and asked me into a conference with the CEO about my findings and what our next step would be. There I was, sitting before the CEO, someone who I'm normally extremely relaxed around, to the point of comfortable, and I was nervous and felt put on the spot. But I was able to explain to him what I'd found and sit back, privy to their planning session. It felt important.
I was supposed to meet with another Attournery with the Partnership, J, but I was too busy and had to cancel on her. I was also supposed to have ready a tangible agenda for the Discussion this Thursday, but that got pushed aside, too, mostly by the Advocate work, but intermittently with Grant Writing discussion, editing, and planning.
Heck yeah, 8 hours were worked today. I'm STILL sitting in the office.
Tuesday I got started immediately on researching building code violations on those apartments. I knew that the Advocate needed some numbers today (because she was having a phone conference with the Coalition later in the afternoon) and if Friday's attempt at extracting information was indicative of today's, it was going time to decode this information.
So I set straight to work right away, chipping away at the tedious task of data information, wait, download web page, absorb, record, repeat. After accumulating all of it, I started calling the borough offices for more assistance. They were generally friendly, however unhelpful. So I worked to analyse the data I had, see if I could make any sense of it as is, try to understand the bigger picture of what I was looking at. Once I changed my perspective, I decided to make tallies of all the violations and break them down individually, to give the Advocate some statistics and be able to explain everything I didn't know, in order that she could draw general conclusions from my work.
I worked right until 12.30, which was when the Advocate's information session started. She explained to an internal dozen of us what the new changes in NYCDHS housing vouchers system, a more thorough explanation of her explanation to me on the project she handed me. It was a very informative two hours.
After that, she and I sat down to discuss my findings. I found myself nervous, unsure of how I would explain all of my findings; I felt unprepared, but I managed my way through. She drew some conclusions from my numbers and asked me into a conference with the CEO about my findings and what our next step would be. There I was, sitting before the CEO, someone who I'm normally extremely relaxed around, to the point of comfortable, and I was nervous and felt put on the spot. But I was able to explain to him what I'd found and sit back, privy to their planning session. It felt important.
I was supposed to meet with another Attournery with the Partnership, J, but I was too busy and had to cancel on her. I was also supposed to have ready a tangible agenda for the Discussion this Thursday, but that got pushed aside, too, mostly by the Advocate work, but intermittently with Grant Writing discussion, editing, and planning.
Heck yeah, 8 hours were worked today. I'm STILL sitting in the office.
posted by Ruth at 5:30 PM
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