10/2/23 Editor’s Note: This proposal was subsequently withdrawn by the author and not considered at convention.
At the 2023 Twin Cities DSA Convention, members will debate Resolution 6, a proposal for a TCDSA administrator and building manager position. This proposal would create a paid part-time administrator position to “reduce strain on leadership and free up capacity for political and leadership development work. The person in this position will also serve as a building manager” The proposal addresses legitimate questions that need to be answered by our organization, but overall is not the solution to the issues we face.
For many reasons, including burnout and the pandemic, over the last couple of years our operational capacity has deteriorated, and has not been given the attention it needs to rise to the level of our current activity. As members have driven renewed action this past year in labor, community, and electoral organizing, the chapter’s ability to fully support this work and to maintain the existing structures of our organization have been strained. Soon we will also need to consider an exclusive office space, which will need access management, scheduling coordination, and maintaining office supplies.
Certainly, at our national convention this year proposals were approved to compensate certain organization leaders to allow them more freedom to organize. However, that is not what this proposal does. This proposal seeks to address a gap in the administrative function of our organization, and should be evaluated in that light. It is clear we need intentional focus on our administrative capacity to ensure it is fully capable of supporting our organizing work. The question remains though, are these needs best met by hiring a part-time contractor at $20/hr? We need to think carefully on if this is a sustainable solution, and consider the ramifications.
Implementation
As part of this proposal, an administrative support team (AST) consisting of at least seven suggested members would be charged with position logistics, coordination, and management. This would include creating a position description, conducting the hiring process, and regular check-ins and oversight of the staff person, likely also needing an onboarding process to ensure a staff person has access to our systems and is trained in their use and procedures. Particularly for a three month trial period, but also for the long term, this represents a significant time requirement for many of the members whose capacity is already significantly committed to our operational work. This also includes taking on responsibilities that they have not needed in their roles to this point, including oversight, hiring, and ensuring regulatory compliance around hiring independent contractors.
While that in itself is not insurmountable, the end result puts us in a questionable position. If we were to decide at the end of the trial period this has not been helpful, it will have been an experiment, with a lot of time dedicated to something that we may just abandon. But if we decide to continue it, then we run into potentially deeper issues. Our administrative procedures are currently performed by volunteers, members who are aware of our internal structures and feel this is the best opportunity for them to contribute. Hiring a staff person who would be charged with tasks currently performed by volunteers opens up certain dangers.
The Workload
One potential issue that could develop is an unmanageable workload for the hired staff member. This would not be intentional. However, this person would have been hired for the specific reason to provide this support. While other members would certainly continue doing some administrative work, they and in particular new members who join after we have hired someone might think “The staff person can do it, that’s what they’re paid for”. The full administrative workload of Twin Cities DSA, distributed as it is now among many people, is almost certainly more than one part-time contractor could handle. Even short of that, a slow piling on of additional asks has a high potential to burn out this staff person. This in part contributed to the vacancy of the now defunct operations coordinator role, through an excess concentration of administrative tasks with one person.
Member Knowledge
On the flip side, expanding administrative capacity by hiring would create an additional layer between membership and the operational structures of the chapter. To a certain degree this issue already exists. Often you need to know who to ask, or the process to get something accomplished is not clear. There is a benefit to a defined channel for requesting support, something the chapter has recently tried to implement through Red Desk, to varying degrees of success. Trying to address this by giving one person defined responsibility for various tasks could alienate members further from the nuts and bolts of the chapter. A strong and diffused development of this knowledge among the membership is necessary to ensure the long term future of this chapter as one where members can and do make the decisions, with full awareness of our capacities and what it takes to make something happen.
Removing these responsibilities from membership removes opportunities for developing our members into organizers. The dichotomy laid out between administrative work and organizing does not account for the significant overlap between them. From organizing a meeting, maintaining an email list, supplying an event, and coordinating volunteers, it would be a loss if these responsibilities were consolidated with one person rather than transparently and cooperatively accomplished by our membership, and used as training opportunities to develop the future leadership of the chapter.
Potential Alternatives
All that said, the proposal does present one concept with real potential; the chapter could create a version of the administrative support team. It is long overdue that the chapter has a coordinated group of the members who are involved in many of the day to day workings of the chapter. A collaborative effort like this with focused chapter support opens up many possibilities. Rather than spend their time on a hiring process, onboarding, and oversight of a staff member, that is time that could be spent collaborating to improve our procedures, better broadcasting the infrastructure that exists in the chapter to support organizing efforts, and holding training sessions on chapter functions to build both our administrative capacity as well as individual members organizing capacity. Other chapters have implemented similar member-led administrative groups and member development programs to great success.
It is likely that at some point Twin Cities DSA will hire a staff person. There are potential uses of our funds like paying members for their organizing work that could be explored, like stipends for organizers or canvassers. There is even a future where the chapter has established a strong member-led administrative capacity where a paid staff person may be beneficial to supplement our work, after the chapter has addressed the deeper issues which contribute to burnout and lack of capacity. In our present condition though, this would not be a supplement, it would be avoiding work that needs to be done to shore up our internal structures. Members should vote against this proposal.
From Tim H