Presidency (FINAL)

When I signed up for the organizational leader position for the Spirit of Giving Project, I didn't know I was signing up for presidency. The Spirit of Giving project was a student-led volunteer project. Our goal was to give back to the community by cleaning up a neglected garden. The Special Education students tried to use this garden as a space of relaxation. But it wasn't achieving its purpose because no one managed it for many years.  

After seeing the horrendous sight of the garden, I knew we were going into battle. For better organization, we decided to create teams. The teams were like the branches of government. They all had different roles, but they collaborated in making decisions. 

• The Organization team was the Executive Branch.
• The Resource team was the Legislative Branch. 
• The Publicist team was the Judicial Branch.

My role as the organizational leader meant I was the president! Although I had never led any project before, all the teams looked to me for the plan. How hard could it be? I wondered. I decided that it wouldn't be hard. So I took my role as the commander-in-chief lightly. After one hour of brainstorming, I planned an outline of the timeline and what tasks to complete.  

• Week one: Planning
• Week two: Cleaning
• Week three: Planting
• Week four: Painting

Then I told the entire team of the plan, and we headed into battle. 

Battle Plan

 

As any great army, we needed a strategy! So in week one, we planned what each team needed to do. The resources team worked on getting donated garden tools for cleaning and planting. The publicist team worked on putting out ads in the school newspaper. The ads were for money donations, so we could buy plants and paint. And the organizational team worked on creating forms to collect volunteer hours data.  

Annihilation

 

Armed with black trash bags, a shopping cart filled with tools, and a Black & Decker hedge trimmer, we started working on the garden on week two. For a team that had little to no garden skills, everything was going smoothly! We bonded as a team while picking up trash, trimming bushes, collecting garden stones, and removing weeds. But while we thought we were helping the garden, we were actually hurting it. 

Casualties

 

Midway through the plan, I decided that I should research about gardening and plants. So I talked to an environmental teacher, who had worked on the garden ten years before. When I told her we removed the weeds, she was in shock. Then she told me that there were no weeds in the garden, only a dead tree. That’s when I learned that the only plants that could grow there were native plants. The same native plants that we had killed because we thought they were weeds. 

Suddenly, I felt the weight of the presidency weighing on me. I had led the team into a losing battle. Wanting morale to stay high, I had to act. Quickly! That same day, I recruited the main team leaders from each branch and a teacher to help brainstorm a new plan. They were my cabinet.  

War Plan 

1. Research. After failing to do it once, we spent most of the time researching.
2. Ideas. We started brainstorming ideas that could complete our goal and counter our mistakes.
3. Consensus decision-making. We all worked on an idea that would lead to a solution. And most importantly, we all needed to agree!
4. Checks and Balance System. This made sure that each team had an equal voice in creating the steps of the plan. And at any point in the rest of the project, we could hold a team meeting about each other's decisions.

Tactics

Instead of planting flower beds, we decided to add mulch so that it would improve soil moisture. Then we would paint the garden stones to add color to the garden. We also decided to involve the Special Education students. We would add their fingerprints on the garden stones. 

Militarism (Preparing for War)

 

The publicist group began getting more donations from the local school newspaper ads. The resources group found places that gave out free mulch and paint within our community. At the same time, I worked within the leadership to organize a schedule and timeline for each phase. It was essential for me to leave room for other challenges that could happen. For example, if we couldn't get mulch on short notice, we would paint first and add mulch later. 

Victory

 

We started transforming this neglected and now damaged garden. It was a team effort that allowed us to create a beautiful space - from the students who worked hard to remove the remains of the dead tree, to the Special Education students who showed us their gratitude each day.  As commander-in-chief, I realized how humbling presidency is. I learned the importance of creating a thorough war plan and relying on my cabinet. Everyone on the team had a role to play. Leadership starts with one but extends to many.

 

Statistics

Passive Sentences: 0

Flesch Reading Ease: 73.4

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 6