ORGANIZING YOUR SUSTAINABILITY BINDER How to get started
ORGANIZING YOUR SUSTAINABILITY BINDER How to get started
Agenda • Dos and Don’ts • Loss Prevention • Design Strategy • Chronological Order • By Topic: The Question Method • You Are Not Alone • Resources • Systems • Documentation • Identification • Consistency • Introduction • Explain your strategy
Dos AND Don’ts
Do: Use Bullets Instead Of Block Text Is: • Intimidating • Less likely to be read • Hard to remember
Do: Stick With One Font • You want your binder to be easy to follow • It should be as consistent as possible • Constant font changes are distracting • …And annoying Easy to Read Fonts: Times New Roman Calibri Palatino Georgia Courier Bookman Garamond
Don’t: Treat Your Binder Like a Journal • Your sustainability binder is a manual • It should look neat and professional • Avoid handwriting as much as possible
Don’t: Reinvent the Wheel • Research! • Google is your best friend • Use the resources available to you
Design Strategy
Chronological Order • Organizing your binder in order of major projects • Very important to include a calendar with dates clearly marked • Great for sites with a lot of signature events Pros: Cons: Very logical Easy to follow Not all content easily fits (continuous projects)
For Example:
By Topic: The Question Method • Organizing your binder by what questions are answered • When people need help they are looking for answers to questions • Direct them where to go Pros: Cons: • Imitates how we actually look for information • Very flexible • More traditional • Not as logical • Tedious: How do you know what to include?
For Example:
Other Methods? How do you plan to organize your binder?
Create a System • Documentation • Document EVERYTHING! • Use narratives—tell a story • It’s better to have more information than not enough • Identification: • All of your documents should be easily identified • Create a file-naming protocol (e. g. Document Title_Year. Month. Day �� Example_20150303) • File Paths: Your documents should be easy to find| Try listing the file path and location on every document • Consistency: • Once you choose a system, stick with it • Files and documents should be uniform
FOR EXAMPLE: Inserting a path file into a document
Other Tips: • Introduction: • The next VISTA may not be a telepathic mind reader • Introduce your system and strategy • Don’t Forget! • Keep a running task list so you don’t forget to add things • Update your binder as things happen • Keep an idea journal; organize and add to binder • Proof Read • Ask several people not already family with your work to read through your binder • What questions do they have? • Does this show anything missing that your predecessor may need?
Loss Prevention • Leave More Than One Copy • Print Version • Supervisor • Flash Drive • Google Docs • Email • Shared Server • Burned CD When You Lose Your Work
You Are Not Alone • Utilize the resources available to you • Talk to your supervisor • Use your VAD • Talk to other VISTAs • VISTA Campus • Facebook
Questions & Announcements
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