I have no clue what to do, no one responding

[Zoe Girl]

So I think everything broke today? I don't know, I am not getting responses from people and I really needed them. I also have been in ratio of programming all week and have another week to go due to my injured staff. My supervisor knows this and she is one person who hasn't responded a lot.

The major stressor is that I have a scholarship application due for our 18 summer sites to do a book program. We do it every year and I have talked it up, sent emails, sent reminder emails and then today started calling people for the information I need. I need to get this done tonight and still have several sites that have not answered. Our department has a huge summer push and deadlines, which meant that all our field trip and bus requests were due a good month before this program was ready to announce. Now everyone is crazy into finishing summer, we are all generally being yelled at, and I can't get anyone to answer me about this program. I also don't know if we can add busses for the field trip or anything at this late date.

My options are to just finish the application tonight with guessing some information and sign up almost no one for the field trip or special events, or wait until Monday and contact the organizers to tell them what is happening so I can get answers from these people. I truly don't know which way to do this, and I am so tired I had to go sleep in my car in the middle of the day. I am leaning towards propping myself up and just doing it in case the google form closes.

So NOW If I ever got a supervisor job I think I would be just like the ones I hate, honestly this is total BS that I am not getting responses. I am barely getting answers from the supervisors. Maybe it is because I don't really have any authority, I asked this year if I could make it optional so I could focus on the sites who love the program. We have our schools organized into 3 groupings and I will tell you that I am in the best of the 3 groups. We answer emails, phone calls, everything.

[Chicken lady]

Will you get fired if you use last year's numbers and sign everybody up?

[Zoe Girl]

No, I will be fine with that I think, I can make good guesses. Okay the form is different this year and I have 18 pages to fill out on a google form

[Chicken lady]

Yuk! Good luck and bless you!

i always tell my kids "my primary goal is to not get fired and my secondary goal is to support you guys, and they are in that order, because if I get fired I will be of no use to you at all."

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you, yup not getting fired is a big deal! I avoid it at all costs. I actually had a burn out and quit thing a few years ago if you recall. So I get more concerned about letting it all get to me and losing my mind.

The parent/bully issue has blown up big time. I have some responsibility in it but I also think these people are nuts. My supervisor is taking more of it, the family does not feel comfortable with me. Long story, but after 3 years of having their child in programs, being willing to talk to them any time, and dealing with their unfounded claims of bullying for years I would think they would at least speak to me. Now we have an actual bully situation, I am adjusting but they are not satisfied. I wish more people who don't work with kids would understand that it can be complicated to figure out the best ways to support kids, work out situations, make changes, etc. Especially since I get more short staffed every day. (another email that has not been answered is about hiring!)

[ToomuchStuff]

Wasn't option three to cancel the whole thing due to lack of provided information?

[Chicken lady]

I think Zoe Girl's problem there was that option three penalized the wrong people.

[Tybee]

That's a tough one, Zoe. I would be very tempted not to guess, but to honestly answer that I cannot set up the programming because the needed data is missing. If I guessed at things, I would be afraid I was enabling the bad behavior going on by covering up for their lack of responses. If that meant the programming got cancelled, then so be it. It is a shame, but if you are answering things honestly and you don't have the data, then you don't have the data, if I am understanding the situation correctly. If they start losing funding because good-hearted people are refusing to fabricate data,then it is overall a positive,as the situation might change, overall.

[razz]

ZG, what has been the history of this program? Who has set up the data? On what basis was the decision made? People don't change overnight so I suspect that this lack of response is an ongoing issue. Find out how it was handled before and go with that, IMHO anyway.

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you all, We have been doing this for all the years the program has been going and our department is one of the biggest supporters. I am on the training committee for the 3rd year so that front line staff know how to implement the programming. I recall the first year I struggled with implementing it at site, it was one more thing to do, and then really grew to love it. The biggest support to success is to integrate this into early planning stages for summer. The biggest change this year is the intense summer push for required planning packets that have to be signed off on by supervisors at least a month earlier than last year. They got all excited about doing things early, and in one meeting where I was rolling out this program people asked why it wasn't earlier. My response is that it is the same time every year but we had to do summer early in our department. Now the sites need to figure out how to put this in retroactively.

So last year I did the scholarship application and did not have as much trouble. We also had about 10 sites but there is a push to do more sites with smaller numbers this year so that about doubled the number of people I needed to contact, along with promoting several people who are not up for the more intense job (their words not mine). Throw in supervisors on maternity leave, coming back from jury duty, new to their roles, etc. It actually helps to see how many factors are in this process this year. Honestly last year I had to work at it but I have never had 2 days where almost no one is answering my emails or phone calls. Oh yeah, last year I had a partner to do this with and the supervisor that knows the program was not on maternity leave.

Edited to add: I am not fabricating data, I ordered books for the sites based on some decent ways to calculate and on Monday I need to make sure that people are signed up for the training and planning on doing the program. Last year some sites wanted me to visit and observe their program so I am trying to put that on my schedule this summer.