![\"Service\"](\"http:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Service-300x109.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI includ Professor Snarky\u2019s unflattering tweet about service because I think many of us see service in these terms, as being meaningless and the implied, time wasters. It is true that not every meeting is productive. It is true that we have too many meetings that are too long. It is true that some of the documents we are asked to write are somewhat meaningless and few people will read them. But, that\u2019s true in any organization.<\/p>\n
Service can be meaningful and can result in direct changes that can improve your program or a program on campus or make a national impact. While I have few definitive answers and still struggle at times with this myself, I have figured a few things out.<\/p>\n
You cannot let it consume your life.<\/strong> If you\u2019re looking at your week and the majority of what\u2019s blocked off are committee meetings and work time for those meetings, then it may be time to look at your commitments to figure out if you need to be doing all of them.<\/p>\nYou cannot let it become a immediate gratification fix<\/strong>\u2014something\u2019s checked off the list, you can see the result, often brings satisfaction, others are thankful and tell you so. These are all good things, but if you are not tenured these are dangerous habits. If you are tenured, I encourage to examine what your priorities are and if an over abundance of service is where you want to spend your time. You may answer yes. (or you may answer no.)<\/p>\nYou have to do service in your department.<\/strong> This is key to collegiality and key to a successful program (if you have one). But I would encourage you to limit your service tasks within the department to the essentials and to also find a service task at the university level.<\/p>\nYou need to find a compelling university level service.<\/strong> This is a great way to build up connections for your courses or program and can give you the opportunity to meet lots of different folks from across campus. I have served on the advisory board for our successful service-learning component for almost the whole time I have been at UC. We\u2019ve done lots of important work, highly visible work, AND it intersects with my own commitment to community-engaged scholarship and teaching.<\/p>\nYou need to find discrete, national level opportunities<\/strong>. Having been fortunate enough to serve in some capacity in most of the field\u2019s national organizations, I can tell you that they all need good volunteers. And most have a variety of things to choose from and\/or will let you create your path. All you have to do is reach out. Heck, email me, I\u2019ll find you the person you need to talk to and help you think through what you want to do and it can relate to the point in your career.<\/p>\nBe thoughtful when choosing community projects.<\/strong> We all have causes that are dear to us and that we are impassioned about. But, community service (all shapes and sizes) is usually time intensive to do right and to be fair to those in the community. Remember that opportunities will come around again so it\u2019s not always necessary to jump at the first ones that pop up. Truly. Opportunities do come back around. So always be thoughtful about the time commitment to the project versus the time available in your life.<\/p>\nProfessor Snarky is right and wrong about service. Start with your internal documents and how those things define service. Talk to trusted mentors. Think through the ramifications of decision in terms of politics (I wish I didn\u2019t have to write that!). Then say, yes, to opportunities that match something that you want to do. Finally, be patient on those days when Professor Snarky is right and it all seems so meaningless. That\u2019ll pass (and then come back and pass again,\u2026.)<\/p>\n
I can tell you that I\u2019ve been enormously thankful for many of the opportunities that I\u2019ve had locally and nationally. Yes, some of them take up a whole lot of time\u2014sometimes more than they need to or more than I want them to. But, I can honestly say I don\u2019t regret any of the decisions I\u2019ve made. And that is a total win.<\/p>\n
For those going to ATTW\/CCCCs, I wish you safe and uneventful travels.<\/p>\n
I look forward to catching up with y\u2019all!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
3 April 2016 by Lisa Meloncon So next week is the annual ATTW Conference, which immediately precedes or overlaps depending on your perspective) the annual CCCC convention. This year will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"service-software\"](\"http:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/service-software.png\")
<\/a>So next week is the annual ATTW Conference, which immediately precedes or overlaps depending on your perspective) the annual CCCC convention. This year will be our fourth luncheon, and we\u2019re looking forward to gathering together again.<\/p>\n