I wake at 5:30AM local time, and decide to quietly head to breakfast (nearly all of my tent-mates are still asleep, so I must find all of my gear in the dark. Walking to the mess-hall, i see that there are a number of people already up & preparing for the day.
After breakfast, I head over to where the tools trucks are, and get to meet the teams... I meet Adam (Tools coordinator, an 18 or 19 yr old kid, who is very bright, and has decided to take off a semester (at least) of college, to help out), drivers: Bertrum, Ryan, and Spencer, and tool truck helpers: Frank, Andre, and Ariel. Each of them are Habitat for Humanity volunteers, and are ready to get going.
Each truck pulls a trailer which has been customized to hold enough tools for 15 teams (each team has 10 members). Tools include things like: Axe's, Sledge hammers, crowbars, flatbars, brooms, pitch forks, rakes, large shovels, ladders, hacksaws, utility knives, plumbers wrenchs, ductape, pliers, channel locks, wire cutters, and screwdrivers. In the 'truck pool', we also have a big 5-ton Red truck, that is used to move around large items. During the week we use it for moving many wheel-barrels to 'stash spots' in the neighborhoods.
I come to find that the previous week had 200 volunteers, this week has 400+, and there are over 1100 signed up for the following week. These numbers do not include all of the other volunteer organizations which are also using Camp Premiere, and sharing in the use of the resources here. Groups like: Americorps (an AWESOME org, which allows people to obtain some level of college loan debt-relief for service, and were the backbone of the program driving many of the functions like: Operations oversight & coordination, Team leadership and coordination, etc.), Samaritans Purse (a privately funded disaster relief organization), and a number of large religious groups who brought team members in to help anyway they could.
With this level of growth, it quickly becomes clear that the project is losing some efficiency based on the fast scaling that they are going through. Which happens to be an area that I have some experience with, having been a part of three quick growing start-up companies. I realize that there is a need for process improvement & grab a notebook to start taking notes.
This is a very busy day for everyone, and I spend it addressing all sorts of mini-crisis that pop up (flat tires, tools trucks not delivering tools fast enough, etc.), making notes all along the way. I also spend a bunch of time in the Operations Tent (the only place where I can use a computer to build spreadsheets & process documents), which is the central coordination point for everything that is happening. There I meet Melissa & Emily, two Americorps volunteers, who are very dedicated to the task at hand, are very smart, and have tons of energy. These two are responsible for coordinating everything (where each bus is to drop off teams, which houses have paperwork completed & are ready for gutting, where all teams are at all times, etc.). In addition to the Americorps teams, the fire captain is also often in the tent, along with a number of other folks responsible for planning the jobs & ensuring the approriate paperwork and notifications are complete for the upcoming jobs.
A few shots of the Ops tent (batteries and radios which are distributed each day (note the beads at the back of the table, which I used as keychains for the tools trucks (in keeping with the mardi-gras theme)), the computer and printer that I used until very late every evening, a whiteboard used for tracking the locations of each team, and some maps).
I spent most of the evening in the Ops tent (until around midnight or so), preparing for the next day.
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