Paid Farm Manager Position In Chicago Food and Eco Justice Program For 2017 Growing Season (2/1/17 - 11/30/17) www.kamii.org/farmmanager

[Robert Brown Nevel]

Paid Farm Manager Position In Chicago Food and Eco Justice Program For 2017 Growing Season (2/1/17 - 11/30/17)  www.kamii.org/farmmanager

The Food Justice and Sustainability Program at KAM Isaiah Israel is seeking a highly motivated individual for the 2017 growing season to fill the paid position of Farm Manager. This is a terrific opportunity for anyone who has gardening and or farming experience, a love for teaching, a passion for growing food and community, for sustainable urban land use and for food and eco justice. The successful candidate will be working with a wonderful group of experienced growers, helping those in need in the community and making connections and strengthening relationships within the Chicago urban ag world.

Program Description
The KAMII Food Justice and Sustainability Program maintains micro-farms in Hyde Park, at KAMII and Kenwood United Church of Christ, and two micro-food forests at KAMII. Both locations grow organic fruits and vegetables for local hot meal programs and the CHA. The focus of the program is transforming unproductive urban lawns into food producing micro-farms and micro-food forests, growing and donating fresh food, teaching urban agriculture and sustainability skills and advocating for healthy, local food systems and responsible energy, land and water use.

Position Description
The Farm Manager oversees all growing and related activities, including planning and coordinating all work sessions and volunteer schedules, as well as all planting, tending, harvesting, and distribution. They also help maintain productivity records, help write the weekly farm report and procure all needed material. The Farm Manager also leads a regular crew of 12-15 volunteers each Sunday from February through November. The Farm Manager works directly and collaboratively with program founder Robert Nevel.

Desired Skills
- urban ag
- interpersonal
- communication (written and verbal) - presentation (written and verbal)

- organizational
- time management

Desired Experience
- urban ag
- native plants
- working with adults
- teaching in an informal setting - coordinating volunteers

- project management

Time Commitment
This position involves, on average, about 8-10 hours of work per week, from February through November. Of those, 6 hours are on site, on Sundays, March through November, from 9:00a - 3:00p, the primary work day. The additional 2-4 hours, planning and administering, can be done remotely.

Compensation
The Farm Manager will be compensated $6,000., less all applicable tax withholding, for approximately 350-400 hours of work, done over the 43 weeks from February 1, 2017 to November 30, 2017.

Send Personal Statement, Qualifications and Resume To Robert Nevel at  foodj...@kamii.org

Applications Due  Friday October 21, 2016 

Robert Nevel
KAMII Food Justice & Sustainability Program

foodj...@kamii.org

[Robert Brown Nevel]

[Robert Brown Nevel]

[Robert Brown Nevel]

[Robert Brown Nevel]

[Robert Brown Nevel]

[Debbie Hillman]

Hi, Robert  (and all) —

In the last month, I’ve received 5 notices through AUA of your job posting for Farm Manager.  Since all of us are trying to manage overflowing inboxes, this seems like 3 too many (in that space of time).

I’m sorry that you’re having trouble finding someone for this position, but perhaps AUA as a community can help you figure out why you’re having difficulty filling this position.

Are you not getting any applicants?

Do you need to adjust something in the posting?

Is it too early for people to make a commitment for a part-time job that starts in February?

Is the pay scale too low?

Is there a better Chicago-area forum for this kind of part-time job?

Other ???

Maybe if you could help us help you, that might be more effective than posting the same notice 5 times in one month.

Does anyone have any other thoughts why this position is going begging?

Are other food-and-farm jobs in Greater Chicago not being filled?  

I’m just trying to get a handle on why a live food-and-farm job is going unfilled.

— Debbie

 

Debbie Hillman

Evanston, Illinois

847/328-7175

DLHi...@sbcglobal.net

LinkedIn

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[Billy Burdett]

Debbie,

As its introduction states, this Google Group is "meant to be a welcoming and courteous space for people to share information, ask questions, and discuss urban agriculture in Chicago." We see postings for urban agriculture job openings as very appropriate for this group, and subscribers are welcome to post such announcements with a reasonable degree of regularity (my understanding is that the job opening in question is about to close, hence the increased frequency of posts in the last few days). I actually spoke with Robert last month about posting the Farm Manager position to AUA's Google Group, and, given the tendency for posts to get buried by newer posts fairly rapidly, encouraged him to post the listing on a regular basis. 

I'm sure that your desire to help KAMII and others find effective ways to fill open positions is sincere, but I'd caution against giving unsolicited advice (and inviting others to do the same) in these types of matters and characterizing KAMII's Farm Manager position as "going begging." These actions and assumptions can have the unintended effect of casting KAMII's (and others') efforts in an unwarrantedly disparaging light. (For the record, having worked with Robert and KAMII in various capacities over the last few years, I can state unequivocally that they have a great track record when it comes to hiring excellent Farm Managers thus far.)

I can definitely relate to your comment about "overflowing inboxes," and am happy to say that this Google Group offers ways to mitigate that issue in the "My settings" section. I'd recommend reviewing the various email settings listed in the "Email delivery preference" dropdown menu after clicking on "Membership and email settings" -- one option you might want to consider would be "send daily summaries," which groups all of the day's posts into a single email each day. 

Hope that provides a little more clarity around the issues that your message raised, Debbie, and thanks for your understanding.

Warm regards,

Billy

Billy Burdett, Executive Director

Advocates for Urban Agriculture

auachicago.org

www.facebook.com/AUAChicago

twitter.com/AUAChicago

dire...@auachicago.org

[Debbie Hillman]

Hi, Billy, and all —

This small incident — and the responses to it — seems to be bringing up numerous contextual and procedural issues that AUA’s Steering Committee might want to address.  In my experience, these kinds of things surface naturally when an organization is growing fast and successfully.   In other words, to use my daughter’s phrase, this is a high-class problem.   Some of the issues, of course, relate to internet technology, which we are all still learning and defining (especially in the area of acceptable or agreed-upon behaviors)..  

If the Steering Committee is interested in exploring these issues, I might be able to

—  attend a Steering Committee meeting to address these issues that have been identified (1) in my original email, (2) in Robert’s phone call to me (and possibly to you since you echoed some of his words), and (3) your email to AUA.

—  help draft an agenda for such a meeting (what are the issues that have come up, which ones are most important to address, etc.)

I know that everyone, including the AUA Steering Committee, is busy and has many things on their plates.  But sometimes it’s good to step back to review assumptions, protocols, decision-making processes, use of technology, etc.

PS  I don’t get around as easily as I used to, which is why I can’t make any definite commitments.  But I am willing to use my energy to help facilitate  effective group discussions about group purposes — i.e., democracy.

[Domenico Tassone]

Billy, thanks for posting that.

I find the job posts very useful and reposting appropriate for a this forum. Debbie, your recent posts include information about a diversity person and PBS budgeting, labor person speaking - what does that have to do with urban agriculture? In the self-awareness department some people might find it ironic that you are complaining about others posting frequency and/or their post appropriateness.

Debbie, if you really wanted to help Robert out, feel free to contact him directly instead of adding yet another email.


Dominic

[Billy Burdett]

Thanks for your message, Debbie. You're right -- it's a small incident and I think it best to move on from it with the happy understanding that all involved have nothing but good intentions. I'll get in touch with you if AUA's Board decides to further explore the issues you mention.

Best,

Billy