A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of hosting our new staff hires from around the Region in Omaha for our first ever, Regional MPD 101.
When staff are first hired, the normal process is that they begin the process of MPD immediately in the Spring, with the hopes that they will be fully funded before the start of the next school year. MPD is a new concept for most staff, so the first thing that needs to happen is they need to be trained up in how MPD actually works. In the past, this responsibility has fallen to the hiring supervisors (usually the Area Directors). While this system has the advantage of flexibility in scheduling for the new staff hires, it also means that the training isn't standardized and, as in the case of this year's class, new hires can feel a little isolated if they're the only new hire in their Area. It also puts an extra burden on the Area Directors, and their lives are hard enough already.
Given all the potential benefits, and the fact that in Region has an actual MPD Coordinator who can devote his entire attention to a weekend worth of training (read: me), we decided to try Regional MPD 101 and see how it goes. As the title of this blog suggests, it was a lot.
For the record, overall, things went great. The staff were all super engaged, we didn't have any logistical issues in terms of getting folk to Omaha, we got through all the material, and everyone had a good time. It absolutely went well enough for me to say that we should try doing it again. But, much like drinking from a firehose, for everyone involved, it was... a LOT.
Let's start with the new staff. Our new staff team is great. I'm super excited for them. We had one staff from each state in our Region, which was fun, unintended symmetry, and they all fed off one another's energy. I love hanging out with new staff because everything is new and exciting for them. They responded to all the training well and we had a few breakthroughs too in terms of how to view MPD in the grander scheme of the work we do. But, let's not pretend that a full weekend of training isn't a big deal. From 3pm Friday until 4pm Sunday, the staff took in a lot of information about the ins and outs of MPD.
It wasn't just the staff who had a lot of content to consume. I also had a lot of content to deliver. This goes beyond just the training. Since I was "hosting" this, I was in charge of finding housing, buying food, and making sure that all the logistics were covered. Since this was a weekend deal, I also had a full week of work on the front end. We made it but I definitely slept well Sunday night when it was all over.
Finally, we can't forget that Megan had to take in a lot too. She wasn't at the training but with me gone the whole weekend, that meant she had the kids all weekend. Thankfully, my mom came into town to visit, so there was an extra set of hands for helping. Still, Grandma is different from having Daddy there. I arranged the weekend so we could at least have the family join us for dinner, which hopefully alleviated some of the pressure on Megan. But, I know it was a still a lot of work and I'm so thankful that Megan was OK with me doing this.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
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