Thursday, November 21, 2013

Checklist for my Last Day

Today's my last day with Crossroads. Here's what's gotta be done (or I've done already).


NB. Drink Coffee should appear after each item. I've left it out because--let's face it--I don't need reminding.

Jobs that should have been done before now:
  • Spring Clean your filing cabinet.
  • Cleanse your work files (electronic and physical):
    • retrieve any personal files
    • tidy stuff up, file it right, name it right
  • Call external stakeholder to
    • say thanks
    • let them know who their new point of contact is
    • give them the relevant new contact details
Jobs for the last actual day:
  • Play Daft Punk.
  • Do a weekly review
    • Incl. make sure *every* inbox is at zero: email, physical, notebooks, desk clear, computer desktop(s) cleared, downloads folder emptied, wallet, etc.
  • Give keys back (office, filing cabinet, etc.)
  • Get IT to 'extract' you (or do it myself)...
    • Remove yourself from the website (contact info.)
    • Remove website login
    • Remove Access to work files
    • Remove Facebook Page Admin Access
    • Remove Mailing List Identity
  • Add self to supporters@ email list  (i.e. the email list for past members)
  • Send the boss a Final Review email
    • project status for every project (and a reminder of who they've been handed to)
    • clear next actions for him/her
    • a short note for any misc. loose ends that may entangle him/her down the track, with your recommendation
  • Modify email signatures on all devices to remove work references.
  • Change voicemail message to remove work references.
  • Tell everyone you're signing off and provide them with a guidance on how and when to get in touch (by email and text), and who they should contact in your absence.
  • Tell IT you're gone.
    • Teary, emotional emails are best here. Those guys love this stuff, and email is perfect for it.
  • Tell the Board of Management (BOM) you're gone.
  • Tell the elders you're gone.
  • Go have a... [insert from Facebook recommendations].
What have I missed?

Friday, November 15, 2013

Ministers, Beware the Rabbit Hole

Until last week, Jonno Haines and I were reading through Rebecca Manley-Pippert's (excellent, old) book, Out of the Salt Shaker.

This little gem stopped me in my tracks.
"We must not become, as John Stott puts it, 'rabbit-hole Christians'. When I worked among students, the form it would take is this: A Christian student leaves his Christian roommate in the morning and scurries through the day to lectures, only to search frantically for a Christian to sit by (an odd way to approach a mission field). Thus he proceeds from lecture to lecture. When dinner comes, he sits with other Christians at one huge table and thinks, What a witness! From there he goes to his all-Christian Bible study, and he might even take in a prayer meeting where the Christians pray for the non-believers on his floor. (But what luck that he was able to live on the only floor with seventeen Christians!) Then at night he scurries back to his Christian roommate. Safe! He made it through the day, and his only contacts with the world were those mad dashes to and from Christian activities." 109-110.
It actually reminds me of how an ex-mormon friend described his former life as a latter day saint. So absorbing and insulated from meaningful contact with 'outsiders'.

My life may have different twists and turns. But (at times) it sure looks like a rabbit-hole.

I plan to change that.