ORGANIZING YOUR SUSTAINABILITY BINDER How to get started

Agenda Dos and Don’ts Design Strategy Chronological Order By Topic: The Question Method Systems Documentation Identification Consistency Introduction Explain your strategy Loss Prevention You Are Not Alone Resources

Dos AND Don’ts

Do: Use Bullets Instead Of Block Text Block Text Is: Intimidating Less likely to be read Hard to remember

Do: Stick With One Font You want your binder to be easy to follow It should be as consistent as possible Constant font changes are distracting …And annoying Easy to Read Fonts: Times New Roman Calibri Palatino Georgia Courier Bookman Garamond

Don’t: Treat Your Binder Like a Journal Your sustainability binder is a manual It should look neat and professional Avoid handwriting as much as possible

Don’t: Reinvent the Wheel Research! Google is your best friend Use the resources available to you

Design Strategy

Chronological Order Organizing your binder in order of major projects Very important to include a calendar with dates clearly marked Great for sites with a lot of signature events Pros: Very logical Easy to follow Cons: Not all content easily fits (continuous projects)

For Example:

By Topic: The Question Method Organizing your binder by what questions are answered When people need help they are looking for answers to questions Direct them where to go Pros: Imitates how we actually look for information Very flexible More traditional Cons: Not as logical Tedious: How do you know what to include?

For Example:

Other Methods? How do you plan to organize your binder?

Create a System Documentation Document EVERYTHING! Use narratives—tell a story It’s better to have more information than not enough Identification: All of your documents should be easily identified Create a file-naming protocol (e.g. Document Title_YearMonthDay  Example_ ) File Paths: Your documents should be easy to find| Try listing the file path and location on every document Consistency: Once you choose a system, stick with it Files and documents should be uniform

FOR EXAMPLE: Inserting a path file into a document

Other Tips: Introduction: The next VISTA may not be a telepathic mind reader Introduce your system and strategy Don’t Forget! Keep a running task list so you don’t forget to add things Update your binder as things happen Keep an idea journal; organize and add to binder Proof Read Ask several people not already family with your work to read through your binder What questions do they have? Does this show anything missing that your predecessor may need?

Loss Prevention Leave More Than One Copy Print Version Supervisor Flash Drive Google Docs Shared Server Burned CD When You Lose Your Work

You Are Not Alone Utilize the resources available to you Talk to your supervisor Use your VAD Talk to other VISTAs VISTA Campus Facebook

Questions & Announcements