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Working for Appalachia Service Project

Overview Description:

This summer I worked as a Center Director for Appalachia Service Project. My job was

fast paced, strenuous, and required a great deal of professionalism and responsibility. As a

Center Director (CD) I ran one of ASP’s 26 county summer centers. Each center is responsible

for the home repair operations within a county within Central Appalachia, and I was stationed in

Fentress County, Tennessee. I had a direct supervisor, a Program Manager, to oversee Fentress

and 3 additional counties and was based out of Johnson City, Tennessee, so I was the point

person on site 24/7. The center operations that I managed included the repairs on 16 different

homes in which I lead a staff team of 4 employees in identifying these projects, selecting the

homes from the many applications we received, planning the construction that was to be done,

purchasing the correct materials needed, and managing the volunteer labor on a daily basis while

construction was underway. In addition, my staff and I facilitated close to 100 volunteers per

week for 7 weeks, ensuring they were comfortable in their housing arrangements, properly fed,

and provided nightly programming to help them reflect on their week of service, grow in their

spirituality, and learn more about the poverty in Fentress County and the region of Central

Appalachia.

While many aspects of these collective responsibilities were performed by every member

of my staff, I was responsible for ensuring these operations as a whole ran smoothly, assigned

daily tasks to individuals, responded to any volunteer or homeowner complaints, was the primary

contact for any problems that arose, and led a nightly staff meeting to communicate operations

and needs within my staff. In addition to managing our communal responsibilities, I also

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oversaw each staffer’s individual positional responsibilities in order to maintain smooth and

holistic operations at my facility. These job requirements include the following: the Finance

Coordinator tracked our budget, inputted all receipts, and documented donations; the Logistics

Coordinator managed the upkeep and stocking of our Supply Room, ensured needed materials

were bulk-ordered and appropriately delivered to their correct sites, and maintained our company

vehicles; the Operations Coordinator oversaw the cleaning and upkeep of our facility, purchased

all of our food, managed our hired cooks in the preparation of meals, and put on a weekly picnic

for the families we served and the volunteers; and finally, the Volunteer Coordinator executed all

pre-trip communication with each group that came to volunteer with us, updated the center’s

Facebook page twice a week, documented project progress with photographs, and conducted data

entry into the company data base, ASPire. In our nightly meetings I ensured that all positional

deadlines were being met and that all of their work was done to the standard of excellence I

maintained for my center, but also gaged the overall health and happiness of my staffers to

ensure that their individual needs were being met.

My individual responsibilities as a CD also included the management of our center’s

budget to ensure we were on track, determined our long-range plans for each construction project

which dictated the work we did and the timeline of that work to ensure it fit within our budget,

gave formal positional feedback to each of my employees twice throughout the summer, filled

out all paperwork with homeowners, hired subcontractors where needed, built positive

community relationships, applied for additional funding for all plumbing and electrical projects

through an ASP grant, regularly communicated with my Program Manager and other members of

our headquarter office, and directly responded to all crises that arouse (including volunteer

injuries on site, dangerous weather, damaged community relationships, potential safety risks on a

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site, and a car accident just to name a few direct examples). The job was overwhelming at times

and stressful, but it taught me about managing people, developing systems, customer service, and

how critical attention to detail can be, but the main thing to know about my job was this summer

was that I was in charge of making the chaos look effortless and responding to needs in a timely

manner despite the wide variety of other things I always had going on.

Weekly Journal:

Week 1: Value Proposition. What is the VP of your company?

Appalachia Service Project is a non-profit home repair ministry based in Central

Appalachia providing free, major, emergency construction to families living in substandard

housing through volunteer labor with staff management. As a Christian-founded organization

we are devoted to providing a relational ministry that promotes love and acceptance for all those

our staff comes in contact with—volunteers, donors, community members, and homeowners

alike. Our belief that each human is imbued with dignity and self-worth and that safe, sanitary

housing is a basic human right drives our work.

Week 2: Customers. Who is your customer? What is the target market? What strategies are

implemented to reach this target market? What are the channels by which your company reaches

their customers? How does your company manage customer relationships?

ASP has dual “customers” that serve different aspects of its service who are referred to as

its customers and its clients. Our clients receive our home repair services free of charge, while

our customers are paying our operations fee in exchange for a short-term mission experience.

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We define our clients as the families receiving our construction services and whose

homes are being repaired. This target market includes the families living in Central Appalachia

who are identified as living in substandard conditions, in which their homes are unsafe and

unhealthy to live in. ASP works in individual counties each summer— in 2016 we served 26

counties across North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The 2016

target market included the homes in each of these counties currently in substandard conditions,

and we made our selections of individuals who had submitted an application to ASP. The home

selection process includes the review of these applications, staff members visiting the home, and

then a Center Director selecting the homes we will be able to begin construction for based on

factors such as time, budget, volunteer skill level. We aim to work on 300-500 homes across our

service area each summer, but that still requires us to turn down 1 in 5 applications we receive.

We reach our clients through our community contacts throughout the year, who are individuals

and other organizations present in these communities throughout the year who are able to spread

the word about our services. We manage all of these relationships during the summer within the

counties with constant visits and communication to foster strong partnerships, and then on our

offseason (non-summer months when we do not have a full staff or volunteers present) ASP has

a County Set-Up team who maintains and develops these relationships so they are ready for

operations each summer.

The second aspect of our system is our customers who are our volunteers. Our services

are completely free to our homeowners, and it is our volunteers and additional donors who fund

the majority of our work. Each individual volunteer pays a fee for their week with us that covers

their food and housing for the week and contributes to our cost of materials for our projects, staff

salaries, and operational expenses. (I will later discuss ASP’s additional revenue streams that

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complement volunteer fees, such as donors, grants and governmental funding.) ASP has a strong

focus on customer service to ensure that our revenue streams remain plentiful so we can continue

to provide our services. Our target market for our volunteers and donors are focused on mainline

denominational churches, specifically their youth programs—with a heavy focus on states along

the east coast who would have lower travel costs for a potential trip. Our centers are filled with a

wide variety of groups and churches, most of which get recruited at different youth conferences,

informational fairs, or by word of mouth. ASP has an Advancement Department that is

responsible for the recruitment and retention of our volunteer groups. Once a group has been

recruited to our ministry, they arrive at our ASP center and then the center staff (the 4-6 group of

college-aged summer staffers, lead by a Center Director, which is my position this summer) is

responsible for providing them a positive experience to make them want to come back year-to-

year.

Week 3: Key Partners. Who are key partners of your company? How does your company

interact with the local community? Are there any national or international partnerships? How

does this affect the company?

ASP partners with a lot of local organizations within each of their summer counties.

There has been national push back against short-term missions, and ASP has increased their

focus on being a partner in the communities they serve to ensure that we are a year-round

presence and not just a 7-week summer tornado when we have volunteers on sites. Each county

varies in their community partners but the Center Directors are responsible for ensuring we are

working as a part of the larger community. We interact very closely with each of our 26

communities. Our staff lives in the communities they are serving throughout the summer and

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gets to know those who regularly work at the various establishments we are regulars at (i.e. the

hardware store, grocery store, restaurants, gas stations, laundry mats). We also serve

somewhere between 15-25 homeowners throughout our summer, in which we are working

within a family’s home and we get to know them very closely. One of ASP’s mottos is that we

are “a relationship ministry with construction on the side” and it is practiced daily as we focus on

the individuals we serve, the regional issues we see, and how we go about our work. ASP tries

to remain focused on our communities, and because we are often a economical beneficiary of a

community, we do not have any national or international partnerships. Where we can we

purchase construction materials, food and other operational materials from local vendors to boost

their economy. By focusing on these local partnerships rather than national ones, we are able to

remain small-scale in our operations, focus on the relationship aspects of our work. This focus

on local partnerships, ASP is able to keep their small-scale, personable identity even as their size

increases because they are able to focus on the individual relationships created and lives

transformed rather than revenue or growth.

ASP does not maintain any national partnerships at this time, which is one of the critiques

I would have for the organization as a whole. While some local governments can provide

financial backing, this is even limited. I believe a partnership with groups that could provide

expertise, such as contracting agencies, as well as hardware partners, such as Lowe’s or Home

Depot, would both go a long way in expanding our program and increasing our budget so we are

able to make even more of an impact.

Week 4: Key Activities. Key Resources. What are the critical activities that occur daily,

weekly, and monthly? What activities are central to the company’s success? What are the

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activities that effect the company environment? How does this effect productivity and the work

culture?

At my center in Fentress County, TN our weekly operations have two main activities,

construction repairs on 12-14 homes per week and volunteer programming. My staff of 4 and I

were responsible daily and weekly for identifying the homes we will work on, developing

community relationships, managing all aspects of construction, facility upkeep, and evening

programming for volunteers. Each individual staffer has additional individual responsibilities

such as finance, volunteer coordination, center operations, and logistical aspects of the program.

My individual responsibilities include managing the other 4 staffers and their work, manage our

county’s summer budget, manage all construction projects and their long-term goals, maintain

community relationships, communicate with our office headquarters about our operations, and

manage all crises. Our organization’s success relies on all of these aspects of our work being

done with our full attention and with an extremely positive attitude. Due to our various

stakeholders it is important that every aspect of our work is done to the fullest of our ability to

ensure everyone is getting what they need from the organization. Due to the large amount of

tasks that are needed of our summer staff, productivity is an extremely high priority of every

single day of every single week. The work is hard, the days are long, and it can be an extremely

challenging experience. The work culture is extremely unique due to the uniqueness of our work

and our environments. To describe the work culture at ASP I would turn to the “work hard, play

hard” mindset; our work always comes first, and while it can be stressful and overwhelming, our

staff makes time to have fun with one another, to reflect on our experiences, and grow as

individuals.

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Week 5: Finance. What is the organization’s cost structure? What are the different revenue

streams? What activity or service has the greatest profit margin? What activity or service has the

greatest social impact?

Appalachia Service Project works with an annual budget of about $2.5 million, and is a

registered 501c3 nonprofit organization. They operate under 3 main revenue streams—volunteer

fees, donations, and government funding and grants. Each volunteer pays $325/week to cover

their room and board and helps to fund the project materials, operational costs, and employee

salaries. A large portion of this budget is maintained through large donors, and as UNC-CH

professor, Dr. Johnson, would say, “relies on the kindness of strangers.” This has always been a

part of ASP’s revenue stream for it’s 48 years of operation and has only grown over time.

The greatest profit margin is created through our volunteer experience. When a volunteer is able

to work on a home for a full week, build a relationship with that family, and see the hardships an

average family in Central Appalachia faces, they are increasingly likely to monetarily support

our mission.

In addition it is important to note the entire mission of ASP surrounds the social impact it

makes. By repairing homes to make them warmer, safer and drier ASP is impacting the lives of

many individual families in Central Appalachia. By creating a positive, relational, and

transformative volunteer experience, our volunteers, both high school-aged students and adults

of many backgrounds, are impacted. By stimulating the local economy with our material

purchases and population increase, we are impacting the economic health of the region. And

through of marketing, both formal and word of mouth, we are spreading the story of Central

Appalachia throughout the U.S. so that people know that poverty is here in our own backyard,

and we need to tackle this first before going on less impactful short-term mission trips overseas.

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Week 6: Drucker. Refresh yourself on Drucker’s principles of innovation. Where do you see

these at play in your company?

Drucker’s principles of innovation focus on the concept of look, ask and listen to lead to

innovation. I believe this is at play within ASP as a whole and is proven from summer to

summer. I have had the opportunity to work with ASP for 7 summers—4 as a volunteer and 3 as

a summer staffer. Throughout my time with this organization I have been blown away with the

amount of feedback that is requested, processed, and genuinely taken into consideration. Each

volunteer group is given a survey at the end of their week volunteering with us, feedback

meetings twice a week with members of the summer staff, as well as the contact information of

the summer staff’s boss. The staff is also given extensive opportunities for feedback, both

through formal feedback with supervisors and final surveys and suggestions for future summers.

All of this feedback is then taken by our senior leadership into a weekend-long meeting in the

fall where it is discussed in detail and plans begin to be formed for solving major problems that

come up. Throughout my summers on staff I can clearly see that this feedback (the look) leads

to our leadership asking questions about what lead to these problems, and they are actively

listening to concerns to make innovative improvements. Each summer there are tangible

changes made to the summer program, and the senior leadership thoroughly explains the

reasoning behind each change as the summer staff is asked to implement these changes.

Week 7: People. Who is in leadership? What qualities do these people possess that make them

successful? What is the founder’s story? What is the team dynamic in the company? Tell us

about your manager. What has s/he done well? Where is there room for improvement?

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CEO, Walter Crouch, and CMO, Melisa Miller lead our organization. They work with an

executive leadership board to manage and run ASP, and we also have a board of directors to

discuss long-range plans and goals for the organization. Each of these leaders brings a diverse

set of experiences, skills and strengths to the group dynamic that allows ASP to thrive and come

up with the best possible solution to each decision being made. I have been overly impressed

with the public speaking skills of these individuals and am aware of how integral this skill is to

starting a business, gaining funders and supporters, and thriving as new or growing business.

The founder’s name is Tex Evans who has recently passed away. Tex was a minister who had

the innovative idea that high school aged youth could do good, safe, quality construction and

raise homes in Central Appalachia out of substandard housing. With his background in the

church, this is where he focused his volunteer recruitment and fundraising efforts, and that is still

seen today as the majority of our organization’s supporters are religiously affiliated. Tex, like

our current leaders, had the ability to articulate his vision, needs, and goals for ASP in a way that

made those around him want to get involved and support the organization—to me, this is what is

most important for a new business, the ability to persuade those around you to join you to make

it a movement of many, rather than the dream of one.

My current manager is Kristina Rowles, she has been involved in ASP for 5 summers and

has recently accepted her position with ASP full time. During the summer she managed mine

and 3 other counties of operations. The Center Directors directly reported to her and she helped

to handle major conflicts and issues that arose, and ensured that center operations were running

smoothly and were properly being managed by the Center Director. Kristina was exceptional

with her communication and made sure to always check in with the Center Director on a very

consistent basis and provided a lot of support throughout the summer with managing the staff as

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well as guidance during major decisions that had to be made throughout the summer. In terms of

areas of improvement I think she could have done a better job setting initial expectations with

me, especially considering the short length of my employment as there is less time for

adjustment. Initially I was concerned with how infrequently she would check in on my progress,

but learned to enjoy that trust and freedom that she had in me. Not knowing how she wanted

things done or if I was on track to completing all of my assigned tasks made me very nervous,

but as time went on I realized that I was doing all the things that I needed to be doing and that

was what was leading to her trust in me.

Week 8: SWOT analysis. Break down your company: strengths, weakness, opportunities, and

threats. If you were in leadership, where would you innovate, pivot, or strategically develop your

company?

Appalachia Service Project’s strengths include their relationships with both those they

work for and those they work with. Customer service for volunteers and donors, as well as

building relationships with homeowners we work for, is emphasized to all those who work for

the organization and is integral to every aspect of our work.

ASP’s main weakness is its revenue streams, which are by nature unreliable. All 3 of

their revenue streams could dwindle on any given year and would be detrimental to the company.

Volunteer’s could decide on another way to spend their vacation time, losing the revenue from

volunteer fees. Government grants and support could be reallocated. And donations will always

fluctuate in an unpredictable way. ASP has built itself up on the kindness of strangers and it’s

instability could cause a collapse if giving trends were to decline.

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ASP’s opportunities lie in their social impact and selfless nature. They are able to

provide a very tangible product for their donations, while still being able to prove their great

impact. When you donate to ASP, you can envision that money going into materials to repair

homes, while also hearing about how influential something as small as a repaired roof can have

on a family. ASP operates under the Housing First principles, that believe that the first step to

getting someone’s life back on track is a safe, sanitary place to live. Things like job prospects

and economic sustainability are not possible without a consistent place to live, and ASP works to

provide that for those living in Central Appalachia. Being able to see these tangible influences is

extremely important for donors and participants of the organization.

Some threats of ASP include the failing popularity of short-term mission trips. There has

been a lot of recent push back against short term missions because many critics believe that their

only self-serving and unable to provide any substantial impact. This can be combined with the

decreasing participation of youth-aged individuals involving themselves in organized church, as

that is the main place where groups form to volunteer with ASP. If the youth numbers are

decreasing, and these groups are opting for more local, consistent mission work, then ASP’s

overall volunteer numbers will decrease. The volunteer decrease will result in a revenue

decrease and a social impact decrease until it is no longer a sustainable business.

If I were in leadership with ASP I would look for these opportunities to innovate, pivot,

and strategically develop. I would begin by trying to move ASP away from a church-based pool

of volunteers and instead reach out to those of all backgrounds to volunteer with us. There is

nothing about our work that should be tied to religion, our founding values may be Christian-

based, but I think those can still hold true without excluding those who are not religious. Finding

ways to form volunteer groups outside of the church, and targeting different markets through

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volunteer recruitment are huge. And secondly, I would look for an additional, more stable

revenue stream to help support ASP’s mission that could supplement weaker fiscal years. I do

not have an idea yet of what that would be, but finding a product or a service that is within our

expertise could make a huge difference in the outlook of the organization.

Work Deliverables:

The three main aspects of my job this summer included managing the budget for the

Fentress County center operations, determining and overseeing the long-range plans for all

construction projects, and managing my 4 employees in their individual and collective

responsibilities. Below I have provided a few visual deliverables of the budget and construction

management aspects of my work.

I. Budget Management

Our county’s spending was tracked by our Finance Coordinator through our program

Finance Accelerator (FA). In FA all receipts of spending and incoming donations were entered

in their corresponding tabs (Expenses, Cash, Checks, Square, In-Kind, and Deposits), which

were then calculated into the Finance Summary spreadsheet. The main FA spreadsheet and the

various input areas follow:

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Our overall budget was determined by the number of volunteers and crews we had per

week. One of the challenges of working in a volunteer-based organization is fast-paced change

that frequently took place. These numbers determined my final $67,000 budget based on $540

per work crew per week for supplies and materials for our construction work and $27 per

volunteer per week for their food. Managing our budget is challenging as volunteers will

frequently add/drop volunteers, and in extreme cases entire work crews, throughout the summer.

This lapse in communication made planning and bulk spending very challenging to ensure we

did not buy goods for volunteers who did not come. Below is the chart in FA where we inputted

our final numbers, which the program translated into our full budget calculations that will follow.

As Center Director, I used the financial summaries to make decisions about our spending

in order to ensure we remained within budget. I frequently discussed these numbers with my

boss, and any line item that was over budget was an extenuating circumstance that had to be

preapproved. My final summaries are shown in the charts below:

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Finally, FA supplied me with graphs to provide a visual representation of my budget

based on what consistent spending would be throughout the summer. This tool allowed me to

see on a weekly basis if I needed to increase or decrease spending, or push for larger donations,

in order to bring myself closer to my goal line.

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II. Construction Management

My staff and I were responsible for finding and selecting our projects through Initial

Home Visits. All homes were presented to me and I made the final decisions about which homes

we would work on throughout the summer, and which homes we had to deny. After a home was

selected I signed official paperwork with the homeowner and developed long-range plans for the

construction that we were going to undertake. These plans considered the necessary order of

operations that needed to be taken for the project, considered our overall budget to make sure

expensive projects were evenly distributed throughout the summer and were balanced with less

expensive work, were within the time frame of our summer to be completed, and within the skill

level of our incoming volunteers. Plans changed fluidly as a variety of factors arose and it was

my responsibility to ensure I remained organized with the long-range plans and communicated

these changes with my staff. Throughout the summer each staffer oversaw the construction on a

few of these projects and reporter progress back to me each night; during these meetings we

problem solved issues that had arisen throughout the day, discusses additional materials they

would need for the next day’s work, and discussed if they were on track with my long-range plan

for that project. By the end of our 7 weeks of volunteers, my county had worked on 16 different

homes, completing an impressive amount of projects. Below I have included before and after

photographs of as sample of our work with short descriptions of these projects (for the privacy of

the families I will refer to each home with the Code Name it received and was known by

throughout the summer).

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i. The Secret Box

Front exterior wall replacement and new siding:

New foundation, piers and band joist repair:

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Interior work (floor repair, ceiling support, drywall, plumbing, kitchen cabinets and appliances):

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ii. Jellyfish Jam

Hug System—exterior insulation, new siding and roof:

iii. Pickles

Underpinning and Wheelchair Ramp:

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Reflection:

The Entrepreneurship Minor as a whole has been an incredibly valuable, eye-opening

experience for me here at UNC. Each class has allowed me to learn a great deal about the world

of business startups that I would otherwise not have been able to comprehend on such a deep

level. The classes have been heavily hands-on, which helped me to engage with the subject

matter deeply, though I sometimes felt it was at the cost of a more thorough teaching of

conceptual material. I believe one thing that could help students learn more from the minor

would be for an instructor to walk the class through a startup example that mirrors concepts

being discussed in class. By having an instructor-guided example, students would be more

prepared to develop their own business ideas, and would eventually produce better products. In

addition, I felt that throughout the minor classes there was very little feedback given to student

performance and development of ideas. While I understand they are large classes, my groups

often felt we were aimlessly working towards an end product that we either did not understand,

or we were developing a product that would not actively solve the issue we were addressing. I

appreciate that I was able to learn the value of failure in entrepreneurship, but in a classroom

environment I feel that I missed the opportunity to understand what a success startup would take.

My internship this summer allowed me to take on a great deal of leadership, and taught

me what it is like to effectively manage a staff dynamic and business operations. While I did

have a hierarchy above me that dictated my actions to a degree, I was able to make a lot of real-

time decisions, interact with customers and clients face-to-face, manage financials, develop

organizational and operational systems, raise funds, and solve problems with innovative

solutions to please multiple stakeholders. I learned the nuanced art of developing an

organizational culture, and how difficult it can be to foster the work environment you desire.

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While part of it surrounds the individuality of your employees, a great deal of it fell on myself as

the leader to set that tone early and consistently. The internship also prepared me for the

managerial aspects of running a startup, and how small decisions can have very large impacts. I

experienced the challenge weighing multiple solutions by how each would affect the

organization’s image, financial status, and longevity. And while in those moments this summer I

often chose the riskier solution, hoping for the higher reward, and despite the fact that all of my

decisions this summer had positive outcomes, these decisions took an emotional toll on me.

Through formal performance reviews and casual feedback I can affirm that I was

successful at my job this summer; my staff dynamic was strong, I finished my summer 6% under

a budget of $67,000, I completed work on 16 homes to bring them out of substandard condition,

housed over 600 volunteers at my center, and improved Fentress County community member

relationships with ASP. While I have proven that I have the ability to carry out these tasks

though management and innovation, I came to the important realization this summer that this is

not where my passion lies. My passions lie in operations, carrying out a vision to achieve a goal.

My entrepreneurial skills surround the innovative development of an operational system,

breaking out of the mundane methods of work. I do not enjoy the bigger picture thinking, the

stress of making transformative decisions for an organization, or the idea of spending the

majority of my time acquiring funding. It is through this program that I know I am not ready to

lead my own startup, these are not where my skills lie; however, it is through this program that I

know the value of innovative thinking on all levels of organizational work, which is something I

will carry with me into my future beyond UNC.

Thank you for all that you do.

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Business Model Canvas:

Other:

Management Research:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/09/09/5-things-the-best-managers-do-

and-dont-do/#7432dca23edd

https://leadersinheels.com/career/6-management-styles-and-when-best-to-use-them-the-

leaders-tool-kit/

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https://hbr.org/2005/03/what-great-managers-do

Housing First Initiative:

http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/housing_first

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/03/04/housing-first-approach-

works-for-homeless-study-says/

Fentress County Research:

http://jamestowntn.gov/sites/default/files/MunicipalCode.pdf

https://www.tn.gov/main/article/fentress-county

http://www.iccsafe.org/about-icc/government-relations/map/tennessee/

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