Posted on October 3, 2011 @ 8:00 am by ehuizenga

RALLY REDUX! Jeffrey Brennan on his EPIC experience

What would inspire a busy professional to volunteer for an EPIC rally? Recently, we found out. In this Q&A, Jeffrey Brennan weighs in on his EPIC experience.

EPIC: In winter 2010, you served as a writer for the nonprofit, Lincoln Park Community Shelter, creating two videos on a probono basis. Why did you apply to be on a team in the first place? What inspired you?

JEFFREY: A fellow colleague told me about EPIC, and I knew right away that I wanted to sign up. I love to support worthy causes and volunteer whenever I can, but I had never been able to apply my trade for that purpose. Normally, volunteering means learning a new job, which also usually means I do it badly while getting acquainted with the work and the organization. But on my rally project, I was able to immediately bring a lot more to the table, and (hopefully) that delivered a greater benefit to the charity.

For more selfish reasons, I was just excited by the opportunity to work on a new project for a new client with an entirely new team. I think that’s always a draw for creative folks.

EPIC: What was the most important thing you learned from the experience?

JEFFREY: You have to speak up. You’re part of a group of strangers with varied talents and experience, trying to figure how best to help a great organization, and each person has a specific role on that team. However, because everyone has such diverse personal and professional backgrounds, I found that we all had knowledge that fell outside our defined positions. This dynamic created a situation in which I not only felt at liberty to voice my opinions but compelled to share my expertise when I thought it would benefit the end project.

In my regular work, I tend to defer to people in higher positions or with greater expertise, but this experience taught me that I have a responsibility to speak up when I have a unique perspective or valuable information. Since then, I’ve been more a more vocal member of my team and that’s had a positive effect on my work.

Thanks to junior board member Liz Kramer for doing the legwork on this installment of “Rally Redux.”

 

 

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