Time in Syria

I have made the early decision to keep the local Children's Project team as small as possible. The reasons for this are partly ones of cost - we need to ensure that as much of our expenditure as possible goes into activities for young people; and partly ones of appearance - while our output remains limited it doesn't seem a good message to be building and carrying an over-large central bureaucracy. This means that our team will have to overlap responsibilities, be flexible and independent enough to work outside strict job descriptions, and individually take the initiative for getting the job done. So, a deputy, a touring programme manager, a finance person, an office administrator/secretary and a driver/handyman are all that I am looking for at the start of this process.

I am going through CVs and applications now, and pretty depressing it is too. Many of the CVs are complete fiction, many are illiterate, many applicants just want a job and have no real interest in this project, many obviously just want a job connected to Mrs Assad. I have interviewed a number of people already, and so far have found no-one who understands what a project is, what a team is, what critical thinking is, or what taking responsibility means. I am revising my timetable for getting the team in place and functioning quite a distance into the future.

Labels: Massar