The Interdisciplinary Chronicles 116

No matter the type of community activity in which you choose to engage, formalization, keeping track of your work and its impact is of prime importance. Formalization leads to system development and system stability; while also simplifying coordination and control. From a management perspective, it is certainly easier to manage a highly formalized system than an organization without any official rules or policies. Formalization also helps in building trust and attracting support from stakeholders and other actors and players in the sector.

While working on the school staff community engagement, the first challenge I faced was that the initiative was a voluntary action and did not fall within the official program of the school. Some staff members were committed, meanwhile others saw it to be too engaging. At one moment, especially when a new executive for the staff socials was elected and installed, all the community engagement ideas sounded like it was something of the last mandate since it was not officially part of the school system. We tried to get it to be officially part of the authorized school activities but the process was too cumbersome and required clearance from the bureaucratic chain. I was also looking for other ways to formalize the activities as a non-governmental and community action which could engage individuals even out of our staff. I tried to verify if it could work locally but that was not possible. ?I needed to formalize it with a higher public administrative authority out of the community. This was another hectic process.

Another serious issue I faced was that I had no prior knowledge or experience on how to organize, formalize and operate a non-profit community initiative. What I was doing with my colleagues was out of passion. I tried to read from some reports such as those published by the World Bank; they were available in the school library. Unfortunately, I could only see reports of development initiatives and their success stories. I didn’t see how I could go about getting an initiative formalized and operating while attracting support from beyond. Internet and communication challenges posed a serious barrier to information acquisition. I felt frustrated at one moment. The only thing that came to my mind was that I needed to move to a location where I could have the different information, resources and connect to networks of experts to learn about the journey I was taking. Another quick solution which came to my mind was that I needed to take up a role in a formalized development organization in order to learn. How was I going to get this role? When I returned to the main city, Bamenda for my summer break I was happy because I had the opportunity to increase my search for information online. Internet was available all the time. Besides, I was free from the pressure of trying to prepare lessons for teaching. This is when I realized I could take up a volunteering role in an existing formalized organization and learn from their experiences.

In the next edition, I will be highlighting how I was engaged by the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) as a volunteer/intern and how this experience was a major breakthrough in my journey as an interdisciplinarian.