• You do sixteen hours, what do you get
• Another month over and closer to debt
• EU don’t you call me, cause I can’t go
• You took all my time, just can’t do any more.    

 Sixteen hours. That’s sixteen hours of service per month that the job club requires its members to contribute. This time requirement brings up short many potential Experience Unlimited members and sometimes discourages them from joining. But if they think about this requirement a little more carefully, they can see that it averages no more than four hours per week (actually, a little less if a month consists of more than 28 days). That boils down to four hours a week.  4. Hours. Per. Week.  That’s not a lot!

Also bear in mind that the typical work week for most wage-earners who work full-time usually totals 40 hours.  That is ten times, ten times the time commitment EU is expecting. A simple way to address this time commitment is to fulfill a much-needed duty of the job club’s Administration Department, namely by manning the front desk during weekday business hours. Any active EU member from any of its departments – not just those from Administration – can man the desk.  There are two shifts per day, morning and afternoon (till closing time), each four hours in length.  Any member who puts in two consecutive days (doing both a morning and afternoon shift), or does one shift per week, will fulfill his or her 16-hour/month commitment as an EU-SF member.  Simple as that!  Administration has other projects to be done, of course, such as filing, reorganization, member database maintenance, and so on, substantial projects that can be done in one, or two, or more (or less!) hour chunks that accumulate in the space of a month.

Administrative shifts are open to competition from interested EU members wanting to fulfill all or part of their 16-hour a month commitment.  Obviously, there are only so many shifts available.  But there are many other ways to put in the time for EU.  Let’s take a look at three of EU-SF’s other departments.

For example, you might want to work with the P/R Department by arranging one of the club’s occasional after-hours networking events. This involves networking with people (including other EU members) to determine the most suitable and promising sites, then approaching the relevant contacts at those venues (re date, time, and cost).  After the site has been chosen, you might be asked (as your next assignment) to inform the EU membership (active, inactive and alumni) as well as recruiters, about the event. This would involve outreach (preparing and/or distributing flyers, newsletter blurbs, and mass emails).  Further planning involves sign-up sheets for attendance, potluck dishes (if needed), and sometimes carpooling. Sometimes the event may require a team, in which case you must now recruit members and delegate duties. Then there is the actual hosting of the event: taking attendance, collecting entrance fees (if any) from EU members, mixing with and matching interested parties, etc.  The P/R department also participates occasionally in job fairs by hosting a booth advertising the benefits of joining EU-SF and answering questions about how to look for work in a very tough market. This involves preparing promotional material and hand-outs and staffing the booth for four hours or more.

Another way to fulfill some (or all) of those pesky 16 hours is to align yourself with the Programs Department. The main focus of this department is recruiting speakers for the weekly general meetings and chairing the meetings. (Speakers, who are usually from outside the club, usually talk for an hour on a job- or career-related subject). Advance preparation requires researching topics of interest and concern to the club’s members and approaching suitable speakers; doing follow-up, which includes coordinating with the speakers and EU management re time and room availability, preparing the agenda and related materials, and conducting the meeting.

Which brings me to the Newsletter Department: as a member and co-director of that department, I can personally attest to the considerable amount of time I spent in Internet research on relevant articles, writing, editing and laying out the weekly newsletters and blogs (in terms of graphic display), and maintaining the calendar of upcoming EU events.

Finally in the Training and Development Department, a trainer, by running a four-hour workshop every other week plus the time needed to prepare materials and related items, plus follow-up, will do more than half of his or her monthly time commitment. 

You may have noted that many of the above activities or assignments can be done outside of the EU office (say, in the comfort of your home) and EDD time constraints.  Remember, however, that the EU office has three phones, a fully supplied copier and fax machine, multiple computer workstations with online access, and other office amenities, AT NO COST TO YOU!  

The bottom line about Experience Unlimited is that a job club is only as good as its members.  Without members, without their participation, there is no job club, and none of the valuable services it provides for you and your fellow job-seekers. EU asks for 16 hours as the minimum requirement from each member, but often many members put in more time to make the job club as good as it can be, paying off in the many benefits that active participation brings.  

One last word about volunteering: according to the overwhelming majority of experts in the career exploration/job search field, effective networking is critical to a successful job hunt. An excellent way to network widely and systematically is through volunteering at a job club.  Passing up this volunteer opportunity that gives you the chance to keep and polish your professional skills, acquire and practice new skills, and initiate and maintain professional relationships, is counter-intuitive and counterproductive.

So instead of singing a 16 hour blues, with a little bit of forethought and time management, you could be singing a whole new tune, say, a version of a Chuck Berry classic.

• EU’s really rockin’ Torrance
• All over L.A.
• Deep in Silicon Valley
• Throughout the Frisco Bay
• From Covina to Fresno
• Workin’ the Cali Scene
• All we ask you to put in
• Sweet Little Sixteen.      ♦

- EUSF Editor

     So what is EUSF? It is the San Francisco chapter of Experience Unlimited, a program created and coordinated by the state of California’s Employment Development Department. EUSF is a job club run by its membership of unemployed or underemployed individuals seeking work in professional, technical and managerial fields. EDD coordinates the job club, providing and supplying EU’s main workspace which includes computer workstations, copier, fax and telephones.

     There are many advantages to being a member of an EU Chapter, but we will focus on two, networking opportunities and resume-worthy activity.

    When you become a member of EU, you enter into a realm of networking opportunities.  The most obvious is networking with your fellow EU members, with whom you can find out about possible openings, events or classes of continuing education and practice your skills/goals sales pitches.

     EU includes other areas (or departments) that promote networking growth.  For example, as a member of the PR department, you can interact with various organizations and their representatives as you get word out about the EU job club and set up outside networking events for EU membership to meet other members, EU alumni, and recruiters.  Or, if you became a member of the Speakers and Meetings Department, you would seek out various individuals representing all areas of job/career search/development to speak to the membership, and in so doing, develop relationships that might extend surprisingly wide and deep into the business world. 

 A job seeker may research a particular field or career by conducting an informational interview with someone in a particular field; the EU weekly newsletter provides a forum whereby members can submit the results of such an interview for publication. This can then be used for resumes, job applications and interviews. Thus a EU member, under the imprimatur of EU and the newsletter, can approach various industry insiders, make contact and establish relationships that somewhere down the road can result in job offers. 

     Recently, an EU member has pointed out a disturbing article in the New York Times opinion section, namely that some recruiters and employers are screening out currently unemployed persons for job/position openings.   Regardless of how this particular situation may evolve due to legal and other processes, it points to the importance of addressing the dreaded “resume gap.”  Job-seekers may put down any volunteer work, school classes, freelancing, or other similar activities.  In this instance, being an active member of EUSF can serve as an effective “gap filler.”  Without revealing that it is an unpaid position, a EU member can mention that he or she has worked (as a member or director, even) for an organization in a department utilizing or learning skills, which might include attending regular board of director meetings. In other words, there is a considerable range of accomplishments a job seeker can include on a resume.

Find out more at one of our EUSF Orientation meetings (open to all), every Thursday from 10:00 – 11:00am at EDD ( Lower Level) at 745 Franklin Street (at Turk), San Francisco  Call 415-749-7577 to pre-register.   And check out our website www.eu-sf.info for more information.   °