Are you interested in volunteering for ISN to reduce 485 backlogs?
I had contacted ISN (www.isn.org, the organization that lobbied to bring the AC-21 change etc. ) previously with no luck. This week I got an email from the ISN president to help on a news article so I wrote back at that email address asking how can we tackle the 485 backlog problem. Here is the email I got. Looks like they need a lot of support. If you guys are interested email Murali (ISN president) at MuraliKD@Yahoo.com if you are interested. Without our collective effort I am sure the backlogs will remain as backlogs. So if you are interested read the email that Murali sent and reply back to him with the details.
Email from Murali
Hello
Thank you for your very well-expressed email.
I understand your frustration and don't have an answer that will satisfy you as to why we couldn't respond to everybody. I only hope you'll understand that we're going through growing pains and there's only so much a person can
do. We do need people to step up, but we don't want to take up more than what we can handle reasonably.
If you *really* want to contribute, please email me the following details, and I'll call you this weekend (please mention appropriate time-windows on Saturday & Sunday, and I'll confirm a specific time).
1. Your contact information: non-work Phone, non-work email, city/metro-a area, and the state you're in.
2. Your immigration status: H-1B or other, GC status, (optionally: dependants status), how long in the US
3. Your professional background:
Title/area-of-specialization/(optional: company), years of work experience
4. *Any* experience, no matter how insignificant, in leadership or organizing, at any level (starting from your school days).
5. What motivates you? What would you like to do at ISN? (think in terms of the following: are you looking to go out in the field, organize meetings, lead delegations to congressional offices? or do you see yourself working on
the ISN web-site? or is it something else in between? The important thing is to be honest with yourself and set goals that are incremental and achievable).
6. Are you looking to do something short-term only, like the lobbying against the backlogs? (It's perfectly ok, it's just crucial for us to know in order to assign people to the appropriate tasks best suited for them and to help them succeed).
7. Optional: If you're also interested in a long-term (no less than 6 months, and preferably at least a year), please mention briefly what you'd like to do.
Also, understand that working for ISN is going to be demanding, and you can't just hop-in and out. We've been more hurt by well-intentioned people joining us and then leaving us mid-stream, than by people who never volunteered. It's very hard for a grass-roots organization like ISN to absorb the impact of some one leaving without achieving his/her objective.
The minimum responsibility that you'll have when you are ready to leave ISN is to groom some one else and delegate to that person to take over your responsibilities. (this does not mean hand-picking your buddy- it just means
that you must identify and delegate to someone competent and motivated to carry on from where you leave).
That, in a nutshell, is how it's going to be. There's a lot more to it, but it's all in details.
Regards,
Murali
I had contacted ISN (www.isn.org, the organization that lobbied to bring the AC-21 change etc. ) previously with no luck. This week I got an email from the ISN president to help on a news article so I wrote back at that email address asking how can we tackle the 485 backlog problem. Here is the email I got. Looks like they need a lot of support. If you guys are interested email Murali (ISN president) at MuraliKD@Yahoo.com if you are interested. Without our collective effort I am sure the backlogs will remain as backlogs. So if you are interested read the email that Murali sent and reply back to him with the details.
Email from Murali
Hello
Thank you for your very well-expressed email.
I understand your frustration and don't have an answer that will satisfy you as to why we couldn't respond to everybody. I only hope you'll understand that we're going through growing pains and there's only so much a person can
do. We do need people to step up, but we don't want to take up more than what we can handle reasonably.
If you *really* want to contribute, please email me the following details, and I'll call you this weekend (please mention appropriate time-windows on Saturday & Sunday, and I'll confirm a specific time).
1. Your contact information: non-work Phone, non-work email, city/metro-a area, and the state you're in.
2. Your immigration status: H-1B or other, GC status, (optionally: dependants status), how long in the US
3. Your professional background:
Title/area-of-specialization/(optional: company), years of work experience
4. *Any* experience, no matter how insignificant, in leadership or organizing, at any level (starting from your school days).
5. What motivates you? What would you like to do at ISN? (think in terms of the following: are you looking to go out in the field, organize meetings, lead delegations to congressional offices? or do you see yourself working on
the ISN web-site? or is it something else in between? The important thing is to be honest with yourself and set goals that are incremental and achievable).
6. Are you looking to do something short-term only, like the lobbying against the backlogs? (It's perfectly ok, it's just crucial for us to know in order to assign people to the appropriate tasks best suited for them and to help them succeed).
7. Optional: If you're also interested in a long-term (no less than 6 months, and preferably at least a year), please mention briefly what you'd like to do.
Also, understand that working for ISN is going to be demanding, and you can't just hop-in and out. We've been more hurt by well-intentioned people joining us and then leaving us mid-stream, than by people who never volunteered. It's very hard for a grass-roots organization like ISN to absorb the impact of some one leaving without achieving his/her objective.
The minimum responsibility that you'll have when you are ready to leave ISN is to groom some one else and delegate to that person to take over your responsibilities. (this does not mean hand-picking your buddy- it just means
that you must identify and delegate to someone competent and motivated to carry on from where you leave).
That, in a nutshell, is how it's going to be. There's a lot more to it, but it's all in details.
Regards,
Murali
