Off the CUPF: Community Use of Public Facilities

Fresh Eyes and Summertime Expectations | Welcome Summer Fellow, Sarah Hoffman

• Derek Ross and Ramona Bell-Pearson • Season 1 • Episode 9

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In this podcast, CUPF Director, Ramona Bell-Pearson and Communications and Outreach Specialist, Derek Ross, will discuss with CUPF's New Summer Fellow, Sarah Hoffman the unique experience of working for Montgomery County Government. Listen as we share our backstories about volunteering and how it has shaped our roles with CUPF and in our communities. Are you familiar with CUPF's Quick Survey? Learn more about how we are utilizing the information shared by our user groups, highlighting their most recent reservation process experience.

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Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Welcome to Off the Cup a community use of public facilities podcast. We are one of many county government podcasts that focus on sustainability and innovation, all while making sure our community is aware of the services the county provides. Are you looking to reserve an outdoor indoor facility at a library, school or county building? How about the Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza or the Clarksburg Cottage in Montgomery County, maryland? Available venues are here to be reserved and we are the office that can make it happen. We are Cuff and thank you for joining our community podcast. Let's get started.

Derek Ross:

Well, well, well, welcome back, Welcome back Once again. Welcome back to Community Use of Public Facilities podcast. Off the cuff, I am Derek Ross, your communications outreach specialist, ramona how are you doing?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I'm doing fine, Derek. Thanks for asking.

Derek Ross:

Oh snap. You know I have to always ask a director like that because you are the director of Cuff, community Use of Public Facilities, and it's always great to hear how you're doing. Ramona, let's get into it Highs and lows. Got any good stuff to talk about.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Okay. Well, I guess I would say as a high, I'm retiring in 45 days, oh, 40. I have the countdown on. But I'd also say a low is I'm retiring in 45 days, thank you, thank you.

Derek Ross:

That is a low.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

This is after over 30 years of service for the county. How many years? Over 30. I'm not saying specifically. I think it's good enough to say over 30.

Derek Ross:

Okay.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Because you know, I was like 10 when I came to work here.

Derek Ross:

That makes sense. I did the math, I got it. Wow, all right, all right. So we got that out of the way. We got highs and lows. I guess I could jump into my highs and lows. My highs and lows are, I guess, from communication standpoint, we are moving. There is a lot of if we are chefs or cooks. We got so much on the stove. It's everything cooking coming together. But you know what this Thanksgiving meal is going to be bomb. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. We're going to get it together. But we're also going to get it together because we also have a Summer Fellow.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

We do, we do, we do.

Derek Ross:

We're going to talk as if that Summerellow is not even sitting here with us.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

We're going to talk as if oh don't worry, she's going to chime in.

Derek Ross:

Awesome, going to chime in Welcome. Welcome to the podcast, sarah. How are you doing?

Sarah Hoffman:

I'm doing great Thanks for asking.

Derek Ross:

Welcome, welcome, welcome, ramona. Did you want to do any kind of intros for Sarah, or just say hello?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Introduce Sarah came to us through a program that is sponsored by the county council, okay, and there are interns sprinkled throughout the county Not that many, though. It's a pretty exclusive group. They had a fairly large amount of applicants and Sarah was one of the few that won out, and we're very glad to have her. This is only the second time that Cuff has had summer fellows. The first set we had were a couple of years ago, who helped us start our framework for the fee schedule and the fee study. That was then taken over by consultants, and now Sarah is working with us on communications. So she's working closely with you, derek, right.

Derek Ross:

Yes, yes, yes, Sarah is rocking it. I actually was admiring some of the work that was already being done. We have a meeting with Ramona because Ramona laid out some great ideas and it's like you know what. These ideas must come to fruition. We must bring it together. But yes, Sarah, you know the microphone is on you. Yeah, you know highs and lows. Just tell us a little bit about yourself.

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, so hi, I'm Sarah. Like you know, ramona and Derek said I'm part of the summer fellowship program through the County Council. I think there's eight of us this summer. Two are in the County Council, one at CUF, one at permitting, one at the police department, one at emergency like fire and emergency services, and one at the Office of Food Resiliency. So yeah, I'm really excited for the summer and there's just a lot of good ideas that we've already had so far within two weeks. So I'm really excited to just keep working on it and get feedback. But I'll go through my highs and lows quickly. Highs I'm really excited for summer fruit and summer produce and I got to eat some great berries and cherries this weekend. Lows, I would say, is just the weather. It has not felt like it's been on my side lately, whether it's rainy or too hot and humid. I just have not been feeling the weather. But yeah, those are my highs and lows this week.

Derek Ross:

All right. All right, look at that. We already gotten in the food and the seeds and the growth and stuff like that. I'm feeling motivated. I'm feeling motivated, all right, so let's get straight into it. Let's get straight into it. We try to ask everybody all of you awesome listeners about you know just a question Are you familiar with Puff's Quick Survey? That is a survey that is provided on our website. We like surveys. I know I do. I do surveys for food. What was that Yolk? I mean, there's a kind of a way. There's also there's so many different things that we can do in regards to surveys and what we learn from the community. But, ramona, I'll pass it to you what is your thought on surveys? How do you feel about surveys?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I think most people burn out on surveys.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

They feel like how many times can you ask me if I like A, b or C, or what kind of things do I need in my community, and what kind of things will cause me to come out to your programs or your services?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

The surveys, though, are really important, because we use those as a gauge to understand what types of programming we need to do, what types of services are successful, where services are missing that we may need to provide. So I do think highly of surveys. I myself try really hard when I get things in the mailbox or emails that say could you do this survey so that we can understand, you know and usually there's an explanation of what they're trying to understand and I do try to do them because I know the percentages are really low. Most agencies, entities, governmental, private, whatever will send out, I don't know, hundreds, thousands sometimes of survey requests, and they'll get like 200 back if they're lucky, and that's not a good percentage. And if people think about it, those few 200, few, as in F-E-W are often deciding what kind of program is happening for your life, and you never had a say in it because you didn't return the survey or didn't have input. So it's real important to participate.

Derek Ross:

Absolutely, Sarah. What is your take on survey?

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, I think I agree with a lot of what Ramona said. I think another thing is, you know, as a government organization or nonprofit or whatever it is, I think it's really important for whatever they're doing to be like well informed in what the community wants, rather than just sort of doing what they feel is right no-transcript.

Derek Ross:

Ding. You know, ramona, when we've had Vanessa on here and we've had Ron and so many different people and now we have Sarah, I mean we might as well just give her the microphone, because I mean just bringing the facts, dropping energy and just giving it all to us.

Derek Ross:

So anyway. So the question that is on our Cuff quick survey is overall, how satisfied were you with the most recent reservation process through Cuff? That is the question that is on our Cuff Quick Survey is overall, how satisfied were you with the most recent reservation process through Cuff? That is the question that is approached on, or what is asked in the survey. So if anybody gets a chance, it is on our website. It is pretty much, I wouldn't say front and center a little bit. There is a survey option that is there.

Derek Ross:

Let us know, you know, fill out the survey, Give us some information. We do check it. I don't think you're just doing a survey just for no reason at all. But yes, there is a survey that is being done. So we appreciate everybody's answers or just responses and stuff like that. But thank you, Thank you. Thank you so much for that information. So as we get into it keeping it moving, keeping it moving we're going to get into a little bit of this whole Summer Fellow stuff. Ramona, so you're the director of community use of public facilities. I'm gonna keep doing that because I just feel cool when I say it like that Everybody just let you know.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I don't make them call me director.

Derek Ross:

It's always interesting when we're in a meeting because it gets thrown in at some points.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Yeah, there's some people that insist on that and I cringe every time.

Derek Ross:

But we're just going to keep throwing in a director, anyway. So, ramona, so give us a little bit about Summer Fellows. What is your take on it? I know we had a couple of points, but I'll leave it up to you. What is your thing? How do you think about it?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Sure, I think it's a great opportunity. I think it's important for agencies, county government, even private sector have some programs that allow this opportunity. Even private sector have some programs that allow this opportunity. I think it's important to give the chance for rising stars, for people who are young and interested in, and not necessarily young people who are in education that are expanding their opportunities by participating in these types of programs. One thing that I found with the fellows is it brings a very fresh perspective to your office.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

We know what we think we want to do and what we think our objectives are, and you bring someone in, especially someone who's still in the process of developing their education, developing their plans for the future, and they look at it differently and they'll say, well, had you thought about this. Not to mention, there's the opportunity to have the diversity of coming from someplace else and a different background, whereas when we hire people permanently, we look for people who have experience in the areas of operation that we're already doing, like, if you know, we're looking for an administrative person. We want them to have similar customer service experience, because we serve a customer clientele, or we want them to have similar experience with the types of software that we use, but we don't look for people who maybe haven't done any of this before, who can bring in a totally fresh perspective. A lot of that has to do with the fact that we need someone who can meet our needs, immediately hit the ground running. The other part of it is when you have a permanent placement going on, as opposed to a summer fellow opportunity. You need someone that you know is going to be there long term. They're not going to have to spend a lot of time growing into the position.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Although we do hire people that have little experience, there's always some experience there, as opposed to the summer fellow program. I have to say, during my lifespan I've been involved in summer fellow programs as a fellow and it's been a great experience and, yeah, I felt like I brought something to the entity or the government or whatever the agency was, and I enjoyed it. So I'm hoping that Sarah will have a similar situation. The two fellows that we had a couple of years ago ended up getting an opportunity to work with the contractor that we had for our fee study, because they had started the framework, done a lot of the research, and so when the contractor came on board, they looked to reach out to them to see if they might be able to be part-time contributor to what they were doing. So that was another opportunity for them to earn money. I will say this fellowship program also has a small stipend to it.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

So, it gives some financial support for students who are in the process of trying to make it day to day, like all the rest of us. So I think all of those things are really good things and it's it's really good. I'll do a shout out to the County council for sponsoring this because they're the ones that every year have put this program together and made it available.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, when, when, ramona, when you came to me and you mentioned it and you was sharing that information, I thought I was like, wow, what For real, that's what we're doing. Okay, let's do it, let's do it, I'll hold off. Sarah, our summer fellow, sarah, can you break it down? Give us a little bit more detail about this whole work? I know you mentioned it and you mentioned so many others doing some beautiful work in the community as a summer fellow. So tell us about a little bit of your experience and just a sneak peek or what things that you're doing now or what are you doing with the program, to kind of give us an idea a little bit.

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah. So the summer fellow program were obviously placed with the office or department or in the council itself and will help support them and their needs. So here at Cuff I'm going to mostly focus on like the communications, outreach and engagement aspect. And another part of our program is we also have to do a research project. We choose a topic of our choice and through the summer we're going to do research and then we'll compile a final paper and then we'll eventually have a presentation to the county council with recommendations that they can take relating to our research topic. So that's another aspect as well of the summer fellowship and, together with like the experience in the office that we're in and the research project, the goal is to give us a little bit of that experience and that foot in the door of like what it's like to work in like local government and to work on a policy issue and to try to compile some recommendations for the council. So really great experience overall and it's great that we get paid and we also get to go on field trips to different areas in the county to learn more and more about like my experience and sort of what led me here.

Sarah Hoffman:

So I'm currently a graduate student at University of Maryland, so not too far away, and I'm in the community planning program there. So I think everyone in the summer fellowship program is like in a program related to either like policy or planning or politics, something along those lines. So that's my education like background and what I'm doing now and sort of my experiences that I feel like help me, have helped me so far in the fellowship and I think that will really help is mostly my work in like education. So that's most of my background is working in the education field, so working in schools, working with students. I think that's really given me that experience of like what it's like to interact with people every day and to work together with a team to like help make an experience better for people I mean in that case it's for students but that those are all transferable skills and some of the projects that I think Derek and I are really hoping to work on this summer are specifically related to finding ways to get the information that's on the website right now and package it in a way that's maybe a little bit more accessible for people, a little bit more engaging, a little bit just easier to digest.

Sarah Hoffman:

Because actually, looking at some of the survey data, we found that one of the things that could use improvement is navigating the reservation website. So just working on ways to help make that process a little bit easier for people so that more of the community is able to access the services that Cuff offers and the reservation system. So we sort of started on that and we're hoping to keep working on that and, yeah, I'm really excited to keep working on that project. Yeah, we are going to keep working on that and, yeah, I'm really excited to keep working on that project.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, we are going to keep working on it and you know, what's great about working on it is that when you're working on it with people that want to get it done, there's nothing great about working with people that, just like you know we're going to do this, but we're going to get this done, and we only have what? 10 weeks yes, it's 10 weeks telling us what we should be working on, you know, and we keep mentioning demographics, because that is a key part about what we're trying to focus on. We're trying to focus on understanding the county, the community, when we go out to do community outreach what side? And stuff like that. So, as we continue on through, let's talk about it. Ramona, I want to bring up anything dealing with volunteer or community work or anything like that. I know you've been doing a lot in the community Every time.

Sarah Hoffman:

I talk to you, I'm like what don't I know about Ramona?

Derek Ross:

But to keep it simple, ramona, do you have anything, briefly, that you can discuss about any work that you do?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Well, first let me say volunteer work is very important and volunteer work obviously is synonymous with community work, because the most important thing you can do, whether it's picking up trash or it's being in a crisis center or being at a rally, a protest all of that is volunteer and it's community oriented.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

When I was in high school, I worked at the crisis center in my town and I can remember spending hours in a room by myself because we did shift, individual shifts with the phone and a desk and people would call in. And often people were calling in because they were lonely, scared, had some crisis going on in their life, whether it was an unwanted pregnancy or domestic violence and I had to walk a line between that Just listening and being there for people, compared with or balanced with, knowing when to call the police or when to get you know referrals for specific services that were needed, which taught me a lot as a teenager, because I'm like 17, 18 years old and dealing with that. Worked with the NAACP, first as a volunteer Remember, you know, going to the meetings, just participating that way.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

And then there came a time when I was not working for the county and they asked me if I would represent them, be their legal representative, so I was the attorney for them for a short period of time because while I was doing that I became involved with Mr Leggett and he asked me to join his administration.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

So I didn't do it that long, but I did have the opportunity to have that experience and exposure and it was very rewarding because I got to see from the logistics standpoint which a lot of people don't see. They see the NAACP and organizations like that as being special interest, I think, where there's certain communities that they think they're focused on or supporting. In reality they're supporting legal issues that cross all the barriers in terms of different demographics, different races, different sexes, different ages, so it's very inclusive to that extent. So I would say, when I look for volunteer opportunities which I'm sure I'll do now that I'll be retired I look for things that that are broad spectrum, that will cover a lot of different areas and will give me the opportunity to make an impact other than just one particular community or one particular issue.

Derek Ross:

Wow, ok, ok.

Sarah Hoffman:

Sarah.

Derek Ross:

Sarah, give, I can get into it a little bit more, but I want to hear more about yours. So like do you have? I know based off your experience now, but volunteer community work, is there anything?

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, I mean, I think a big thing for me with volunteering community work is as, like a young person, I found that volunteering community work is like also a really great way to like meet people. And when I first moved to DC, that was a big challenge for me, especially coming out of college. I was like wait, how do I make friends? I'm not in classes anymore, I don't live with a million other people anymore, and it was a challenge for me to try to figure out how do I meet people in the city with common values, common interests, things like that. But I found that volunteer work was like a really great way to do it. And so some of the volunteer work I got involved with in the city was mostly like food relief stuff, so working at the food bank or helping prep meals or even working in like community gardens, because there's a lot, of, a lot of great community gardens in DC. So I think that was really great for me.

Sarah Hoffman:

I think just being outside also and like moving my body was another like really great benefit for me. And then, lastly, like I just moved to a new neighborhood in the city and I sort of have started to get involved with a volunteer group in my neighborhood and it's just been a really great way to feel like I've found a neighborhood and feel like I'm at home, because now I'm like seeing the same people, I'm getting to know like where different people live in the neighborhood. Like oh, I know that person lives down this street. So I think that's just been really good for me as, like a young person, it can be hard sometimes like getting sucked up in like the internet and social media, but, like volunteer community work has just been a really great way to like meet people face to face and feel like I'm in a real community where I live.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Oh yeah yeah yeah, yeah, that's a great explanation of of not just community work but self-work. You're developing yourself and you're giving yourself the opportunity to grow and to experience new people. I think that's great Congratulations. Yeah, thank you.

Derek Ross:

That's awesome, sarah. I'd probably say like, because we share the same blood, the AmeriCorps blood, so we could talk about that later on, but we've been in the community, we've been in these streets as people could say in regards to volunteering and working, but I often try to go for the more exciting opportunities.

Derek Ross:

I know that when we can clean the river and you can get in the canoe and you can have this bag of trash in front of you, I'm one of those individuals that enjoys that kind of work in the community. For years, all you had to do was tell me that there was bagels, pizza and coffee and some juice, and I'll probably be like oh, I'll be there. What I have to do how long? Oh, you want to feed me? Oh, yeah, I can do this, I can do this, and so I lived off of that kind of energy or vibe for a very long time.

Derek Ross:

We could talk more about all of this community involvement, but the community is definitely very important. You learn a lot about yourself, about what you're willing to do. One of my favorite ones that I think I did was working, um, giving food to like at the homeless. I think it was like a like a homeless shelter giving out food, and then they asked at the end of like you know, if you want to eat anything, if y'all want to stick around, I was like I'm going to eat, I'm going to stick around the food was good and we sat there and we ate and we talked to everybody and it was great.

Derek Ross:

but the food was good. That's probably why I stuck around.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Well, you is a very important part of that Um cause I've done that with my kids at homeless shelters and and we took turns sitting with the people who came in. Some of us would serve for a while and then some of us would sit and eat with them, and it's important because it helps everybody feel like everybody's a human being and it's the same as if you have that fellowship of breaking bread together and and the commonality of everybody's got to eat everybody's hungry. We just, you know, have to live life in different ways.

Sarah Hoffman:

And.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I guess my kids were probably eight, between eight and 10, when I was taking them. My husband and I were taking them to the shelters and doing that and it was very rewarding and I think it helped them grow up because they're now in their late twenties, early thirties. Think it helped them grow up because they're now in their late 20s early 30s.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

It helped them grow up with a broader perspective of life and the world and people and I think they value people much more than they would have had I not given them that opportunity to just sit down with anybody and fellowship and understand we're all in the same flight flight of life and understand.

Derek Ross:

We're all in the same flight of life. Yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree. Look at us, see, see, communities, public facilities. We're getting deep. We're talking about outreach and the community and our past experiences. Just to let you know that this title is Fresh Eyes and Summertime Expectations, so you know, this gives you a chance. We're talking to Sarah. This gives you an idea of Cuff and our expectations just in regards to what we're doing in the community, what we would like to do and things like that. It's important to learn who's behind it, who has the keys to the Jeep and who's driving a little bit Jeep. I threw that in there because, yeah, the Jeep life is real.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Yes, my Jeep is named Diana. She is after Wonder Woman, so just saying, and she's new.

Derek Ross:

And new, new. So let's close out this podcast. We're going to give a shout out to all the Summer Fellows. I know Sarah's here, but please continue doing all the work in the community. Keep doing it, Keep doing it. The support is here. The support is real. We just heard it from our director about all of the work that's being done in the community. What's been done in the past. Sarah, any last few words?

Sarah Hoffman:

I would just say like I'm really grateful for, you know, this opportunity, both through the county council and through Cuff, and I just I'm totally a champion and supporter of anything that gives, like, younger people an opportunity to participate, because I think we have a really great ideas and I think a lot of times people sell a short. But so I'm just really grateful to be able to have this opportunity and, yeah, looking forward to the rest of the summer.

Derek Ross:

We want those ideas, bring them out.

Sarah Hoffman:

Yes, we do.

Derek Ross:

Bring them out, don't hold back, let it go, let's anyway. So I would probably say any last few words I'm excited. I'm excited, you know, we have new energy. Like I said, this is fresh eyes, summertime expectation. The summer's here Currently, right now, has been raining a lot, so I mean, it's summer though it's summer. So that's the last few words that I have in regards to just excitement of having summer fellows and thank you again, sarah, for being here, and we look forward to so much work together and communications. Ramona, how are we going to end this? Do you have any great things? Anything?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I don't know. I'm just grateful for Sarah and you and our office. We do a really good job. I always try to end each episode with a shout out to Cuff, because I'm very proud of the agency. I think that the community is very well served by all of our staff members served by all of our staff members and I think that we have a lot of new horizons to what is it a horizons to reach, horizons to breach I'm not sure what the actual term is, but we're going to get there.

Derek Ross:

I was feeling it when you started looking up. I was like shoot, let me look up too.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I was searching for that word.

Derek Ross:

Is where. Well, there, there you go everybody. We got some awesome words to close out, but once again, thank you very much for listening to our podcast Off the Cuff Communities and Public Facilities, and thank you very much.

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