From One to Many

Community Acupuncture on Cape Cod is crossing another milestone. Nearly two years after starting in the smallest of ways (two afternoons a week as part of a conventional practice), this week I am welcoming in paid staff.

I've had volunteers running the front desk since May, but now I will have an office manager. My friend deer Sullivan begins working with me today.
We're starting small at 12 hours a week, and dividing the position three ways. 1/3 or so will be working with the volunteers. I need someone other than me to recruit them, train them, schedule and supervise them, and perhaps most importantly, acknowledge them and make sure they feel appreciated. At the moment I do some of this myself, rather sloppily due to lack of time, and some of it doesn't get done at all.

The next 1/3 will be managing the office. Having a practice sometimes feels like owning an older home in need of repair, while working a job that demands all your time. I have a long list of things I'd like to do, add or change that has gotten completely neglected. From window screens, so we can open the windows on mild days without letting in those pesky flies, to a grab bar in the bathroom, to help folks who have trouble to stand up, we've got projects. Now I can hand that list to someone else. Along with it, she can keep track of when to order paper towels, where to best set up that new computer and how to make the people, space, and resources we have do the most for us, while still keeping them all happy.

The final third of this position is outreach. Assuming that after some time, the volunteers and the office will be humming along without needing quite so much tending, I am hoping our manager can look at ways to raise our visibility in the community and help us become more involved. While it may sound like marketing, I also see this as finding other like minded organizations that we can offer visibility to, or collaborate with in some way. While this part is a little hard for me to describe, I believe it will come easily to deer, who has a strong community and social justice vision, and much experience in these areas. I see her weaving us more firmly into the web of community in ways that benefit everyone.

As if all this weren't enough to have going on, I have also found an acupuncturist who wants to join CACC. Last week I met Antonio Da Silva, a California trained, Brazilian born acupuncturist living in Los Angeles who had been planning a move to Massachusetts when he stumbled over my job listing somewhere on the web. Antonio had never heard of Community Acupuncture, but he knew he wanted to work with people who couldn't afford insurance and who otherwise would not get treated. We met on Tuesday, and on Friday he spent the whole day assisting and observing with me in the clinic. I am delighted he has agreed to work with me, mostly because he is a lovely human with a big heart and a very gentle and lovely needling style, but also because he is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Brazilian immigrants are a large percentage of the working folks here in the middle of Cape Cod – some say 25,000 in the greater Hyannis area alone are Portuguese speaking. Most do not have insurance, and many would probably come for acupuncture if they knew it was available and could communicate with us. Having Antonio join the clinic means opening us up to be of service to this community. He may be the only Portuguese speaking acupuncturist I’ve ever met, and he found me! This feels ridiculously unlikely in the scheme of things, and therefore all the more magical. I look forward to all of you welcoming him into our movement.

So now all of a sudden, time, which seemed to be open ended in all directions, is very short. I want Antonio to be a part of our New England Community Acupuncture training, which happens here on the Cape on Nov 10 & 11 (space is still available! Contact us! dianaoncape@comcast.net). I want him to have a little experience in a Community style clinic before that conference. So he has agreed to join the practice in just over two weeks. Now I have two talented, creative, heart centered people coming to work with me. I have other folks who will be thinking about and working on making sure the clinic runs smoothly. We have each other – a team, using acupuncture to help change the world.

If you build it, they really will come …………………

Diana