Instituation Building 1996-1997

This past year brought profound changes (and new challenges) to the organization. We grew from a small start-up program with a $450,000 budget and a little over 10 staff, to a $1M organization with 45 employees. We added two sites, and grew the general scope of our programs to include information businesses that made webpages and provided desktop publishing services, We also started work on Plug In, a teen channel on American Online.

For several years, Plugged In had been almost doubling in size every 18 months. Until '95, this pattern of growth allowed for incremental changes to occur: in '93 it meant that we could afford a full-time Program Director, and move to our own space; in '94 we were able to hire a full-time Site Manager/Instructor and three part-time instructors. In 1995, we went into high gear. By November of '95 we had expanded our hours of operation from 12 to 70, hired two additional 3/4 time staff, a bookkeeper, an accountant, and added a second building- this was the beginning of the shift from running a "program" to building an "institution" and also a time for new and more difficult challenges.

In the Spring of 1996, it became clear that the organization was not adequately staffed to handle the increase demand on the administrative systems and technical/building infrastructure. We talked about hiring an MIS Director and creating the office of "Operations" to oversee these issues. At this time, we also started to re-visit our strategy for creating "revenue generating" programs- we were looking at ways to grow the organization and felt that the answer could be found in a new version of PIE.

We already knew that there was strong support for entrepreneurial projects in the corporate and public sector. We had a "promise to fund" from an individual to cover the cost of hiring a Business Manager for Plugged In Enterprises. We applied for TIIAP '96, hoping to use this money to increase the resources for the project, but we were rejected.

By late Summer, we received the donation to hire the Business Manager. In addition, we found ourselves looking to hire five new adult staff and would soon begin recruiting an additional 25 youth for PIE. The "to-dos" list was immense: it included setting up a new building and technical infrastructure, expanding our administrative and accounting capacity, developing a business and programmatic structure for PIE and redoubling our long-term fundraising efforts (our budget had become $950,000).

The amount of work and complexity of the tasks put a lot of strain on the working relationships between managers. By the end of the year, both the Business Director for PIE and the Program Director left the organization. And yet, it was also an incredibly productive season. We had made great progress towards developing the new programs and services and had trained our new staff. Our management team was faced with the loss of two key members and providing continuity to their efforts.

In December of '96 we hired a full-time Development Director. She would have a daunting challenge ahead of her (to help raise 1 million dollars to maintain the size and level of service of the organization). In January, we hired our current Program Director to oversee all of our program areas (including PIE). Later in the Spring, after the audit, our Operations Director transitioned to a new program and a new Director of Operations was brought on board.

• The tremendous growth experienced in the past 12 months has enabled the organization to reach an "economy of scale" that has changed, fundamentally (and for the better) how we operate. It has:
• Enabled us to clearly separate administrative functions from programs.
• Allowed for the increase and focus of program resources to support program staff more effectively (through staff training, more intensive supervision, and age group specialization),
• Helped us more than double technical support resources to manage our technical infrastructure,
• Provided for more resources to adequately manage the site infrastructure,
• Helped develop a critical mass of managers with different perspectives and skills to further stabilize the "institution."

Our growth was the direct result of receiving a very large one-time grant from The Federal Government. Throughout the Spring and Summer, we have struggled to secure sufficient funding to support the expansion we undertook during the '96-'97 fiscal year. Earlier this Summer we experienced our first real fiscal crisis and were forced to temporarily reduce our staff and hours of operation. Currently, we are in strategic planning mode and are taking a close look at the lessons we have learned.

Throughout the years, we have been tremendously fortunate to have received the support of many key individuals, corporations and foundations in the area. We have also benefitted from visionary initiatives like the federally funded Commerce Department TIIAP program. However, the core of our good fortune has come from the support we have received from our community, our outstanding and dedicated staff, and all of those who have volunteered their time and talents to help build Plugged In.