On Thursday, May 9, 2024, SSWCA past-president Renee Brown hosted this digital roundtable.
Two years ago, I had to make a very difficult call. I had been a SSWCA board member since 2017 when it was known as CAPTA (The Capital Area Peer Tutoring Association), and I was finishing up my term as president. Did I mention it was 2022, so right at the end of the massive shift in education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? I was a full-time English teacher and the mother of a preschooler, and I was quickly running out of steam. It was time to lay out all my obligations and prioritize, and as it turned out, running my school’s writing center was toward the bottom. It was with a very heavy heart that I decided to step down as center advisor and lay it in the very capable hands of a colleague. I couldn’t stay balanced while trying to run the center and tackle all my other responsibilities. And it’s because of that very big decision two years ago that I wanted to have a conversation with other directors about how to balance the goals and limitations that come with this line of work.
The four of us at this roundtable – one from Chicago, one from New England, one from the DC metro area, and me – considered how we set boundaries and why we are sometimes reluctant to do so. We all know the administrative pressure that can come down on a director, and it can feel chaotic as we run between tutors and clients trying to make everyone else happy. The simple answer of delegating to the tutors is not a simple answer at all! By the time you have trained and explained what needs to be done, the director could have done the task and probably to a higher standard than the tutor. It’s exhausting!
What I started doing around 2022 and have made a habit of since then is asking myself questions such as “Will this bring me joy,” “What will happen if I say no to this,” “If I say yes to this, it means I’m saying no to what other thing?” Anyone who is familiar with Dr. Brene Brown will find this type of self-talk familiar, as I’m using many of her techniques and philosophies. This type of reflection was very helpful to me as a director and now. Yes, I would like to take my tutors on a field trip to the university, but will this bring me joy to see them have this experience? If I say yes to setting up a rent-a-tutor program, what else will not get done, or what else will I not be able to do because my labor is going to this endeavor? Another fantastic follow-up question is, “Is this the right time for this?” Perhaps starting a social media campaign is beneficial to your center, but not right now when you are preparing to present at a conference.
Our discussion fleshed out some considerations for those of us with big goals and human limitation (all of us). Is there a colleague who could serve, either officially or unofficially, as a co-director? While we love having our center open as much as possible, perhaps cutting hours so that tutors can train/problem-solve/create families, and so you can evaluate tutors is just as important a use of that time as serving clients. I mention the idea of tutor families because that is a practice done in many high school centers and is described in more detail in SSWCA’s book The Toolkit. A boiled down version is to have the veteran tutors as family leaders to novice tutors, and the latter reports to their family leader with problems/concerns before asking the director for help.
Of course, as a SSWCA board alum, I’m also going to point out that it’s ok to lean on this organization. Reach out to your regional representative or another board member with whatever problems you’ve encountered; we’re truly honored to serve this community and will do whatever we can to support you! I’m also going to tell you that it’s ok to say no, even to SSWCA. If this isn’t the right time for you to bring students to a conference, or if that is going to cause you much more stress than joy, then say no (for now). We want you to get everything you can out of this organization, but we never want to be another obligation that may cause you to burn out. This is taxing work to put it mildly, so please don’t ever feel you need to shoulder it alone.