‘Getting Greyshirts Downrange’ Award – Monika Barber (Southwest Territory)
“When I joined Team Rubicon, I was fortunate to have had a friend who was a long time volunteer and I was able to have my questions answered. I am certain that if I had not had this friend, I would not have become active in Team Rubicon as quickly as I did. When I was approached with opportunity to become a leader for East Los Angeles, I was excited because I knew firsthand the benefit of having someone walk you through the process and become an active volunteer. Conducting ouTReach calls with new members has been an amazing experience. To hear and share in their enthusiasm for Team Rubicon and supporting them in becoming active volunteers fuels my motivation and love for this TRibe with which I have the privilege of serving.”
Monika takes the bull by the horns as a Membership Coordinator and almost single handedly doubled the national average on contacting and assisting new members to become deployment ready. When we think of sending people downrange to an operation, we often correlate this task with our Mobilization Team and Monika.
Who greases the skids to ensure that they have the people they need to dispatch? Who coordinates individually with each new volunteer to start them on their journey? The Membership Team and Monika…that’s who. Membership is the “Greyshirts Always” portion behind the first, and most important, cultural principle.
A quick rundown of her impact:
Since joining leadership a year ago, Monika has climbed the ranks from City to State to Territory. She has personally conducted outreach to almost 550 Greyshirts. With Monika’s guidance and support, the Southwest has welcomed over 4,400 new Greyshirts this year.
It doesn’t stop with a conversation. The name of the game is conversion. Of the 4,600 new Greyshirts who signed up in the Southwest in 2020, the membership team has helped convert 24% of them to be deployment – ready. Better said, those new volunteers equate to the potential of 275 more houses mucked, or 11,000 more trees swamped, or over 500,000 more pounds of food distributed.
Monika doesn’t just talk the talk (pun intended) …she also walks the walk. Since March 2020, Monika has led from the front, deploying more than 12 times to various Kick the King and response operations. Through her actions, Monika is sharing our story by living our culture.
