Americorp interview answers

Interviewed: Khouan Maoxomphu Rodriguez at Americorp Downtown Greensboro Location

Americorps started out of the owner’s house and expanded into the current house.
There are currently 3 full time employees, including Khouan.
There are 14 current CNNC main staff members, and 13 current workers in the Americorps house. Including: Susan Chilcott, Janet Johnson, Mae Yang, Jaimie Foster

Along with the paid employees, americorps also works with volunteers and interns. They offer full time and part time positions for 900 to 1700 hours of work.
From the house downtown, Khouan and her team manage all the location and placement of volunteers.

The main needs they spoke about were with storage. They host trainings once a month for about 60 volunteers, so each month they have to put all the materials for that in a separate storage unit. They really want somewhere they can store these materials. They would also like to be able to store all the past and present volunteer files in one place. Right now they have boxes pilled up everywhere, storing whatever they can wherever they can. Khouan also would like for everyone they need to work with to be in one place. Meaning having their financial officer, Khouan, her two assistances, and the director all in one house, so they can all work closer together.

All the employees spoke about how much they loved working in a house, in a family type environment. For them, they would want their new headquarters to continue to be in a house and keep that feeling. Right now each person who works there has their own space, but it’s very cramped. One person’s office is even what used to be a closet – barely big enough to fit a small desk and chair in.
They also hope that having a house as an office space would be more welcoming. Khouan said she thought that a “typical” office building seemed more cold and distancing to those who were coming to the company. Khouan did offer the suggestion of the campus ministries building. In this building they use folding walls in a large room for meeting space. Khouan thought this would be good for the training space they need. That way they could use the room for classrooms or the large trainings they give each month.

The key things they were interested in having were:
Large group space
Offices for everyone
Computer lab
Actual main entrance area [it’s currently an office/reception area]
Childcare area
Kitchen space as the break room
File room
Storage area for training supplies
Overnight stay area for trainees
Space for interpretive services
Many bathrooms [the only have one unisex bathroom]