looking to hire: personal assistant / office minion / lowliest jobs

Willing to pay minimum wage for somebody that wants to live here, eat at my table and do heaps of small tasks. All of those pesky "personal assistant" things that pop up every day. Plus, we cannot do more workshops unless we have somebody to help fill in some gaps. So there would be some phone answering, some bookkeeping tasks, some cleaning, maybe chopping a bit of wood, maybe fetching wild edibles, some cooking, some on-line stuff, running errands, picking people up at the airport, going to the lab to take pictures, deliver something, retrieve something, check craigslist, put an ad on craigslist, send a file to adrien, prepare a room for a VIP, planting seeds, ....

I'm thinking that this could be an unskilled person. Naturally an uber skilled Jeeves would be great, but I suspect Jeeves will work somewhere for real money.

Between the missions of upcoming big projects, plus workshops, plus the day-to-day of the empire, we very much want to get MORE done. And if we can deligate a lot of small tasks to somebody else, we can increase the load we can bear.

It would seem that there might be somebody out there, keen on the empire, willing to take on those role.

Here's a snapshot, literally, of some of the things we'd like help with.

Organizing/filing Farm Today plus other ag and permaculture periodicals (lower and upper left--not everything is digital! ), returning a dented rocket stove with return label mailed to us (middle bottom), picking up and organizing tools (lower right), organizing fire/RMH stuff (upper right).

Just wanted to show this because while many of the tasks are lowly, they still involve permaculture stuff, which is kinda cool, IMHO.

And that pic illustrates the need, doesn't it?

I like the idea of saying "we have somebody staying in the love shack in three days. What do we need to make it nicer?" And then the PA takes on a lot, but we can also say "ask Tim if he can add that window in the next two days."

Or: "now that the workshop is over, it looks like there is a lot of left over materials spread out all over the place. Let's make sure they all find a nice, dry home for next year."

secretary / executive assistant / janitor / ...

Having this person here will make it so we can do 12 workshops next year instead of 3.

Will they be living on the property? Will there be a charge for room and board?

mark andrews wrote:Will they be living on the property? Will there be a charge for room and board?

As Paul said in the original post:

paul wheaton wrote:Willing to pay minimum wage for somebody that wants to live here, eat at my table and do heaps of small tasks.

That means living on the property. There will not be a charge for room and board.

That sounds like an incredible opportunity.
I just wanted to give you the chance to make that clear, because i have to think you'll get a lot of folks who would be interested when they realize what they are being offered.

Pay...plus...free room and board...and the chance to hang out with you guys makes it a no brainer.
(not to downplay the part where you work them to death)!!

I envy whoever gets the job.

Thanks, Mark. I think we have a good time here.

Folks could send me a purple moosage if they have more questions.

For further clarity: when Paul wrote "lowliest jobs" that's in reference to what is conventionally thought of as lowly tasks (cleaning, running errands, chopping wood, etc.) and *not* that we think those tasks are lowly. We very much appreciate how having those kinds of things handled helps create a jet pack for the projects around here.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:Folks could send me a purple moosage if they have more questions.

Include your e-mail in your message for conversing more directly.

Wish I was 40 years younger and in good health.....I also envy the person that gets the job.

There is more going on here now and through the winter than we thought: continuing build and finish of multiple RMH projects, visitors like Ernie and Erica (thanks for being here guys!), wofati and tipi final details, and equipment repairs (always), just to name a few. As Paul explained a bit differently, that translates to feeding and cleaning up after more people and projects, and not as much planning for 2014 workshops as we'd like.

Our winter busyness makes this position that much more interesting/desired/important, IMHO. And, as an update, I'm talking to some awesome people and we hope to have the position filled very soon.

We have one personal assistant joining us in January - yes! And now we think we could easily use two, so there is still an open position.

Winter in Montana anyone?

I stumbled and almost biffed out while fetching wood for the office rocket mass heater. We have a stack of 2x6's keeping dry, two bicycles, the wood pile, the flatbed under repair ... it's a bit of an obstacle course to get to the wood. Part of me thought I should stop and take the time to re-organize things so that the odds of an old fat guy like me falling while leaping over a pile of 2x6's would be reduced. And then I thought about the projects I need to finish first that are things that only I can do - maybe I can put this off a bit and delegate.

Until then, I will just try to not stumble as I am fetching wood.

So far, we've had 8 applicants. One is hired and joining us in January. 3 are no longer in the running. I'm in communication with the rest, I think (some have yet to reply). Do contact me via jocelyn AT richsoil DOT com if you're interested, or if you haven't heard from me (in case my reply went into your spam).

Some folks decide not to apply after reading more in the how to volunteer, visit or apply for a position thread.

Also email me if you might be interested in the kitchen commander position, even if a second choice or not much experience cooking yet.

The garage is now tidy, thanks to Andy. And he got me a really tall chopping block! No more obstacle course.

If we had a PA today, I think the PA would probably spend most of today helping in the kitchen. Maybe a bit of prep on workshops and getting stuff set up for that. Maybe a bit of stuff to help Emily and Tony with upcoming wwoofer-esque stuff.

By the way, both of the PAs will be reporting to Jocelyn. I suspect they will be doing stuff directly for me only about 20% of the time.

We have two strong candidates for the second PA position. Someone sent me a purple mooseage that must have been lost in the site crash last night/this morning. If you sent me a mooseage, or e-mailed me at jocelyn AT richsoil DOT com, please try again. While it does look like the positions have been filled, stuff happens, so having alternates makes sense, too.

Jocelyn is there any currently open positions?

Hi Kadence! No open positions at the moment.