Wanjie has been on the Propel Board for 5 years, and is currently the Chairperson. By day she is a lawyer working in native title and by night she is a crazy cat lady with too many foster felines, although nowadays she gets to do both at once thanks to working from home!

COVID-19 Journal Entry #3: Wanjie Song

CREATE

Lately I have been utilising a different kind of creativity - my partner and I are renovating our new old house (yes the house has an insta! @oswaldstreet). Sure, painting an entire room the same colour and building flatpack cupboards don’t allow for a lot of originality, but being able to channel my energy back into the space that I currently spend 99% of my time in feels grounding in these crazy times. 

I’ve tried to seek out little projects to be a bit more expressive. Last week I designed my own pendant lights for the living room, and a lovely local custom lighting store is making them (did you even know they could do that?!). I’m pretty excited to see how they turn out.

CONSUME

A downside of renovating is that we have been without a kitchen and laundry for weeks. Not ideal in time of social isolation! I’ve been forced to get creative with my food consumption. Sometimes things turn out great - did you know you can make Japanese curry in the deep fryer? Sometimes not so - I’m sorry Google but you are wrong, you CANNOT microwave pasta - it’s a crime against humanity.

I’ve also been meaning to get stuck into MUBI, which is a streaming service that focuses on some pretty classic and obscure titles. As much as I love cats, it’s really a great alternative to Tiger King. 

TO-DO

Being the Chair of Propel during the time of COVID-19 has been pretty challenging, but I’m lucky to have some superhuman fellow Board members for support. Our Board members, who are all volunteers, are responsible for setting Propel’s direction and goals, and good governance (which means making sure an organisation is properly and effectively run). Our awesome staff then implement these plans and develop some amazing projects and programs.

We had to move very quickly to make some big decisions, such as for all our staff to work from home immediately, and dealing with the cancellation of our flagship event, KickstART. Although we’ve had to change the way we operate (including holding our Annual General Meeting via videoconferencing with voting to be done interactively), it’s made me realise how proud I am to be part of such an innovative and resilient organisation. 

BE STILL

Ironically I’m writing about exercise under ‘Be Still’, but I find being active in my body = being still in my mind, which is something I have a lot of trouble achieving. I’m heavily reliant on a weekly boxing sesh with some pals courtesy of the Young Boxing Women Project (all proceeds go to providing free boxing and leadership sessions for girls and young women - neat!). With social distancing in place, they have set up weekly Zoom fitness sessions so I don’t have to miss out on those 100 burpees.

It’s now been a month since I’ve been working from home. I’ve been making a point to walk to my new local caffeine spot, Loose Produce, each morning before starting work. It’s something I look forward to and I find the routine really focuses my mind and sets up the day ahead. Plus I can’t really form a coherent sentence without coffee so it’s a no-brainer.

FRIENDS & FAMILY

As an introvert, right now it’s so easy for me to detach from the rest of the world and be content with my own company (and that of the kitties). But I’m making an active effort to connect with friends and family who I’m not able to see via Facetime. 

Maybe it’s just me but I think setting up a video call seems way more of an ‘occasion’ than just meeting up in person - I’m surprised the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. 

The Board is the governing body of Propel and is responsible for driving our strategic direction, maintaining excellent financial health and accountability to laws and industry standards. If you want to find out more about Propel’s Board and its Board Members click here.