The True Meaning of Being Virtual

This September myself and partner Jamie will be embarking on a life changing journey to the USA for 5 weeks. I was awarded the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship earlier this year to study and research the growing Virtual Assistance Industry in 4 different States – Washington DC, Richmond Virginia, Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas along with Sacramento and San Francisco in California.

I am in a fortunate position to be surrounded by a great team of Associates who will be looking after our day to day clients for the full 5 weeks of our trip. Although we will be between 5 and 8 hours behind during our journey across the US we will still be working and in regular contact on a virtual basis having the trusty laptop and the constant communication via Skype.

The experiences we hope to gain from our visit, meeting other VA’s, related business organisations and making lots of new friends, will create a stronger understanding of how the VA Industry works on a much bigger scale.

The US Government has recently passed a new Bill, the Telework Improvements Act of 2010. The purpose is to develop a telework program that allows employees to telework at least 20 percent of the hours worked in every 2 administrative workweeks, and for other purposes. It will help to reduce traffic congestion, parking issues and air pollution, save on petrol, and improve worker productivity and morale.

I really liked this particular quote from one of the House of Representatives, Frank Wolf of Virginia State, "Work is something you do, not someplace you go," he said. "There is no magic about strapping ourselves into a car, driving sometimes up to an hour and a half to our workplaces, and sitting in front of our computers all day.

His quote definitely does sums it up for me…

We will be meeting a team from the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, who have been successfully running telework projects. We’re hoping to learn and gain as much key information about these developments with a view to bringing more ideas back to the UK.

Our visit to San Francisco will include a visit to the Bay Area Hub http://bayarea.the-hub.net/public/ to look at the Work/Live Projects, how these have established as fantastic spaces for innovation, entrepreneurs, freelance professionals and creative artists all working and living together under one roof.

Towards the end of our visit I shall be speaking live with Dr Cyndi Dunn from Sierra College in Sacramento, CA as part of the IVAA Summit on 7 October - http://online.vasummit.org/
I shall be helping to promote the Virtual Office Professional Degree Course; talking about some of the key elements the course covers using tools such as Google Calendar, Paypal for creating invoices and how to create audio podcasts.

Please keep a track of our journey by following our blog –
http://traceyclarke-fellowship.blogspot.com/

My fellow VA colleague Denise Shaw will be holding the fort while we’re away dealing with all new enquiries and new work coming in. Please continue to email and phone on the usual contact details.

I will also be available on email at the usual address tracey@virtual-administration.com and hope to keep in contact as much as possible – but expect it may be the following day with any replies.