Fall forward

It's the time of year where we have to look at whether we have met the goals we intended, whether there is time to catch up before the year end, or whether that goal was nice but unrealistic. In the arts that doesn't just mean , "oh well I never lost that 20lbs". Sometimes it's a much harder truth. More like "This program is not doing what it should. I can't afford to keep it." I have 5 more months in this year (which ends March 31st) If I don't want to run out of money before year end, then the tough decisions have to be faced. Cancel the program? Reduce staff hours? Reduce staff? I always prefer the time honoured "Find an alternative". It doesn't always work but it buys some time before I really have to make the hard decisions. That's always in January... now it's just the warning flag.

Circles of changes

I had a new resolution for 2011, to make sure that I blogged every week and sent the link at least to my Board of Directors so that they would know I wasn't just sitting here chatting with my friends all day. (It was nice of you to drop in, by the way.)However, there are times when making everything you do public has it's drawbacks. One time is during the hiring process. For most of January Ed Video was in the process of hiring a new workshop co-ordinator. It's not a great job, $16 an hour and 24 hours per week and no way to get paid for overtime...still, many members and friends applied. And everyone of them could do an exceptional job on many aspects of the position. It was really difficult to choose a person, and even more difficult to have to say no to so many wonderful people. But we have done it, and will go on. I am delighted with the fresh energy and interesting perspective of our new hire. He pushes the rest of us to meet our commitments as well. So here I am, on the 2nd of February, starting back to the resolution I made in January.

Concerning arts administration this week, we are changing POS outlet contracts to save money. Oddly this required a personal guarantee from me and my permission for them to do a personal search to make sure I had never ripped off a credit card company. Apparently that happens with business owners a lot. I was very surprised and hesitant to give them my SIN number. We are run by a board of directors, I don't own the business...in fact I didn't give it to them, but they have tracked down my house and called me back to make sure that was really my home number, because it's in Carlo's name. And they discovered my alias...A peculiar experience all told.

We are working hard in the negotiations about the 1squaremile project, and are a little disappointed that the money for the City of Guelph grants won't be available until April. Our year end is March 31st. This fiscal year has been pretty good for fundraising. Some interesting and effective things, combining art and fundraising in a way that wasn't too hard to support. We are moving in the right direction. With the help of our board, especially Jordan and Brad, I'm facing our deficit in the eye and waiting to see who blinks first.

The start of the season, work load reveiw

In arts administration the work load tends to be cyclical in terms of the type of work you do. That's not to say that the work load is any less at any given time of year, because you put other things off to get the grants written, then when there are no grants due, you have to do all the stuff you put off. Rarely does anything get done when you aren't looking. (Of course, I went away for three weeks and our Tech Director pulled out the moldy old carpets, laid some flooring and painted the bathroom! so I was very lucky!)

Today is my first full day back from vacation. I am facing both short-term and long-term jobs. This week I have to set up the ground work to write a deficit retirement plan due September 7th, I need to arrange with a consultant to work the organization through the strategic planning process and do the ground work for the grants that will be due this fall, including our City of Guelph grant due at the end of October and our request for three-year funding for operating from the Canada Council due November 1st. Most of this is gathering information at this point. You might wonder if a grant is due in November why I should be doing anything about it now...I am one to leave things to the last minute. I write best under pressure. But I have a lot of trouble figuring out what we did over the last three years and finding stuff under pressure. I forget things. So before I leave it to the last minute to write that 40 page document, I'm making lists of all the things we did over three years to be sure that we met the Council's strategic goals, let alone our own.

The deficit retirement plan is because we have a deficit that is more than 10% of our operating budget. It's hard to get the job done with that hanging over our heads, but get the job done we will. So juggling both the deficit retirement and the strategic plan, this week I will also interview and set to work at least two new volunteers, write a newsletter, do the banking and answer the phone if no one else picks it up. Between the contruction and summer movie shoots there is a bit of a disaster in the kitchen here. I also did dishes today and vaccuumed my office. We don't have cleaners. I am exceptionally lucky to have an office. If we can't get rid of the deficit I might rent it out and move into the lovely painted bathroom!

Hearts of Arts? There's a fart in that.

Yes, I know, I have the word fart in the URL for this blog. On one hand it's hideous, on the other I'm hoping it might increase the page views. It sort of goes with the whole theme of arts administration because really, if the word fart helps me to promote the arts, who am I to complain? That's all I'm really trying to do. If fart gets in the way of arts, then so does the constant scramble to pay for arts organizations, but that's what I do. I work hard to raise the money to support an amazing arts organization.

Sometimes a small fart helps get the job done.