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!