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.