Two Boxes Down

I began packing up the blue office this morning.

The word here is that we will be moving out of our offices by the end of next week or so. I decided that if I packed a box or two each day this week and next (maybe I don't have that much stuff...) that the whole concept of packing up my office will be not so bad. This morning, I started in on the bookcase, packing up books and binders and things I'm confident I will not need until I move into my remodeled very, own office.

I'm also resolving to start working through the stacks on my desk. (If you could only see the piles...) These things also need homes (and ones that I can find again) during the move. I do still have to keep working during all this renovation hullabaloo. My fear is that I'll pack some project into a box and TOTALLY forget where it is, that I'm working on it, or when it's due. (Of course, in the nightmare version of this fear, it's a gazillion-dollar grant that I forget to turn in and all of Starfish goes under because of me.)

Needless to say, this desk-packing-organizing thing is a much bigger deal.

Grants and Monopoly

Today is a $5,000 day.

As in, we just got a check for $5,000 from a repeat foundation. This is, I'm fairly sure, the third year they have supported us and specifically our Algebra Camp and Homework Club. These programs make a huge difference for our students academically and this continued support is great.

Second, today is the day of the IndyCrew Monopoly tournament for which Starfish Initiative is the charity of choice this year. Joyce (the executive director) and I are headed to the Conrad Hotel downtown later this afternoon for the tournament. We'll get to meet the players, talk about Starfish and perhaps Pass Go and Collect $200. I've got the camera, so hopefully, we'll have some event pictures from this one to post later.

Meanwhile, back to writing reports.

Construction Season...

... is officially open at Starfish.

The roll-away dumpster is here and the demolitions folks began work upstairs today. Last I looked, there were no longer baseboards on the walls and another guy was measuring door frames.

So you have some idea of the progress later, here are some "before" shots of the areas where they are constructing right now.

Breakfast 2.0 (and the pending construction racket...)

I can't believe I'm thinking about breakfast planning again.

But, honestly, it is time to start some of the planning already. In fact, last week, we decided on our venue. We're not having it at the same place as last year, because we're really going to work to get 500 people and 500 people won't fit in the room we had it last year. (Which is sort of too bad, because it was really pretty...)

This morning, I'm meeting with our event planner VISTA to brainstorm sponsorship opportunities for the breakfast and get our sponsorship stuff ready so we can contact businesses, etc., about that. The idea is to get sponsors for everything -- the invitations, the food, the table decorations, all of it, along with just general event sponsors.

Also... the construction is really supposed to start here at Starfish this week. We've been saying "next week," "next week" for the last few weeks, but this week is really supposed to be it. There's signed contracts now and everything...

I'm excited because the end of the blue office is near. I'm also excited for my current VISTAs who will get to move into MUCH better work spaces than where they are. (The blue office will become the gray and orange office with new furniture, better lighting, comfortable chairs and will go to one of the new VISTAs).

The construction, I'm sure, will make it hard to work somewhat, but the end result will be so worth it that I'm willing to put up with just about anything.

History vs. Work

It's a bit tricky to get any work done today, what with history being made out in Washington D.C.

One of our Starfish VISTAs is in the nation's capital, hopefully on the Mall by this time to take it all in. One of our college interns is also participating and I'm extremely jealous (albeit, warmer.)

We set up a little, old TV in our office so that we can all watch the inauguration later. Being the newsjunkie that I am, I'm finding it difficult to concentrate on work this morning between reading news coverage updates. I've been flipping back and forth between Cnn.com, npr.org, usatoday.com and walking back to the back of the office to watch CBS (the only station we get...)

At least I think I can get my desk cleared off this morning and maybe my Chronicle of Philanthropy read.

Proofreading

I was just rereading a grant proposal I wrote last winter because it's time to do the final report and resubmit a new application for this year.

We told this funder last year that we would, "Recruit a minimum of 100 additional qualified and promising low-income youth for participation in the Starfish Initiative in the 2208-09 school year..."

Talk about long-range planning... *groan*

At least they still funded us.

And hopefully I can avoid any sort of similar errors in this year's proposal.

This One's All Mine and 2009's start

Late in 2008, I wrote a professional development grant to attend another class through the Fundraising School.

Today, I got the letter that I was approved and get to take the class in March.

It's a little strange that this grant, for once, is largely for me. Of course, the whole point of me doing this is to be better at my job and therefore help the organization. But, instead of writing about the need for more college grads, I wrote about how I needed to know what I was doing!

We've been asked here to compile a new list of goals for our jobs here at Starfish and I've spent quite a while today hashing out a set of things that I think can be accomplished in the next year but that will push the envelope somewhat.

But, with everything on the list, I'd best keep working.