Monday, December 13, 2004

On Friday, I went to work for the last time at the organization I'm calling FISH. I came into work at 8, and plowed away at loose ends and unfinished work until about 6:30. At noon, a board member came to take me out to lunch. I had the same discussion I've had with everyone else - the board needs people with real experience in fundraising, they need to expand their membership, people need to stop talking and start doing something... You know, the usual. No matter how many times I say it, I really don't think they get it. It's like trying to help a child get out of a rushing river, only you can't save them because they keep crying "I'm scared!" You just want to yell, "I know you're scared. Now get over it so I can help you!!" They're not getting over it. They're too scared to move, and they're the wrong people, and the whole thing may very well crash and burn. Or they could get their very own deus ex machina. It might happen. There are significant rumors that a prospective deus is making moves. But I've said it before - these people are so naive that if they get their asses saved by one more unexpected big donation, they'll think that everything they did was just dandy, and so why change anything? "We must be doing something right - we're not dead yet." Not Dead Yet is not a good indicator of success. And today, I started work at the Organization Which Has Not Yet Earned an Acronym. (OWHNYEA is not an acronym. It looks like Welsh, though. Is it Welsh?) It was a deeply uneventful day - with one exception. All day, I had this amazing feeling of relief. I'm not writing budgets. I'm not setting policy decisions. I'm not doing anything of earthshattering significance. Of course, I'm doing important work. But the big decisions will be made by other people, and for once, I'm relieved to just be ... working. By the way, I'm not quite done with the FISH yet. I forgot a couple of things that I promised I'd do, and I might drop by one evening to finish them up. They're very simple things, but I don't want to feel like I gave anything less than a full effort to wrap up my work there. I'm also going to drop off an Xmas card and a box of Trader Joe's truffles. They could all use a little holiday cheer right now. 8:06:44 PM