chillin'

Busy day, kidlets. I sit on a board of directors for a local economic development org, and today we had a 9-5 board retreat, where lots of exciting things were accomplished. We're registered not-for-profit, but we aren't a registered charity (which means we can't issue tax-receipts), so our lives revolve around funding sources - which are ever-changing marks. "Easy" funding sources, such as private foundations, aren't an option because of the lack of charitable status. And we aren't eligible for charitable status, because economic development of a community can be said to benefit individual businesspersons, which isn't seen as charitable. Our programs include a series of job fairs, community forums on topical neighbourhood issues (zoning, construction projects, etc.), election candidate debates, storefront beautification, how-to sessions for new canadians, mural projects, arts/crafts fairs, etc. - so I suppose individual businesses are supported, but it's all for the betterment of the community at large. Argh! As a board, we've decided that financial sustainability is our main goal. We've been really fortunate up to now, finding renewable sources of funding, but that means a lot of our staff are only hired on a per-project basis, and when funding runs out, we lose major human assets. If we can find sustainable funding, we can hire people on a permanent basis, which would be exciting for many reasons. ANYWAY - we have come up with several extremely entrepreneurial projects that might have extremely interesting results. Projects where we are running a seperate, for-profit endeavour of some sort, where all the profit is directed back to the original program. I'm really excited about the model we've come up with - but holy CRAP I think I've somehow signed on for even MORE work.

As a result, it's a take-out ordering, movie-renting kinda night chez moi. There will be some knitting, there will be some watching of So You Think You Can Dance (dance dance), there will be some lazing around on the couch.

There will NOT be any chores or volunteer work or even phone-answering. It's been a hell of a week, and I am DONE.