Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Rushing

It has been almost a week since I blogged- yikes! I was intending to blog last night, but by the time I was finished with work it was after 2am and I just went to bed. Things are incredibly busy right now. The primary focus is the date auction- marketing is under way (it has been underway already, but now it is getting kicked into higher gear). We finally have a finished flier, our ad is submitted for Stuff magazine and the html ad for our major marketing effort. Our listings started this week in the Pros in the City newsletter. When I get back from Quebec City next week, I will have the html flier sent out to everyone participating so they can forward it to their friends. We've been promoting it a lot on Facebook. We still have a long way to go for promotions, it always starts out slowly then the ticket sales pick up as the event gets closer. We've had some very attractive men sign up for the date auction recently and I spoke with the firefighter who is helping us recruit and he has a list of names for us, so I'm relieved about that.

Connections are so important, they can really make a huge difference in getting a donation or just being ignored. We're really struggling to get enough gift certificates for the couples to use on their date, so I asked one of the ladies being auctioned who works in marketing, if she could help us get some certificates donated. Within a few days she had two certificates to high end Boston restaurants donated and is working on getting some more. I had contacted those restaurants before but never got anywhere. It is such a big help to have her assistance. I'm always so grateful when people make the extra effort to help.

Last week, a young woman left a comment on my blog, calling me a 'kindred spirit' and gave me the link to her blog which was about working for a environmental non profit. I read her blog and was completely surprised. Her blog was mostly about how much she hated working for a non profit, she had just started there- definitely not a kindred spirit. I don't understand why anyone would think that I hated my job- if I did, I wouldn't be doing it. I love my job, it has given me some of the happiest moments of my life and given me the opportunity to meet some awesome people and have incredible experiences- the best of which will be yet to come. With that love also comes incredible frustrations, anxiety and stress and lows which can be utterly miserable, but there has never been a day when I hated my job. There may be aspects I don't enjoy, but everyone has that. In her blog, the girl vented about how she hated how non profits relied on donations in order to do their work and had to constantly fundraise. Of course that is difficult, but every business needs to bring in money to survive and non profits are no different. It was sad to read her blog and I hope that she finds something that makes her happy. If she doesn't like working for a non profit, she really shouldn't be there. She isn't doing herself any service with that amazingly negative attitude and I can't imagine that she is doing any service to the non profit she is working for, particularly with the way she criticizes her executive director who is also the founder.

Anyways, I'm off on a mini vacation on Thursday to Quebec City. I am so excited! I haven't been away on vacation since 2007 when I went to visit a friend in Cleveland. I went to Baltimore for a few days last year, but I got sick the day after getting there, so that really wasn't a vacation. I've been rushing to get as much done before I leave as possible. My goal was to have 30 gift certificates ready, with Maureen's help and one that I'm picking up tomorrow, we are up to 26. I still have more emails to catch up on, but I'm doing OK in getting things done before I go. I'm only going for 2 work days, so it really isn't a big deal, but for me it seems like I'm going to be away for a month.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night, one of the ladies being auctioned off will be on TV. She is appearing on the new dating show Holidate on the Soapnet channel on cable. Single ladies swap lives with another single woman in a different city and go on dates. It's on a 10pm, so be sure to check it out! I'm looking forward to watching it.

I will try to blog tomorrow. I'm going to go send a few emails and then get back to packing- I feel like I haven't packed enough clothes, but maybe 4 suitcases is enough for 4 days? Kidding! Until tomorrow friends..

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