No blogging for two days- yikes! So what's new? We had a group of Boston University students come to our warehouse space in Worcester to help sort and box a ton of stuffed animals. It was a group of about 15 freshmen students who are involved in a community service organization run by BU- they were so enthusiastic and did an awesome job. We hadn't had a volunteer group up there since January, so there were thousands of stuffed animals to sort. I remember the days when I had to sort the piles of stuffed animals that came to Worcester by myself. Sometimes, Carolee, the marketing director for Paul Davis Restoration (the company that gives us space in their warehouse to use), would help, but it would take absolutely forever.
What else is going on? Well, I didn't take Wednesday off work, there was way too much to do and I am going to work tomorrow (way too much to do). I'm not expecting to reach many people in the office, but there are auction items that I need to follow up on, web updates to send to our web god, date auction program that needs edited, office that needs cleaning, thank you notes to send, the almost desperate pursuit of gift certificates for the date auction, anniversary invitations to get ready to be sent out, an office that needs cleaned- and there are probably a few other things that I'm forgetting.
I had so much else that I wanted to blog about, but now I can't remember. I was even thinking of things when I was driving home tonight- but now, all I can remember is what I have to work on tomorrow. Oh, our blueline proof of our calendar is ready! The printer called me this morning to tell me I could come and see it. The blueline proof is awesome because it is literally a blue copy of what our calendar will look like. I could go up tomorrow morning and check it (they are working a half day tomorrow), but I think I will wait until Tuesday. I really want to get things squared away tomorrow before the new month arrives. That may sound a little silly, but September kicks off a super busy fall season and I want to start it on a fresh page and not carrying over a bunch of things that should have been already taken care of.
Well friends, that's it for tonight- it is early, 11:54, and I'm going to have some yogurt (ah, so healthy!) and go to bed early. Until next time...
Take a look behind the scenes of running a nonprofit organization.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday's News
So much to talk about- our calendar is at the printers and the anniversary event invitations are sitting on my desk and they look beautiful! It actually took my breath away when I saw them. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but it wasn't. Obviously, I had seen the invitations before they were printed, but it is completely different looking at something in its printed final version. It is the type of invitation that if I received it and wasn't related to the charity, it is an event that I would want to go to. Anyways, they are sitting on my desk and will be mailed out next Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. I am so worried about getting enough people to attend, but at least we have a terrific event put together- that in itself is a big help to get people to come out.
I did get some surprising good news today- Air Tran airways is donating two round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the continental US for our silent auction! I don't even remember when I applied- I think it was back in February. So that's another awesome auction item. Air Tran flies to a ton of cities. Tomorrow, I need to send our web host an updated list of all the auction items and I have to keep chasing down items that were promised but not received.
I have so much to do tomorrow and I have to go to Providence to pick up a calendar sponsorship check and then Boston in the evening for a networking event. I wish I could stay in the office all day- it is a total mess and things need to be organized and a lot of small things need taken care of so that they are no longer piling up on my desk. I also need to work on those gift certificates for the date auction- we are miniscule progress on that front. I also wanted to take Wednesday and Friday off work- a little break, but in order to do that, I need to get as much done tomorrow as possible. Thursday, we have an all-day volunteering event at the warehouse in Worcester, so that will be a busy day. We have BU students coming to sort stuffed animals and help out with other things.
I got some shocking news last night that one of our Hopedale Planning Board members had died suddenly. Of course, this has nothing to do with Project Smile, but it got me thinking about time and how quickly things change and how important it is to enjoy the present and all the small moments. I know it is a cliche, but I think it is particularly difficult for those who run their own business and are responsible for every decision that's made- every failure, every plan, every success- it is difficult to remember to enjoy the moments. For myself, while I love what I do, I know that with Project Smile, I concentrate on what's next, what needs to be done, what haven't we achieved- it's a very difficult role to step out of.
Anyways, I have emails that I need to respond to (I received 50 emails today) and my list to write- which will have "clean office" on it somewhere. Ah, how I wish there was an office cleaning genie! And I'm getting a little hungry- but it is way too late to eat, 12:46. A pizza genie- can I get one of those too? Until tomorrow friends...
I did get some surprising good news today- Air Tran airways is donating two round trip airline tickets to anywhere in the continental US for our silent auction! I don't even remember when I applied- I think it was back in February. So that's another awesome auction item. Air Tran flies to a ton of cities. Tomorrow, I need to send our web host an updated list of all the auction items and I have to keep chasing down items that were promised but not received.
I have so much to do tomorrow and I have to go to Providence to pick up a calendar sponsorship check and then Boston in the evening for a networking event. I wish I could stay in the office all day- it is a total mess and things need to be organized and a lot of small things need taken care of so that they are no longer piling up on my desk. I also need to work on those gift certificates for the date auction- we are miniscule progress on that front. I also wanted to take Wednesday and Friday off work- a little break, but in order to do that, I need to get as much done tomorrow as possible. Thursday, we have an all-day volunteering event at the warehouse in Worcester, so that will be a busy day. We have BU students coming to sort stuffed animals and help out with other things.
I got some shocking news last night that one of our Hopedale Planning Board members had died suddenly. Of course, this has nothing to do with Project Smile, but it got me thinking about time and how quickly things change and how important it is to enjoy the present and all the small moments. I know it is a cliche, but I think it is particularly difficult for those who run their own business and are responsible for every decision that's made- every failure, every plan, every success- it is difficult to remember to enjoy the moments. For myself, while I love what I do, I know that with Project Smile, I concentrate on what's next, what needs to be done, what haven't we achieved- it's a very difficult role to step out of.
Anyways, I have emails that I need to respond to (I received 50 emails today) and my list to write- which will have "clean office" on it somewhere. Ah, how I wish there was an office cleaning genie! And I'm getting a little hungry- but it is way too late to eat, 12:46. A pizza genie- can I get one of those too? Until tomorrow friends...
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Calendar Arrived
Greetings! The precious envelope carrying our calendar disk arrived this morning. I didn't drive it up to Rockland yet, the printer was out today, so I'll be bringing it up there tomorrow. Tomorrow, I also get to pick up our anniversary celebration invitations- I am so excited to see them! Staples is donating the printing which is awesome, because otherwise there is no way we could afford color invitations. Lisa did a terrific job with the invites- it really makes a difference having professionals taking care of things. Talking about that- I love our web host/designer. He is doing such an awesome job with our site, it is fantastic. I was driving myself crazy last night and today trying to get our newsletter sent out with this new email marketing company that we're using- Constant Contact. Our web guy recommended it for our monthly newsletter. It is a good company, but since designing and web stuff is completely not my strong area, I was struggling. They have templates to follow for newsletters, but they are too complicated and I didn't want to change the format that we already have. So I was took the html format that Lisa sent over and was trying to paste it into the Constant Contact page- it was a disaster. Finally, I gave up and emailed Richard- gave him the log-in info and begged for his help. Less than an hour later, he had it all ready for me and is going to take over sending the newsletter out with Constant Contact and isn't charging any extra for his time- how nice is that? I don't have to create extra work for myself- love it!
So what else is new? I was planning on sort of taking it easy this half of the week- having a mini vacation. However, it is has been so busy and I've had such a lot to do during the week, I haven't taken any time off. I was doing a lot of date auction promo work, working on getting those extra gift certificates for the date auction, working on the halloween event, chasing other auction items promised, getting the ads together for the auction program, etc. Next week, I would like to take a couple of days and relax- after that it is going to be crazy busy until Christmas with regular work, the two huge events, Halloween event, calendar sales, grants due and so on.
One thing that is not going well is those replacement gift certificates that I'm scrambling to get for the date auction. It took so long to get the ones that we have, I don't know how I'm going to get all these new ones done.
Well, I'm getting tired- it was a busy day and then I had a meeting in Boston tonight. I was planning on posting our event on Going.Com tonight, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Off to the printers tomorrow, then picking up my beautiful invitations! Back to working on gift cert. hunting and following up on a million small things- I exaggerate, but it feels like a million to me. I think I'm going to bed early tonight, it's midnite- early for me! The silly thing is that even when I plan on going to bed earlier, it never seems to actually happen and I usually end up in bed later than usual. Anyways, enough bedtime discussion- it's not that interesting. So until next time friends...
So what else is new? I was planning on sort of taking it easy this half of the week- having a mini vacation. However, it is has been so busy and I've had such a lot to do during the week, I haven't taken any time off. I was doing a lot of date auction promo work, working on getting those extra gift certificates for the date auction, working on the halloween event, chasing other auction items promised, getting the ads together for the auction program, etc. Next week, I would like to take a couple of days and relax- after that it is going to be crazy busy until Christmas with regular work, the two huge events, Halloween event, calendar sales, grants due and so on.
One thing that is not going well is those replacement gift certificates that I'm scrambling to get for the date auction. It took so long to get the ones that we have, I don't know how I'm going to get all these new ones done.
Well, I'm getting tired- it was a busy day and then I had a meeting in Boston tonight. I was planning on posting our event on Going.Com tonight, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Off to the printers tomorrow, then picking up my beautiful invitations! Back to working on gift cert. hunting and following up on a million small things- I exaggerate, but it feels like a million to me. I think I'm going to bed early tonight, it's midnite- early for me! The silly thing is that even when I plan on going to bed earlier, it never seems to actually happen and I usually end up in bed later than usual. Anyways, enough bedtime discussion- it's not that interesting. So until next time friends...
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Calendar In Flight
Our calendar is en route- flying somewhere over the country as I write- making its way from Bakersfield, CA (where Lisa is) to Hopedale (where I am), to be driven eagerly to Rockland (where the printer is). Of course, Lisa could send it directly to the printer, but I prefer to bring it there myself, so I know that he has it and he can look at the file and make sure everything is all set. I am excited that it is all ready to go. It was a tough haul getting those ads sold and it is always stressful to get the photo shoots lined up, however, I love doing the photos- and I do miss that part. The calendar does look terrific and I can't wait to see the blueline proof and then the print copy! Of course, then the calendar sales start, but that is another story- let's just enjoy this moment.
What else is new today? Not a ton of things- I was working on chasing down more anniversary auction items that were promised, finalizing the proof for the anniversary invitation, doing the final calendar check, setting up our account with an online service that does email marketing- we'll be sending our newsletters out through them. I was struggling with the templates for a long time tonight, I think I finally made some progress, but I need some help- pleading phone call to web host tomorrow! I can't remember what else I did today- obviously I did more than that- but I'm drawing a blank. I hate it when that happens- sometimes during the day something will happen or I'll think of something and will try to remind myself to write about it in my blog later.
There was one story that I did want to write about- a few months ago, when I was working on finding sponsors for our anniversary celebration, I called a local funeral home and the owner who I spoke with said he would do a $50 donation and to call him in August. So I called a few weeks ago and he answered and told me I was calling at a bad time- he told me when to call back (a few days later). I called back and again he said he had a family coming in and it was a bad time- he told me to call on Friday, which I did. He then tells me that "you always call at a bad time". He told me to call at the beginning of the week- I called Monday and was informed that the guy was away until Friday. Unreal! I was holding a spot in the invitation for his business, needless to say, I won't hold that spot anymore. But I will keep calling, because a promise is a promise and since he is obviously busy, he has the finances to make a $50 donation. What boggles me is how people can be so rude- he knew he was going to be away and he could have easily talked to me when I called before- because it would take less than a minute- no exaggeration. I know he obviously doesn't want to make the donation, but he did promise it and even if he did change his mind, it is really rude to play games with people and make them keep calling like a fool. I told my mom that should I die, no way in hell was I to be sent to that funeral home.
Well friends, that's it for tonight. I'm off to write my list- lot of promo work for the date auction tomorrow, police/fire calls, more auction item chasing- still no word on those questionable gift certificates, volunteer search for date auction helpers, a lot of Halloween planning (translation- choosing my costume- ha, kidding!), date auction program work, maybe taking a ride to Rockland if my calendar comes in before 1pm, write my August newsletter, send thank you notes- yikes, I'm tired already! Good night...
What else is new today? Not a ton of things- I was working on chasing down more anniversary auction items that were promised, finalizing the proof for the anniversary invitation, doing the final calendar check, setting up our account with an online service that does email marketing- we'll be sending our newsletters out through them. I was struggling with the templates for a long time tonight, I think I finally made some progress, but I need some help- pleading phone call to web host tomorrow! I can't remember what else I did today- obviously I did more than that- but I'm drawing a blank. I hate it when that happens- sometimes during the day something will happen or I'll think of something and will try to remind myself to write about it in my blog later.
There was one story that I did want to write about- a few months ago, when I was working on finding sponsors for our anniversary celebration, I called a local funeral home and the owner who I spoke with said he would do a $50 donation and to call him in August. So I called a few weeks ago and he answered and told me I was calling at a bad time- he told me when to call back (a few days later). I called back and again he said he had a family coming in and it was a bad time- he told me to call on Friday, which I did. He then tells me that "you always call at a bad time". He told me to call at the beginning of the week- I called Monday and was informed that the guy was away until Friday. Unreal! I was holding a spot in the invitation for his business, needless to say, I won't hold that spot anymore. But I will keep calling, because a promise is a promise and since he is obviously busy, he has the finances to make a $50 donation. What boggles me is how people can be so rude- he knew he was going to be away and he could have easily talked to me when I called before- because it would take less than a minute- no exaggeration. I know he obviously doesn't want to make the donation, but he did promise it and even if he did change his mind, it is really rude to play games with people and make them keep calling like a fool. I told my mom that should I die, no way in hell was I to be sent to that funeral home.
Well friends, that's it for tonight. I'm off to write my list- lot of promo work for the date auction tomorrow, police/fire calls, more auction item chasing- still no word on those questionable gift certificates, volunteer search for date auction helpers, a lot of Halloween planning (translation- choosing my costume- ha, kidding!), date auction program work, maybe taking a ride to Rockland if my calendar comes in before 1pm, write my August newsletter, send thank you notes- yikes, I'm tired already! Good night...
Monday, August 18, 2008
Out of the Abyss
It's late and I still haven't exercised, but I didn't want to go to bed without blogging. These last few days were really difficult- a lot of stress and anxiety. I can't go into the details of it, but it was a lot of small things that together made for some stressful days. I don't think stress is even the right word for it- they were days that make one feel a little shaken and a little lost. But last night, I was determined that I would not wake up this morning and lose today- and even though last night I fell asleep without writing my list and didn't exercise this morning- two important things that get me going in the morning- I sat down at my desk with my cup of tea in my Halloween mug and got right back to work.
You know what happened? I won today and that spark that has kept me going when it looked like nothing would ever work out- the spark that had disappeared since Thursday- was back. There was no incredible achievement today- but it was productive work. There was a funny story though. I had been on the Yelp.com website a couple of weeks ago because someone had recommended it for promoting the date auction. It is a cool site that lets viewers rate different businesses, restaurants, venues, events, etc. that they visit. So today, I was working on date auction promo and I decided to sign up on Yelp in order to promote the date auction (it is a cool site anyways and I probably would have signed up regardless). I was reading their info about promoting your business and found it a little confusing, so I decided that I would post the event later in the week then try to get more info about promoting it with them. About an hour after I signed up, I receive an email from a lady from Yelp inviting us to partner with them to promote the date auction. I was incredibly impressed and figured that Yelp must do some research into new people that sign up and had somehow found out about the date auction. I immediately called her back and it turns out she had no idea that I had just signed up for Yelp! It was all a complete coincidence. So we are going to be working with them and they will help promote the event. It is a fun website and really helpful too, so I hope people check it out and of course, check out our event and maybe become my friend on Yelp too!
Our calendar is in final check stages- which means that I am double, triple, quadruple checking it for errors, typos, pages in order, etc. We finally have all the photos where they need to be, ads are in place, the cover is just getting a little more work done. I have checked it so many times, but I am always afraid that I've missed something. Lisa should be all done with it by tomorrow, then she sends the disk to me and I bring it up to Peacock Press for printing! Lisa does awesome work, I feel so lucky to have met her and she is just so cool to work with because she never gets annoyed about making changes and always gets stuff done quickly.
I was back at work on date auction items today- it doesn't look good for those gift certificates that I talked about last week, so I'm hustling to get more stuff. I totally thought I was done with this. You can't imagine how difficult it has been to get stuff donated in Boston- a lot harder than it is to get gift certificates locally. I made a lot of calls today, so hopefully I will get at least one or two items from today's places. However, we still need 14 more gift certificates.
Well, that's it for tonight. It's 12:30 and I'm trying to decide whether to exercise or not. I haven't exercised in 4 days (dreadful), but I'm getting tired- what shall I do?? I know this is an incredibly exciting decision! Either way, I'm off until tomorrow- I'm glad I didn't miss blogging tonight! Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred is calling my name...exercise- here I come! good night!
You know what happened? I won today and that spark that has kept me going when it looked like nothing would ever work out- the spark that had disappeared since Thursday- was back. There was no incredible achievement today- but it was productive work. There was a funny story though. I had been on the Yelp.com website a couple of weeks ago because someone had recommended it for promoting the date auction. It is a cool site that lets viewers rate different businesses, restaurants, venues, events, etc. that they visit. So today, I was working on date auction promo and I decided to sign up on Yelp in order to promote the date auction (it is a cool site anyways and I probably would have signed up regardless). I was reading their info about promoting your business and found it a little confusing, so I decided that I would post the event later in the week then try to get more info about promoting it with them. About an hour after I signed up, I receive an email from a lady from Yelp inviting us to partner with them to promote the date auction. I was incredibly impressed and figured that Yelp must do some research into new people that sign up and had somehow found out about the date auction. I immediately called her back and it turns out she had no idea that I had just signed up for Yelp! It was all a complete coincidence. So we are going to be working with them and they will help promote the event. It is a fun website and really helpful too, so I hope people check it out and of course, check out our event and maybe become my friend on Yelp too!
Our calendar is in final check stages- which means that I am double, triple, quadruple checking it for errors, typos, pages in order, etc. We finally have all the photos where they need to be, ads are in place, the cover is just getting a little more work done. I have checked it so many times, but I am always afraid that I've missed something. Lisa should be all done with it by tomorrow, then she sends the disk to me and I bring it up to Peacock Press for printing! Lisa does awesome work, I feel so lucky to have met her and she is just so cool to work with because she never gets annoyed about making changes and always gets stuff done quickly.
I was back at work on date auction items today- it doesn't look good for those gift certificates that I talked about last week, so I'm hustling to get more stuff. I totally thought I was done with this. You can't imagine how difficult it has been to get stuff donated in Boston- a lot harder than it is to get gift certificates locally. I made a lot of calls today, so hopefully I will get at least one or two items from today's places. However, we still need 14 more gift certificates.
Well, that's it for tonight. It's 12:30 and I'm trying to decide whether to exercise or not. I haven't exercised in 4 days (dreadful), but I'm getting tired- what shall I do?? I know this is an incredibly exciting decision! Either way, I'm off until tomorrow- I'm glad I didn't miss blogging tonight! Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred is calling my name...exercise- here I come! good night!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Wednesday News
Greetings! I was thinking tonight that maybe, just maybe, things actually might work out fine. Maybe we will have an incredibly successful date auction and an equally successful anniversary celebration two weeks later, followed by brisk calendar sales, growth and a good rest of the year. It's not that I'm lacking confidence in what we do, but there is so much work and stress and anxiety associated with everything, that it can be difficult to think that things will actually work out. The other issue is that I never want to take things for granted, because that is a receipe for disaster.
Today was a good day, although I did run into time issues and didn't get to quite a few things. I did get through to the website rep. for promoting our date auction (that was the person I'd been trying to reach for a little while) and it was successful- I am really looking forward to working with them. I think that with this website and our other promo, we should do well for attendance. So far, we are at 13 tickets sold. Of course, that's not many, but since the event is over a month away and we haven't done any major marketing yet, I'm happy with that. In not good date auction news, we lost a firefighter today- he emailed me that he is going to be out of town, so that is disappointing.
Tomorrow, I'm going to be out almost all day- we have a Project Smile volunteering day. One of our board members, Jennifer, organized a volunteering day at a camp on Cape Cod for children with life threatening illnesses. We will be playing games with them, giving them some gifts and hanging out with them. I was shopping at Wal Mart today, picking up gifts for the kids- Barbies, legos, cars, beading kit and a board game that I think the teenage boys might enjoy- I think its called Risk. My shopping trip took a lot longer than I should have because I was trying to make sure I got the right toys without spending a ton of money and also because I was remembering my younger days and my incredible love for Barbies! I'm not ashamed to say that my Barbie love still exists!
Anyways, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, although it will be sad to see children who are so sick, but hopefully we can make them feel a little happier. The downside is that I'm going to be gone all day and most of the evening (have a business event to attend), so that means there are a ton of calls that won't be made, emails that I won't get to and so on. How I wish I had someone to delegate some of this work to- it would make such a difference. I was intending to come home tonight and go back to work, but besides checking emails quickly and forwarding a few things to Lisa, our graphic designer- I'm now blogging and watching the mens gymnastics (which are very cool). I need to be out early tomorrow, so I should go to bed, but want to eat blueberries and yogurt and watch more gymnastics instead.
There was more that I wanted to write about, but as usual I can't remember. I'm getting tired and my eyes are hurting- maybe I'll skip the blueberries. I was planning on exercising too tonight, but since it is now 1am, that is not going to happen. So until tomorrow night friends.
Today was a good day, although I did run into time issues and didn't get to quite a few things. I did get through to the website rep. for promoting our date auction (that was the person I'd been trying to reach for a little while) and it was successful- I am really looking forward to working with them. I think that with this website and our other promo, we should do well for attendance. So far, we are at 13 tickets sold. Of course, that's not many, but since the event is over a month away and we haven't done any major marketing yet, I'm happy with that. In not good date auction news, we lost a firefighter today- he emailed me that he is going to be out of town, so that is disappointing.
Tomorrow, I'm going to be out almost all day- we have a Project Smile volunteering day. One of our board members, Jennifer, organized a volunteering day at a camp on Cape Cod for children with life threatening illnesses. We will be playing games with them, giving them some gifts and hanging out with them. I was shopping at Wal Mart today, picking up gifts for the kids- Barbies, legos, cars, beading kit and a board game that I think the teenage boys might enjoy- I think its called Risk. My shopping trip took a lot longer than I should have because I was trying to make sure I got the right toys without spending a ton of money and also because I was remembering my younger days and my incredible love for Barbies! I'm not ashamed to say that my Barbie love still exists!
Anyways, I'm looking forward to tomorrow, although it will be sad to see children who are so sick, but hopefully we can make them feel a little happier. The downside is that I'm going to be gone all day and most of the evening (have a business event to attend), so that means there are a ton of calls that won't be made, emails that I won't get to and so on. How I wish I had someone to delegate some of this work to- it would make such a difference. I was intending to come home tonight and go back to work, but besides checking emails quickly and forwarding a few things to Lisa, our graphic designer- I'm now blogging and watching the mens gymnastics (which are very cool). I need to be out early tomorrow, so I should go to bed, but want to eat blueberries and yogurt and watch more gymnastics instead.
There was more that I wanted to write about, but as usual I can't remember. I'm getting tired and my eyes are hurting- maybe I'll skip the blueberries. I was planning on exercising too tonight, but since it is now 1am, that is not going to happen. So until tomorrow night friends.
Tiring Tuesday
Well, today was not a "day of excellence." I felt lousy this morning- I don't know what caused it, I woke up feeling fine, but started feeling sick. Things got better later, but I didn't get much work done this morning. This afternoon, I was at a taping of a local Milford cable show. One of our board members has a show on the local cable station where he interviews local people/topics of interest every two weeks, so he and the editor of one of the local papers featured Project Smile on the show. I think it went well- I hope I did a good job. It felt very relaxed and I think everything flowed well. I love talking about Project Smile anyways- could talk about it for hours. Sometimes, on the weekends particularly, I don't like talking about it as much, but the vast majority of the time, I'm always happy talking about work.
I was following up on auction items promised- I did get some good news- one of our coolest items is in the mail- I'll let you know when it arrives. I was also working on trying to get more gift certificates for the date auction- that issue I was talking about last night has not been fully resolved- so please keep your fingers and toes crossed for me. I was also trying to get in contact with the website for date auction promotion, but still not getting much of a response. I get a response from one person, who keeps copies his emails to someone else who is supposed to be helping me, but I haven't heard from that person. It is frustrating because I really want to work with them.
I'm probably forgetting other things that happened today- I'm getting a headache again- probably a good idea to go to bed- it's getting late anyways 1:04 and I still have to write the list for tomorrow. It shouldn't take long since it is going to contain half the items from todays list. I also have to get some suppplies for the volunteering day that we're doing on Thursday with the children who are suffering from life threatening illnesses (more on that later).
Until tomorrow friends...
I was following up on auction items promised- I did get some good news- one of our coolest items is in the mail- I'll let you know when it arrives. I was also working on trying to get more gift certificates for the date auction- that issue I was talking about last night has not been fully resolved- so please keep your fingers and toes crossed for me. I was also trying to get in contact with the website for date auction promotion, but still not getting much of a response. I get a response from one person, who keeps copies his emails to someone else who is supposed to be helping me, but I haven't heard from that person. It is frustrating because I really want to work with them.
I'm probably forgetting other things that happened today- I'm getting a headache again- probably a good idea to go to bed- it's getting late anyways 1:04 and I still have to write the list for tomorrow. It shouldn't take long since it is going to contain half the items from todays list. I also have to get some suppplies for the volunteering day that we're doing on Thursday with the children who are suffering from life threatening illnesses (more on that later).
Until tomorrow friends...
Monday, August 11, 2008
Happy Monday
So what's new? Well, today was a lot of chasing- chasing down people to get their ads for the date auction program, chasing people that signed up for the date auction and haven't sent me their complete info, chasing auction items that were promised, but not yet received- if I was burning calories with all the chasing I do, I would be the skinniest little bean ever. And how did this chasing go? I got some date auction info squared away, but still waiting on quite a few ads for the auction program. It has been really hard to reach people these last few days (weekend aside of course!), I think a lot of people are on vacation. Even people that usually always get back to me quickly, I'm not hearing from. It does get frustrating, because there are some people that I really need to speak with urgently- one group in particular that I want to work with on promoting the date auction.
I would like to take a few days off too. I don't really go on vacation. Last year, I went out to visit my friend in Cleveland for a couple of days in June and before that, the last time I went away on vacation was in 2004 to Montreal. It is primarily financial reasons that I don't get to travel. The other problem is that there is a ton of work to do here and I don't really have time to go away. However, the nice thing about my job is the flexibility- if I have to get something else done during the day, I can do it without worrying about getting permission from a boss. If I'm sick, I don't need a doctors note to take the day off and stay in bed- all things that I am grateful for. That being said, it would be great to take a few days off, relax, not worry about work and just chill. I did try to take a few off a few months ago, but by noontime, I had decided I was wasting the day and needed to work!
Anyways, enough talk about non-vacations. In other good news, we got a new anniversary event sponsor- Consigli Construction is on board as a Gold sponsor. Things have been going well with the anniversary event sponsorship- it has been a relief. In good date auction news, it looks like we will be onboard with Goldstar to help sell tickets for our event. The tickets are sold at a discounted rate, however, it is a great way to reach people that may not otherwise hear of our event.
Well, that's about it for tonight. I'm off to watch some more of the Olympics- I find it kind of addictive and so incredibly inspirational. It is awesome to watch people achieve their dreams and just to see the pure physical skill- so incredible. Then I have to write my list for tomorrow. There is a potential big issue with a gift certificate that was donated for the auction, so I'm hoping to get it resolved tomorrow. Please keep your fingers crossed for me, because if it doesn't work out, I will be scrambling- honestly, it will be more than scrambling, but lets not go there.
Off I go friends- write my list and watch the US men hopefully win a gymnastics medal- until tomorrow...
I would like to take a few days off too. I don't really go on vacation. Last year, I went out to visit my friend in Cleveland for a couple of days in June and before that, the last time I went away on vacation was in 2004 to Montreal. It is primarily financial reasons that I don't get to travel. The other problem is that there is a ton of work to do here and I don't really have time to go away. However, the nice thing about my job is the flexibility- if I have to get something else done during the day, I can do it without worrying about getting permission from a boss. If I'm sick, I don't need a doctors note to take the day off and stay in bed- all things that I am grateful for. That being said, it would be great to take a few days off, relax, not worry about work and just chill. I did try to take a few off a few months ago, but by noontime, I had decided I was wasting the day and needed to work!
Anyways, enough talk about non-vacations. In other good news, we got a new anniversary event sponsor- Consigli Construction is on board as a Gold sponsor. Things have been going well with the anniversary event sponsorship- it has been a relief. In good date auction news, it looks like we will be onboard with Goldstar to help sell tickets for our event. The tickets are sold at a discounted rate, however, it is a great way to reach people that may not otherwise hear of our event.
Well, that's about it for tonight. I'm off to watch some more of the Olympics- I find it kind of addictive and so incredibly inspirational. It is awesome to watch people achieve their dreams and just to see the pure physical skill- so incredible. Then I have to write my list for tomorrow. There is a potential big issue with a gift certificate that was donated for the auction, so I'm hoping to get it resolved tomorrow. Please keep your fingers crossed for me, because if it doesn't work out, I will be scrambling- honestly, it will be more than scrambling, but lets not go there.
Off I go friends- write my list and watch the US men hopefully win a gymnastics medal- until tomorrow...
Friday, August 8, 2008
Late Night
I should be in bed. It's 2:12am. So what am I doing? Well, I wanted to catch up on all the things I didn't get to today- I did get a lot done, and then I decided I simply couldn't go to bed without blogging! I spent so long today working on date auction program things- the funny thing is that I'm not even doing the layout. Lisa, our graphic designer is doing all that- all I have to do is get her the info. It sounds simple and it isn't brain surgery, but it took so long to go through all the info in the emails that the bachelors/bachelorettes sent me and put it together in a Word document. Then I had to send emails to people that haven't sent their profiles, make sure the photos match up with the person's correct info and other things. It was past 4pm by the time I was done- I started at 1pm. No, I'm not a slow worker, it is just very time consuming.
I was planning on going straight back to work after dinner, but then I read for a little bit and cleaned up- so it was almost 10pm by the time I started work again and I've been working straight through- sending emails, writing letters, thank you cards, signing up to sell tickets through Goldstar, paying bills and so on. It has been a productive night. If my eyes weren't so tired, I could keep going for longer.
Last night, I had a dream that hardly anyone came to our date auction- it was horrific. It was a very vivid dream- I could see how everything was laid out, nicely decorated, the bachelors were all there, everything was in order, except the guests. There were only a few people scattered about. In the dream I was crying because I was so heartbroken and didn't understand what I did wrong-why no one was there. I kept saying, "but I did everything right"- talking about marketing. I woke up and actually had tears in my eyes. So of course, that has me extra concerned about making sure we reach out to as many places as possible to market the event. I think I've been taking all the right steps, but if anyone has other suggestions, please let me know.
Well, I think I'm finally off to bed. I even cleaned up my desk tonight- it was looking pretty bad earlier. And, my camera bag is going away until next year. Photos are done! There were a few departments that I didn't get in, not because of a lack of effort on my part, but there has to be a deadline and plus, we don't have much more space left in the calendar for more photos.
OK, enough blogging. This was actually a pretty quick posting, it usually takes me a lot longer to blog. So until next time friends..
I was planning on going straight back to work after dinner, but then I read for a little bit and cleaned up- so it was almost 10pm by the time I started work again and I've been working straight through- sending emails, writing letters, thank you cards, signing up to sell tickets through Goldstar, paying bills and so on. It has been a productive night. If my eyes weren't so tired, I could keep going for longer.
Last night, I had a dream that hardly anyone came to our date auction- it was horrific. It was a very vivid dream- I could see how everything was laid out, nicely decorated, the bachelors were all there, everything was in order, except the guests. There were only a few people scattered about. In the dream I was crying because I was so heartbroken and didn't understand what I did wrong-why no one was there. I kept saying, "but I did everything right"- talking about marketing. I woke up and actually had tears in my eyes. So of course, that has me extra concerned about making sure we reach out to as many places as possible to market the event. I think I've been taking all the right steps, but if anyone has other suggestions, please let me know.
Well, I think I'm finally off to bed. I even cleaned up my desk tonight- it was looking pretty bad earlier. And, my camera bag is going away until next year. Photos are done! There were a few departments that I didn't get in, not because of a lack of effort on my part, but there has to be a deadline and plus, we don't have much more space left in the calendar for more photos.
OK, enough blogging. This was actually a pretty quick posting, it usually takes me a lot longer to blog. So until next time friends..
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Traffic
Too much driving today- actually too much sitting in traffic. I decided to go to Boston, because I had a feeling that it was better to get things done- I do believe in that old saying "there is no day like today, no time like the present." I did have important things to do- I picked up a $50 gift certificate for the date auction to Armhein's Restaurant in South Boston- it is a very old restaurant and I picked up the pearl necklace which is absolutely beautiful! The photo does it absolutely no justice, it is about 100 times prettier in person. Then I went to Allston to pick up the final version of our Project Smile song- finally it is all done! I am excited to debut it at the event. The frustrating thing was I spent so long sitting in traffic- Boston traffic- it took a half hour to drive 1.8 miles, then rush hour on the way home (almost got into an accident). I was gone almost the entire afternoon, then I had to rush out to do Holliston Fire photos and then back to Hopedale for a meeting. So the end result of today was a ton of office things that didn't get done. You can't imagine how I wish I had someone I could delegate some of this work to. If I had someone to help- they could have picked up the Boston items (actually, I needed to go and hear the song) or could have done the office work, so by the time I got back, all of the same things wouldn't be sitting there untouched.
OK, enough griping- it's all the same thing that I've talked about before and complaining won't help solve the problem. Money would solve the problem- money leads to staff which leads to growth which leads to national charity. Anyways, let's leave that topic alone- I'm too tired to think about financial issues.
I think the Holliston Fire photos went great, it is always good to have a new department featured. One of the guys had six kids and his wife was pregnant too- they were all boys except for a 16 month old girl. I think that was the largest family that we've ever had in the calendar. It is pretty cool to see large families. I think this will be the last photos for the calendar. There is one more department I'm trying to get in, but it doesn't look like it's going to happpen. Considering we have hardly any spaces left for photos, that's probably not the worst thing- but I still would like to get them done.
We did get a new cool auction item which I'll tell you about tomorrow. I also have to follow up with more of the people that have promised auction items. I can't believe our event is less than 2 months away- it's a little scary and exciting. I am so worried about getting enough people to attend, but that is not something I need to think about tonight. I'm also worried about getting the date auction promoted well enough.
If I had more energy, I would go back and work on the hundred things that need to be done- some small things and other larger date auction prep work. But right now, I want to finish blogging, watch Jay Leno (it's already started) and read a little more of my book and sleep- and write my list of course! So until tomorrow friends....
OK, enough griping- it's all the same thing that I've talked about before and complaining won't help solve the problem. Money would solve the problem- money leads to staff which leads to growth which leads to national charity. Anyways, let's leave that topic alone- I'm too tired to think about financial issues.
I think the Holliston Fire photos went great, it is always good to have a new department featured. One of the guys had six kids and his wife was pregnant too- they were all boys except for a 16 month old girl. I think that was the largest family that we've ever had in the calendar. It is pretty cool to see large families. I think this will be the last photos for the calendar. There is one more department I'm trying to get in, but it doesn't look like it's going to happpen. Considering we have hardly any spaces left for photos, that's probably not the worst thing- but I still would like to get them done.
We did get a new cool auction item which I'll tell you about tomorrow. I also have to follow up with more of the people that have promised auction items. I can't believe our event is less than 2 months away- it's a little scary and exciting. I am so worried about getting enough people to attend, but that is not something I need to think about tonight. I'm also worried about getting the date auction promoted well enough.
If I had more energy, I would go back and work on the hundred things that need to be done- some small things and other larger date auction prep work. But right now, I want to finish blogging, watch Jay Leno (it's already started) and read a little more of my book and sleep- and write my list of course! So until tomorrow friends....
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
News
Here I am! I wasn't going to blog- I'm feeling lousy tonight and was going to go straight to bed- no list, no blogging- but then I felt bad about not blogging- I don't want to disappoint my readers! I enjoy blogging too, so it wouldn't feel right.
So what's the latest? In Date Auction news- Sofft Shoes is now also going to donate a pair of high heels for the ladies who receive the three highest bids! How cool is that? We have a ton of ladies that have signed up to be auctioned off, I really need to spend some time getting our program organized and updating the excel list. The guys have been really frustrating how they're not sending me photos and others have signed up and won't send their info.
In other good news, we received a ticket voucher for two tickets to a Boston theatre company's production this season. It was funny how it happened- I had received their flyer in the mail last week and was really impressed- it was a company I had never heard of before. Unfortunately, I can't afford to go to many (or any) shows, but I always enjoy looking at what I could go to. Anyways, it occurred to me that it would be great to have tickets donated for the date auction. I looked online and emailed the contact lady but didn't get a response. I actually got a little annoyed that she hadn't responded. Then I went to the mail today and there was an envelope with the tickets! It is great when things work out like that. I'm not sure yet if we'll use the tickets for the silent auction or raffle or possibly as a date gift certificate, but I'm not sure on that one.
What else happened today? I did Grafton photos- only one more photo shoot scheduled and that's tomorrow. And in big news, Lisa has the first version of the calendar ready! She emailed it to me early this morning. It is looking great- she does a terrific job. There are some changes that need to be made- photos that need moved, etc., but that is typical.
I have so much work to do tomorrow- a lot of emails to respond to, date auction things and event program things that need sorted out and more. I'm supposed to be in Boston in the afternoon, but I'm going to try and change that- I need to get office work done and I'm trying to cut back the driving. I have to be in Boston on Thursday evening, so I'll see if I can combine things.
Well, blogging has actually made me feel not quite so crummy- I was feeling achy and gross. But I am still going to bed early- it is 12:07 now and since I don't usually go to bed until after 1am, this is early. Hopefully, with a good sleep, I'll be back to normal tomorrow. So until tomorrow buds...
So what's the latest? In Date Auction news- Sofft Shoes is now also going to donate a pair of high heels for the ladies who receive the three highest bids! How cool is that? We have a ton of ladies that have signed up to be auctioned off, I really need to spend some time getting our program organized and updating the excel list. The guys have been really frustrating how they're not sending me photos and others have signed up and won't send their info.
In other good news, we received a ticket voucher for two tickets to a Boston theatre company's production this season. It was funny how it happened- I had received their flyer in the mail last week and was really impressed- it was a company I had never heard of before. Unfortunately, I can't afford to go to many (or any) shows, but I always enjoy looking at what I could go to. Anyways, it occurred to me that it would be great to have tickets donated for the date auction. I looked online and emailed the contact lady but didn't get a response. I actually got a little annoyed that she hadn't responded. Then I went to the mail today and there was an envelope with the tickets! It is great when things work out like that. I'm not sure yet if we'll use the tickets for the silent auction or raffle or possibly as a date gift certificate, but I'm not sure on that one.
What else happened today? I did Grafton photos- only one more photo shoot scheduled and that's tomorrow. And in big news, Lisa has the first version of the calendar ready! She emailed it to me early this morning. It is looking great- she does a terrific job. There are some changes that need to be made- photos that need moved, etc., but that is typical.
I have so much work to do tomorrow- a lot of emails to respond to, date auction things and event program things that need sorted out and more. I'm supposed to be in Boston in the afternoon, but I'm going to try and change that- I need to get office work done and I'm trying to cut back the driving. I have to be in Boston on Thursday evening, so I'll see if I can combine things.
Well, blogging has actually made me feel not quite so crummy- I was feeling achy and gross. But I am still going to bed early- it is 12:07 now and since I don't usually go to bed until after 1am, this is early. Hopefully, with a good sleep, I'll be back to normal tomorrow. So until tomorrow buds...
Monday, August 4, 2008
Arm Muscle
Building a business is a little like building arm muscle. I know, that may sound a little inane, but let me explain. I was not one of those girls who is blessed with naturally toned upper arms- ever since I can remember I had jiggly, relatively weak, untoned arms and always disliked it. Over the years, I had done some upper body exercises, but never really stuck with it. So, a couple of yeara ago, after reading many articles about how important weight training is for women, I decided I was going to start exercising at home and build arm muscle. I bought some exercise DVDs and dusted off the 5pd weights I had purchased a few years before. I started exercising daily- cardio, weights, abs, etc. With the cardio, I could feel my endurance building, but I still didn't see any arm difference. However, I kept going and soon purchased 6 pound weights, then eventually 8 pound and most recently 10 pds. For the longest time, I saw no difference, but I kept with it. Then one day, I could see a little less flab and a bit more muscle- as time went by, the results became more obvious- until I saw muscle that I never knew I could have. Although I still don't have the perfectly toned arms that I want, they are much stronger and toned than I have ever had before. For me, it's the same type of effort that goes into building Project Smile. For the longest time, I saw little progress, particularly financially, but with constant hard work and through never giving up, the results came- and just like there is more arm muscle to build, there is still somuch more to be accomplished with Project Smile.
Can you tell I just finished working out tonight?? So what's new? Well, I'm running into a date auction issue. We need more men to sign up! This is kind of funny, since until recently, I had hardly any ladies signed up. Now, we have almost 17 women confirmed to participate and I'm still waiting for confirmations from a good number of men that signed up, but haven't responded to my emails/messages. Until they send me their info, I can't consider them confirmed to participate.
Our web guy (who is awesome), put the photos of the ladies on our website- it looks fantastic. They are a great group of ladies. I got more photos in tonight, so there should be some more on our site too. The frustrating thing is that the guys who did sign up are really slow to send photos- most of them say they don't have any. I ran into the same issue last year with trying to get photos from the guys.
What else is going on today? It was a little frustrating today, because I felt the day slipped away and I didn't get half the things accomplished that I wanted to. I did get Hopedale PD photos done which was great. The officer has 3 cute little kids- his wife was pregnant last year, so it was cool to get the baby in the photos as well. I don't even remember what else I got done besides date auction things and working on some auction items. The other thing which has been a problem lately is I fall asleep before I write my list at night. Without a list, I struggle- not because I can't think of what to do, but because I have so many things to do, I don't know what to do first or I'll spend a ton of time on one thing and don't get to the 12 other things I need to do as well (this happens a lot).
So, I am now going to write my list, then read for a bit (still on the same Joyce Carol Oates book- it is so good) and bed. Tomorrow is a mostly office day which is greatly needed. Then in the late afternoon, I'm doing Grafton PD photos. We are almost done with photos!
Until tomorrow friends...
Can you tell I just finished working out tonight?? So what's new? Well, I'm running into a date auction issue. We need more men to sign up! This is kind of funny, since until recently, I had hardly any ladies signed up. Now, we have almost 17 women confirmed to participate and I'm still waiting for confirmations from a good number of men that signed up, but haven't responded to my emails/messages. Until they send me their info, I can't consider them confirmed to participate.
Our web guy (who is awesome), put the photos of the ladies on our website- it looks fantastic. They are a great group of ladies. I got more photos in tonight, so there should be some more on our site too. The frustrating thing is that the guys who did sign up are really slow to send photos- most of them say they don't have any. I ran into the same issue last year with trying to get photos from the guys.
What else is going on today? It was a little frustrating today, because I felt the day slipped away and I didn't get half the things accomplished that I wanted to. I did get Hopedale PD photos done which was great. The officer has 3 cute little kids- his wife was pregnant last year, so it was cool to get the baby in the photos as well. I don't even remember what else I got done besides date auction things and working on some auction items. The other thing which has been a problem lately is I fall asleep before I write my list at night. Without a list, I struggle- not because I can't think of what to do, but because I have so many things to do, I don't know what to do first or I'll spend a ton of time on one thing and don't get to the 12 other things I need to do as well (this happens a lot).
So, I am now going to write my list, then read for a bit (still on the same Joyce Carol Oates book- it is so good) and bed. Tomorrow is a mostly office day which is greatly needed. Then in the late afternoon, I'm doing Grafton PD photos. We are almost done with photos!
Until tomorrow friends...
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