The Summer is almost over and soon the kids go back to school. Usually my business picks up in September, once vacations are over and most people are back to work.
This year I don’t have any major projects scheduled for the Fall; which is not good from a financial perspective but it does mean that I can be open to any possibility. As I was cycling today, I thought about what I would really like to be doing at the beginning of this “year” (I have always considered September to be the start of the year; a time to begin anew).
A few of us recently finished writing a proposal that we just found out was not accepted. It was entitled, Navigating in a Stormy Economy.
In spite of not being awarded the contract, the process of working with Jim, Hal, Robert, Vaughn and Sue was invigorating. Our approach to strategic planning and community economic development was definitely out of the box; part of it was based on Rob’s recent work with National Public Radio.
Our team’s experience ranged from the local to national and included international development work. I would like to put this team to work on a meaningful project, as the value of this network is exponential to any individual member. The experience of assembling this team and then working on a tight timeline was inspiring. I knew every person, but the rest of the team had never met before. Trust had to be developed quickly so that we could write a complex proposal in a few days. It worked, and I’m quite proud of what we accomplished. As Bogart said, “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
The work that we proposed was based on meaningful evaluation criteria. We decided amongst ourselves that we would not submit a proposal based on the same old, tired SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis format. We would provide real tools that members of each community could actually use once we left. It was good to work with people who had principles and were willing to walk away from a project that couldn’t incorporate these principles. This is my kind of work; principled, meaningful and with clear deliverables that have value for the end client, not just the person writing the cheque.
As September begins, hope springs eternal.
[Photo Credit: wagsdot911]
Amen Harold!
Happy to see you are keeping busy. We in New Brunswick are offering 43 some courses to high schools studenst in Grades 11 and 12 and the work continues. We are using D2L so we are follwoing the Backboard vs the world and D2l in particular with vested interest.
Kevin: perhaps it’s time for the Provincial government to make a statement on the absurdity of the Blackboard LMS patent application, especially since it’s still pending in Canada.
http://jarche.com/?p=840
I can understand how you feel about September. I found the switch from a calendar school year (as in the southern hemisphere) to a September-August arrangement really weird, because that gave me two year ends, two new beginnings, two occasions to wonder whether I should be buying gifts for teachers.
In September, my older son starts his GCSEs and my younger one starts high school (Year 8). It’s also the month of my younger son’s 13th birthday, another milestone. Definitely a red-letter month!
And with the way Christmas stretches further back each year (as far as retailers are concerned, anyway), it seems to collapse the last quarter of the year into a nothingness between one new beginning and another. I feel as if my years have lost a chunk. After 7 years, I still can’t get used to it.