Underpaid Brilliance

I am loving working for the Literacy Center. I am "assistant director", but since it's basically me and the director, I could probably pick out any title I want. They're all up for grabs. We work in an office the size of of a bathroom, and everything is stacked to the ceiling. It looks like a literacy bomb hit it. Papers are everywhere, as the Dir. is a "visual" person and color codes everything and tapes it out where she can see it. It is a lot of work, and we get paid very little. I have no clue what I'm doing.

The nice thing is, she knows that. So, I get to come in and tunnel through the papers until I can figure something out. The filing system is a wreck. My Dir., S, doesn't really use the filing cabinets as she basically color codes the walls, and her former asst. had a method that frankly makes no sense to me. Or to S. Considering I added 15 new files to it today, I feel like I'm more a part of the problem rather than the solution.

I'm so pleased to have S as a Dir. She's a beer-swiggin', harley-ridin' idiot. Her words, not mine. We get to cuss a lot, wear what we want and listen to loud rock. I've heard more Ozzy and AC/DC in the past 2 days than I have for probably a year. Under a steep learning curve, I'm figuring out so much. The only part that concerns me is fundraising. The nice thing is I get 25% of whatever fundraising activity I arrange and pull off. The bad news is, my fundraising activity may be the only thing that gets us into a new building, which we DESPERATELY need. Organizations will fund everything except rent and a decent salary. For some reason, maintaining an actual *space* for this to happen in and making sure people get paid enough to not have to leave for a living wage isn't very high on their priority list. And we ain't talking big salaries here, folks. We're both *under* the poverty line. Thank goodness neither of us absolutely have to have the money. But they'll give you all the Office Depot money you want. Add to the stakes that I have never raised a fund before :) . Yikes!