Things I Really Need To Get A Move On...
Here's a few things I really need to light a fire under my ass to get done. Hopefully by making it public knowledge, I'll feel more responsibility to complete the tasks. Feel free to flame me...
1) I really need to get on that ex-JW support group and pull it together.
I did some preliminary work on it, but it fell way behind on my to-do list. Part of what's holding me back is that support groups tend to take on the personality of their leader, and for people coming out of a cult, the last thing I want is them thinking that I have all the answers, even though I've thrived outside of the cult. Also, I don't want to lead the damn thing. But somebody has to set things up somehow. Plus, I'm an atheist, obviously, and a lot of JWs still need religion. There's some fantastic potential for conflict, and I've worked very hard to get conflict off of my to do list for years now. But ex-JW's need a place to go and talk about it. I would've loved to have had that when I was first kicked out.
2) I really need to get the last of those edits done on my short stories.
I currently collect rejection letters ::eyeroll:: and I'm due for another round of fixin' and sendin'. I write flash fiction, I guess you'd call it. Short stories that are under 4000 words. Something like that. I think true flash fiction is 2000 words or less, and I've got a couple of those. I currently have 22 stories in various stages of editing that I need to just force myself to sit down with. I need to do it before school starts back in August, otherwise there really will be no time to get it done.
3) I really need to get a move on asking other agencies to host our literacy materials at their sites.
I hesitate to ask them because we all have so much to do as nonprofits, and it involves a bit of extra work for them. All I want them to do is keep a stack of our training manuals there, let us use their building as a public place for tutors & students to meet, and ::whispering::recruit tutors from their population bases. This county has some isolated populations, and they won't drive into town to meet with tutors because most of them can't drive or don't have a vehicle. But they can get to that organization already established in their area. I've just been so busy with grant spending and fundraising and end of fiscal year reports that I've put it off.
4) And speaking of literacy, I really need to get my tutor monthly social meetings set up.
It was a great idea, I've just hesitated because that's yet one more chunk of my week devoted to growing the center. But it needs done. When we match them with their students, we pat them on the back and then we never talk to them unless there is a problem or an annual test or I have to collect volunteer hours or something. I want them to be proud of being with my nonprofit, and not go somewhere else. Yes, not very gracious, is it? I'm jealous of my people.
5) I really need to block out more time for meditation and contemplation.
This really ought to be the number one to-do on my list. When I have time to Zen, I do well. I work better, I stress less, I feel more peace and the world looks more beautiful. When I don't Zen, I go back to being the weak seams in a raggy quilt--barely holding it all together. I have a key problem with meditation, though. A real mind block, which I'll share soon. In the hopes of calling the Beast by it's name and slaying it.
posted by contemplator at Monday, July 24, 2006
7 Comments:
1). You should read up on Jerry Garcia, who was an anarchist and did everything he could to be a leader, even though he was effectively in charge of the Grateful Dead. One of the things he did was to insist on voting on all decisions with the other band members. Besides the only two good cults are the Blue Oyster Cult and the Cult with Ian Astbury.
2). Read up on works by Hunter S. Thompson, and other absurdists/reality distorters. You just need to get excited about something before you can effectively write it.
3). To get people to be cooperative, emphasize that things are free when the happen to be free. 'Free' is a magic catchphrase that gets everyone's attention.
4). No comment here. This is out of my league.
5). Interested in hearing these meditation problems.
mad dog: on your points, here are my answers.
1) Sounds good. I've never read about him before. I still don't think I want to be the leader. I just want it in place.
2) I do this. I prefer Salvador Dali's paranoic/critical method. :D It's not the writing it's the editing that's killing me. The writing usually marinates for a while until it's ready to be served. The editing is like having to wash the dishes afterwards.
3)The main problem here is that we all know in the non-profit world that free is never really free--you pay the price for it somewhere else. Much as I'd like to throw it around, we're all unfortunately wise to what "free" really means.
4) It's really just a matter of setting a date, asking everybody to come, and then showing up and once again having to lead discussion. I'm just not to eager to eat another night of private life doing it.
5) It's a psychological block or fear. I'll describe it a bit more when I'm ready to put it out there.
2). If the editing is what concerns you, then shoot for optimal communications. I do not know how you write or what you write outside of these blogs and fstdt posts, so I will go over what I feel to be important. Make sure that even an idiot can understand what you mean. Another thing you should focus on is the doctrine of 'less is more'. If you can describe something with one sentence as opposed to five sentences, then go for the one sentence. Another thing I would like to mention is that it is always good to establish place and character. In other words, you could thoroughly describe the characters/people and also the important places that they occur in. I know there are a bunch of authors who rely on a lot of telling detail to get the reader in the mood for the story.
3.) I heard the free concept at a marketing conference, from a guy who works for a well established national advertisement and marketing company. He said the free concept is quite effective to get people in the door. Another thing he said in order to get money from someone, you have to 1. Get the person in the door. 2. Interest the prospective customer with something you sell. 3. Convince the prospective customer that what you are selling is a good deal.
Now, you might come back at me and say that you are part of a non-profit organization, in which the things I have said do not apply. I would disagree with such a sentiment. It's important to think about who usually provides funds for non-profit orgs and then try to appeal to them. You could still first grab their attention, have the prospective dontater become interested in what the organization does and what it offers to do with the money, and finally convince them that the funds that they donate make a difference in forwarding cause A or cause B.
When I mentioned 'free', I really meant that the prospective donater could recieve a nominal free gift upon donating x amount of dollars, and a bigger gift for donating even more money. It is also important to make the word 'FREE' prominent at the organizations website, brochure or newsletter. You could even provide a 'free' small gift just for walking into the headquarters, something that could even cost you as little as a couple bucks each.
There would not be any dishonesty among any of the tactics I proposed.
mad dog: the thing about other nonprofits, is that they're not really donors. We're not asking them for money, we're asking them to house some of our things in their space, to let our tutors and students use their space for free, and to help us recruit tutors from the population base in their areas. That's basically just extra work for them. But it would help us grow. We have no t-shirts to give them and no budget for buying t-shirts. It's just basically one organization asking for an IOU from another organization. We just seem to pay out more than we get in...
first of all, happy birthday! i hope it was beautiful and that you found at least a moment of zen time.
on the support group thing, i really like what you pointed out about the fact that a support group tending to take on the personality of their leader. i think that is very true. however, that can mean that you determine that you will not give the impression of having all the answers! i understand not wanting to lead it, however, you do have a lot of insight that would undoubtedly be useful as leading topics, especially in the beginning. my experience is that people won't see you thinking you are the expert unless you act like the expert. you can start out acting as the facilitator, appoint a secretary and any other posts that fit. groups do need a leader to at least keep folks on track, but you can lead lightly. most people are happy to have structure and relieved to have someone else provide it. i personally think you are so articulate and broad thinking about things that you would be a wonderful facilitator for an ex-JW support group! i imagine there really is a need for this.
just wondering about something. on this cross country road trip which i am deep into at this point, i have come across more jw churches than i ever knew existed. (of course i think of you now every time!) i have seen most of them at the edges of small towns. is this a product of my particular trip or is this typically where you find them more often?
How is the ex-JW club going? I sent one your way to look at your site.
mad dog: Who'd you send? war wizard or sbrady? Thanks for either of them--your pal may just be a lurker for now and that's OK too. We have a meetup scheduled for Sept. 9--I revised it from Sept. 2nd when my stupid butt scheduled the event on a holiday weekend. So far so good! Thanks for asking.
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