Now, about my meetings and interviews weekend in Seattle -
What a whirlwind of activity - omma so tired! This 'working' thing is exhausting - it would take a bit of doing to get back to the ol' grind, I tell ya!
I asked very pointed questions, and got some answers - the org is massively in debt, has a serious cash flow problem (example - the$30K or so they netted from the auction on Saturday night is earmarked for the Nov/Dec payroll... and that's without factoring in the 1000 hours of staff time it required. By my reckoning, that's 1000 x maybe $15 an hour average - or $15K they are not counting in the event cost... oy, vey!).
A budget of $2 million with major accounting flaws, and no CFO... an operations manager who feels the need to micromanage the 1200 volunteers (hundreds of whom have volunteered at their festival positions for at least a decade...), because 'volunteers can't be trusted to get it right.' Three newer YOUNG staff people who are pissed that they have to make room in the program for all this boring geezer stuff, like folk music and ethnic dance and all this traditional shit, when there's so much cool rap and grunge and experimental rock going on in kids' garages...(apparently, they can't spell "Folklife"...)
Geezer bluegrass players shaking their fists and mad as hell, because the Youngsters have moved them off of Bluegrass Hill after 35 years, to make room for highly amplified, pierced and tattooed screaming-obscenity rock - at the Northwest's oldest families-with-grandparents-and-little=kids event...
Add to that all the grandiose activities - unrelated to the mission statement - they have undertaken to fulfill in the past several years, year-round entrepreneurial performance fiascos (inspired by being situated too close to the actual professional performance org's at Seattle Center), and a phobic reluctance on the part of the Board to fundraise - and VOILA! Whoever takes over in January certainly has his (her?) work cut out!!! hahahahahahahaaaaa!!
Well, there are four finalists for the gig - and I'm one of them... and after telling them my ideas about sitting down and reading the mission statement together, cutting all the fat, focussing effort and dollars to producing the Northwest Folklife Festival, slapping a tourniquet on the dollar hemorrhage, creating an actual dollar amount expected from each board member (raised or contributed...), and getting back to a volunteer-run org - which worked great for 30 years - and and and... maybe I'm still in the race. I'm fine with it, either way. Nice to get that swell salary, nice to be retired. Hahahahahahahahaaaa!!!!!
