My apologies. It has been more than a week since I wrote last, and that is just unacceptable. The good wife that I am, I blame Mike. He came to visit this past weekend, ok from Wednesday until Monday, so I did not blog. A very good reason I think!!
In contemplating what to write about today, I have decided to answer the question - What do you do? To be fair, I'm not sure I can answer that question, and certainly not within a reasonable length of time here (I have been told I write too much, so I'll try to prevent that moving forward! Maybe! LOL!). So what I will do is highlight some of the things that have filled my day over the past few weeks. Some might take a few minutes, some several hours, none of them could happen without the great people around me!! But all keep me very, very busy, very, very happy and ensures my day is never predictable!
Meetings
- Board meetings to set direction, get approvals, ensure we are operating as we should be
- Committee meetings to come up with great ideas, seek advice, plan, identify more work for us and get help doing the work by volunteers
- Weekly team meetings for information sharing and planning
- Partnership development meetings- meet with local tour operators to partner on marketing, events, to create new products/things for people to do; meet with local artists to partner on carving antlers; meet with the Department of Education to plan school programs (and funding) for the coming year; show film scouts around the Preserve in hopes they'll pick us one day for a movie
"Business"
- Negotiate our agreement with the Department of the Environment for an 8km fencing project, to negotiate a 3-year funding agreement, to negotiate a long-term management agreement (the Territory owns the land and animals, our non-profit runs the business and needs some ownership guarantees if we raise money and build buildings....) and to confirm if we are insured to drive their vehicles or not (that was an interesting day!)
- Write requests for proposals for building said 8 km fence
- Budget - make sure we have enough cash flow to pay people, and that projects start within a time frame we can pay the bills, figure out how we're going to raise enough money to be less reliant on government, approve expenditures, decide if a vehicle is worth fixing or not
- Pick up cheques, get them signed, pay bills, code and drop off invoices
- Ensure our policies are up-to-date, legal and enforce
- Hire summer staff and ensure everyone is trained, insured and feeling welcome!
- Making decisions regarding the use of animals who have passed away, for example providing a muskox skeleton to the Heritage Branch for comparison with historic breeds or using a sheep's skull and horns for education programming
External Relations
- Events - plan a dinner for 125, an open house for 1000, a staff bonding event, a special event for Earth Day and Mother's Day, a presentation for a biodiversity conference and fun activities to bring more local families to the Preserve
- Write press releases, pitch stories to local media, write and place ads, develop new tourism materials, re-write our membership materials
- Meet every person I can in Whitehorse and surrounding area, especially board members and volunteers of the Preserve
Fundraising
- figure out how we're going to raise money and for what!
- submit proposal, submit application, submit proposal, submit application, repeat
Professional Development
- Learn about: human rights, wildlife viewing, biodiversity, tourism development, institutional benchmarking
- In the future: first aid, driving a passenger bus, firearms
Shopping
- buy boardroom tables
- buy office supplies
- buy baskets and wrapping for auction items, gifts
- buy frozen mice to feed the owl being rehabilitated (available in a ziploc, approximately $3 each - who knew!)
- shop for the best cell phone plan
Oh, and watch the muskox and stone sheep play!!
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