Working to do good to the country for less!

As an NGO, we ask/beg/plead all the time. The professionalism is coming in but the money is still scarce. And when there is money, capacity building and such admin/organizational stuff is still not where we can spend at today's rates.

The Dream A Dream retreat is a residential three day event....it will cost us more than we expected. And we expect to pay as close to zero as possible.

Same with a voluntary organization that I work with - an event that is super necessary for parents (Will writing), if unglamourous, is being organized. The real tough thought in this for me is not 'oh-my-god-what-to-do-for-the-kids-if-we-both-die' but 'oh-my-god-where-can-we-find-a-cheap-location-in-Bangalore-for-the-event'! The past couple of events had to be cancelled because we could not get enough numbers to make the costs feasible. So now, we are going for broke....well, we are broke! The event needs to be organized in a freeish hall in the center of town, with parking. Speakers are not paid....they are 'volunteers', with some arms twisted in unfeasible angles....man, will a day come when the VO can organize an event in line with the reason for its existence and not worry about numbers in an existential way?!

Real estate costs and inflation/cost of commodities has made it next to impossible to manage it. Especially organizations that collected low life membership fees 10 years ago!

The retreat is a bit stressful....lots of talk and planning, lots of ramp up required ( I am sure that will be the case), some team building exercises that will put us out there....and two nights away from home. My second time after the two-nighter for the Mumbai Marathon....ever. After this, I would have spent 5 nights away from the kids in almost 6 years. Not bad or not good? Can't tell.

G'night!