It’s a short week in the office thanks to my trip to Buffalo this Thursday and Friday. My priority is to prepare my introduction to historian Alan Taylor tomorrow night before a public audience of, we hope, around 400. His lecture on the War of 1812 in the Niagara Valley will be the keynote to this year’s Conference on New York State History, of which our Council is a funding partner.
On the strength of our ability to fund and put on programs in local communities marking the Bicentennial of the War of 1812, we won the reinstatement of our state funding this year after two very trying years without it. This Conference is a great opportunity to work with historians, students and educators on humanities-based commemorative programs and other subjects important to state history.
I take a break to return a journalist’s call about about some of the issues surrounding the War of 1812 Commemoration, such as diplomacy and commerce with Canada, the local economies of Sacketts Harbor and Ogdensburg, which have been looking forward to extra tourism to the forts and other sites of historic interest. His deadline is this weekend because Monday is the anniversary of the War’s start.
In the afternoon one of my Buffalo board members and I put together a lunch invitation for Friday, hoping to spend some time while I’m there with a very promising candidate for the board, and some “new to me” members of Buffalo’s philanthropic and cultural scene. This particular board member is very generous with his connections–rather like the rare friend who actually likes it if you become friends with his other friends.
My colleagues also check in as fast as they can–I am literally fleeing out the door at the end of the day–about projects they’ll be doing while I’m gone, a plan to get my edits to a grants press release, and the few last logistical details about the trip. Whew!
It’s been a busy five days and the kind of schedule that is getting to be more common around here as our organization and work rises in profile here in New York State. I tried to choose days and describe tasks that would give a sense of how non-profit leadership jobs can fulfill the charge of CORP 101, too, that is: showing a wide variety of entrepreneurial activities, partnerships, answering to a board, public speaking and management. It has been fun, thank you!
Questions? Share your thoughts!