I’m surrounded by clothes that need to be put away, jerseys that need to be put on Ebay and books that need to be read but it’s been a while, I was just feelings guilty about not keeping up my blog.
And I have news!
My agency finally got a grant! Wooooo!
It’s not a research grant, I would be busting out cap lock for that. It’s a program grant but there is an evaluation piece in it that I would be responsible for. I hope this gets me a raise, too.
I probably bitched about this grant months ago. It was all last minute like things usually are at my agency. We rushed around the day before it was due to complete everything. I don’t even think I proofread all of it. My boss drove to the only Fed-Ex location (other than O’Hare) in the area open until 9:30pm.
Right now we are working with a university on a proposal for a research grant. I hope this process teaches us how to work smarter not faster. We have mini due dates before the actual due date of the proposal. We have clearly defined roles as to who writes what section and everyone is aware of their role. We have email and conference call check ins to see how everyone is doing.
Ideally, this process will give my boss the backbone to come back to the agency and demand more of our coworkers next time the agency writes a proposal. We’re a busy agency and use our busy-ness as an excuse as to why we can’t get anything done. It’s long overdue to see these competitive grants as a necessary part of daily tasks and not an addition. We are not going to survive on the funding we have now.
So I guess I should get back to writing my part of the research grant.