Balance and moderation have always been difficult for me (Mark). If a couple of cups of coffee in the morning give me good energy to start the day, why stop? How about four cups, or six, or eight? If a $100 contribution to a charity is good, maybe I should give them $250 or even $500. When I was Director of the Science Center, I used to get to work at 8:00. After I arrived, I would think to myself, “Maybe it would be better if I arrived at 7:30…or 7 am. When I left at 5:30pm each day, I would say (you guessed it), “Maybe I should be staying until 6 PM.”
This tendency toward extremes persists. Today I did my 4 mile run in 34 minutes, an average of 8:30 per mile. Instead of being happy with the time (oh, sure, it was pretty good), my immediate thought was “Wouldn’t it be great to be able to run that distance in only 32 minutes?” (Now THAT would be fast!)
My latest “addiction” (besides trying to run faster) is the FVM fundraising effort. Those of you who are regular readers know that a couple of months ago, I was “appointed” by Father Michael to the Franciscan Volunteer Ministry (FVM) Advisory Board. Our purpose is fundraising: the FVM program is 21 years old and, until this year, was entirely supported by the Eastern Province of Franciscan Friars. Unfortunately with the economic downturn, the Province has had to cut back its support, and so the FVM program must raise about one-third of its budget in order to keep going.
At the Associate Board’s first couple of meetings, the members brainstormed various steps that we needed to take. My piece of the pie was to design and deliver a fundraising “retreat” for the FVM’s professional staff (two people strong) and for current and past FVMs. With help of Katie Sullivan (the FVM’s Program Director), we set up a half-day FVM “Survive and Thrive” day for Saturday, April 10th. About a month ahead of time, I began work on the agenda. It would include an overview of the FVM program, a PowerPoint on fundraising techniques, some role playing and practice, and (most important) time for us to identify specific people and groups to which we could apply for funds. I spent several evenings working on the program. Invitations (actually e-vites on the internet) were sent to the 12 current FVMs and to 164 alums, and by the end of March, we had 17 positive responses.
As April 10th approached, I began to feel nervous. I know that I am a good speaker and an enthusiastic presenter, and, as insurance, I had also enlisted the aid of one of the other Associate Bd. members (Lori Springer, a bright, young, energetic Director of Development) to counterbalance my “grandfather” image. However, this is the FIRST TIME in the FVM program’s history that we would be actually asking for money. This represented a huge change in philosophy. Many times, Father Michael, the originator of the program, told me how much he hates the thought of fundraising, so much so, that he NEVER asks for money. In reviewing my meetings with some of the current and former FVMs, I realized that these young people are very strong on the relationship, spiritual, and affective side of life and (apparently, at least to my eyes), a little short on the aggressive, sales end of things. I thought to myself: “What in the world have I gotten myself into?”
Three nights before the retreat, I woke up in the middle of the night worrying. I couldn’t get back to sleep despite praying. The next night, at 3 am, my eyes flew wide open. I saw a huge flaw in the plans I had developed for the role playing. Immediately, I went down to the computer and for an hour, refined the plan. At 4 am, exhausted, I fell back to sleep.
The next morning, when I confided to Thea that I could not sleep, she was supportive but firm. “Mark, this is crazy. Who are you doing this for – God, or MARK?” Great question. When I spoke to Katie about my case of “nerves”, she calmly said “Just let the Spirit work, and things will be fine.” Good advice and I decided to do just that. Friday night before the retreat, I slept like a baby, and the retreat itself went like a dream. Sixteen of the seventeen rsvp’s actually showed up. The PowerPoint presentation went fantastic; the role playing and practice presentations were much better than I had any right to expect; and Lori Springer turned out to be a real pro, very inspirational. During one of our practice presentations, a member of the audience jumped up and went up to the speaker and said, “You were terrific, I am giving the first $20,” and handed her a donation for the program. Everyone cheered.
I arrived home tired, excited, and (unfortunately) unchanged. Immediately, I began to think about collating the evaluations to see how Lori and I (mainly “I”!) had done. Thea, who had been working at the Inn all day, was not amused. In fact, she was downright irritated that I did not want to spend what remained of the day with her. Chastened, I agreed to walk to the store and share how the retreat had gone. Later that evening, we watched a CD. BUT, the next day (Sunday) after Mass, I again sat down to collate the evaluations. Again, Thea rebelled: “Mark, I am really tired of you taking our free time together to do work. This is supposed to be an extra, fun thing for you to do. You are making it into a full time job!” Bingo. Again I put the evaluations aside. Thea and I went for another walk in the neighborhood and came home and watched the Masters. We both cried when Phil Mickelson won and embraced his ill wife (she has breast cancer) on the 18th green. That evening as I got ready for bed, I reflected on the day. I realized that instead of getting angry at Thea for not letting me look at the evaluations, I should have thanked her for wanting to spend time with me. It’s a real blessing after 36 years of marriage to have a wife that actually WANTS to spend leisure time with her husband.
So, this morning, finally, I got to review the evaluations from the fundraising retreat. They were excellent with many positive comments. There was only one mildly negative comment suggesting that the PowerPoint presentation could have been shorter and that we might have been better served to have more brainstorming from the group. I was elated at the feedback: many of the participants are enthusiastic about raising funds for the program and are planning to make and solicit donations. We now need to work to make sure that everyone follows through.
As I sit here reviewing this blog, I am amused by my behavior. In planning for the fundraising day, I thought that everything depended upon me. Of course, it did not. I thought that I was doing everything by myself. Obviously untrue. And I still believed that I should be perfect …ridiculous. I need to take Thea and Katie’s advice and “Let the Spirit work!” …Of course, it goes without saying that I also think that the one person was wrong: we didn’t need more brainstorming …
Just kidding!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment