hatpinvigilante | meine ruh ist hin

My work stress levels are reaching capacity, and I'm not even at work today. A few months ago, I was reaching out to various authors/speakers to inquire about costs, so I could put together a potential budget plan for next year, when one of the agents I emailed responded with an ~immediate opportunity~. [Author Redacted] was going to be speaking in a nearby town in February, and if we had that same weekend open, we could book her for a discount on speaker fee and split the travel! Her speaker fee is ordinarily $10,000 + travel, so it really seemed like something worth doing!

As it turns out, I don't know how to swim...

I'm trying to coordinate with Development to find an outside funder so I don't blow my entire budget on one cool speaker. None of the foundations we've reached out to have responded yet, so I'm just nervously twiddling my fingers.

I'm the liaison for the agents, who are sending me questions I can't answer without CEO approval, but the acting co-CEOs seem to be completely clueless, despite my director assuring me they are behind the event. My director is notoriously bad at this sort of thing (substantive support). Her favorite phrase when I'm having an issue seems to be, "I don't need to know the details," which is....vastly unhelpful.

The A/V in the main speaker room is apparently broken, which no one thought to tell me, and no one is going to fix it, which means I have to either move to a smaller room (which will cut our capacity to offer comp tickets to community centers and our low-income membership level), or I have to find a way to rent an A/V system (which the quote I got was $2,500, so I really don't want to). If we have the smaller room, then I can have a hybrid virtual option, which would increase our capacity beyond the walls of our building (and also provide us with a dope recording!), but I need to know what the co-CEOs and my director want me to do before I can move ahead on the location/virtual option. (They've also floated the idea of having me try to partner with a nearby college to see if we could use one of their spaces, but that defeats the whole point of bringing this speaker to our institution - because no matter how much we put our name on the event, if the event happens at The College, everyone will think it's a College event!)

I need to start marketing this event right away, but I can't market it until I have a location!!

I also want to plan a pre-talk luncheon for either our high school interns or key community partners like the Black Environmental Leaders, but the catering company our garden contracts with hasn't gotten back to me with a pricing document/menu, so I can't think about what nominal fee I might charge (if any) for the opportunity.

I also have to figure out how we're going to get [Author Redacted] from the other city to our location, because apparently she isn't going to be renting a car - and I have a sneaking suspicion that it will mean I have to drive 3 hours round trip to pick her up, and then drive her to the airport afterwards...

Oh, and I totally forgot about all the annoying, petty things I have to do with Retail so that they will order her book for people to purchase leading up to and on the day of the event!!

It's already January 9th. I have less than 2 months to pull this all together, and I feel so alone in the process!

On top of all that, I've got my normal job stuff: patrons asking questions about classes, coordinating all the internal/external instructors, putting classes on the website, creating Zoom meetings for virtual classes, being present to facilitate all classes, ordering supplies, coordinating volunteers, coordinating the Speakers Bureau program, planning and teaching my own classes, coordinating/leading private tour groups, working on the sustainability and accessibility committees, helping with summer camps (unfortunately), assisting with events/exhibits, keep my budget up to date, approve and send invoices, and any other petty thing I get roped into.

And all of this is across two separate campuses. Meaning I have to know the ins and outs of the gardens as well as the arboretum.

The more classes we offer, the greater a burden 75% of my regular duties become, and I don't feel like I have anyone to help me. The person who held this role before me had a seasoned administrative assistant, and three staff members working under her that she could use to coordinate and facilitate classes while she focused on bigger picture things. I feel like I barely have time to breathe!

Anyway, sorry this is so incredibly boring. I guess, to end on a positive note, I'll be going to Pittsburgh in about a month to see Ray Chen play Mendelssohn, and I'm going to stay overnight a few days so I can see my friend, Gretchen, and visit some museums (and do a networking thing at Phipps). It's the first time I'll have left the state since 2021, and Ray Chen's recording of Mendelssohn is one of my favorites. Hopefully that will be just what I need to revive for the final push before the Big Author Talk.

Fingers crossed...