America, January 23, 2006
Getting What You Ask For
A promotion, a raise, and a mission!
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Back almost a year and a half ago now, when I took over Geekcorps, it was a mess. Having been yanked from Western Massachusetts to Washington DC over the protest and eventual resignation of all the original staff, I was handed a few CD's of data and told to resurrect Geekcorps from the dead.
The next six months I worked crazy hours getting what essentially is a small business back on its feet, managing to win a grant that doubled our budget in the process. By last summer, with two sizable and three small programs in the field, all running smoothly, I finally started to get out of crisis mode and start looking at strategy. What should Geekcorps be looking at three, five, ten years down the road instead of ten days or weeks. At the same time, and as part of that process, I started to get heavily involved in program development, the process international development nonprofits go through to find new grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts from large donors and funders. By the fall, this was paying off with a nice multi-million dollar, multi-year program in Lebanon - why I was tossed on a plane to Beirut at a moment's notice. While in Lebanon, in between Beer Pong research, I talked with my boss about Geekcorps future and what mix we might need to take it to the next level. I was stressing the need to be selling it to donors and funders 24/7 - we now proved our execution in multiple technologies and areas but few knew, and fewer were funding. Seems he was listening as he gave me what I wanted, a Geekcorps Director focused on bringing in more, larger programs. Guess who that Director might be? Yep, yours truly - the new Director, Geekcorps Division, International Executive Service Corps. Along with the fancy title and nice raise was a pat on the back, a point in the right direction, and just enough a hint to make it clear: bring home the bacon baby! Now's the hard part, backing up my yapping with solid, sizable programs - we're talking multi-million dollar, multi-year programs. Programs that are few, infrequent, and fiercely fought over. I love it when I get what I ask for. |
