Thank God for Pancakes, Cookies and Lent

I’ve haven’t understood the reasoning behind loading up on “good” things before giving them up; I guess I am kind of vanilla that way.

That said, I will be enjoying the cleaning of the cabinets as I attend the annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner tonight at church as well as the cookies and paczki (new for me) that some of our generous staff have brought in for our impromptu carry-in lunch. Living up to the Fat Tuesday theme.

Preparations for the Lenten season take on many different facets. For me this year, it was a whole new venture. Fortunately I am not alone.

This year – I think it started as a dare – several on our CCA Staff are putting our money where our mouth is, leading by example and any other cliché you may want to add as we adopt the budgeting concept that our Spring Valley Participants have to adhere to.

In a nutshell, during their weekly case manager meetings, participants must account for every penny of income and expenses with receipts, stubs and whatever else it takes to balance. For a couple of years now, I have said that I should put myself through the program, but I couldn’t imagine actually doing it.

No need to imagine now…

I began preparing for the program a couple weekends ago. Initially, I thought I was in pretty good shape after reviewing my monthly income and expenses. Then I read a bit more – I have been consulting Dave Ramsey’s materials (www.daveramsey.com) – and realized I needed to account for irregular and annual expenses. That would mean I would have to earmark and save money to be spent at a later time so it wouldn’t disrupt my budget at that time. Ramsey says that if you don’t allocate every dollar at the beginning of the month, you can’t accurately track it when it’s gone.

That may not be new to you – and really the concept isn’t new to me – but the putting into practice thing sure shines the bright light of reality into dark corners of what I pretended to be reality.

Thankfully, there are several of us going through this together so we can keep each other on track and focused on the big prize, which for me is multi-fold:

• Make solid progress into debt reduction
• Provide a better example for my children
• Give me the freedom to do more to help my church and others in the community

The Bible is clear about serving two masters – you can’t. Personally, I know that I have spent a lot of lost time worrying about finances; how to ends were going to meet and what the financial future holds for me and my family. This Lenten season, I am giving up something that has been running my life, whether I was cognitive of it or not. I know long beyond this 40-day (plus Sundays) journey, the planned, diligent process of managing money will put me in a better place.

I hope you will join us. Follow our progress via our website and this blog. We invite you to share your comments and progress too.

The Problem with/Plus of ADD or ADHDHVAC and Launching the Blog

I’ve never been tested for ADD (et al, – in fact I joke about the fact I can’t stay focused long enough to figure out what ADD, ADHD…I could sure use a snack, I wonder what’s on TV…what was I saying), but I sure feel blessed and cursed by what I understand the ailment to be. Coupled with constant, multi-tracked streams of thought rattling through my brain, it’s no wonder I oft converse out loud with myself. A short career in radio supported that "conversing with myself" thing.

The litany of ideas that come and go is sometimes frustrating because there are things that I leave undone or forgotten. Sometimes I am running (mentally, though I wish I could actually literally run to be in better shape) forward so fast, there are (some) good ideas left in the wake.

Like Billy Blazejowski in the movie "Night Shift" - "Wanna know why I carry this tape recorder? To tape things. See, I'm an idea man, Chuck. I got ideas coming at me all day... I couldn't even fight 'em off if I wanted. Wait a second... hold the phone! Hold the phone! ...(snip) What if you mix the mayonnaise in the can, WITH the tuna fish? Or... hold it! Chuck! I got it! Take LIVE tuna fish, and FEED 'em mayonnaise! Oh this is great. [speaks into tape recorder] Call Starkist!

I have always been this way. In all honesty, for the longest time, I didn't realize everyone wasn't mentally pinged like Billy and me all the time.

My hope for this blog is to capture some ideas, give a forum for some feedback, and provide an opportunity to revisit, enhance and activate a few when appropriate.

I am passionate about improving our non-profit community’s efficiency – administratively and in service distribution – and effectively reaching more people in need with a higher percentage of our budget.

For years, the for-profit sector has been trimming, redesigning and attempting to increase the productivity-level per dollar invested. At some point – I have believed since I entered the community non-profit world – that they (those people/businesses we are all asking for support) were going to turn to us and ask how we are improving efficiencies and tightening up our own operations. At some point, we are going to have to provide an accounting, in real numbers of their return on investment.

The current model of fragmented, independently operating non-profits is neither efficient nor effective in delivering services to our clients. We don’t communicate about who each of us is serving with what; we all keep separate databases of needs and information. We, each agency, spend the same amount of time collecting the same information from each person that seeks help.

The world is changing and we have the opportunity to lead the change instead of waiting to have it dictated to us. We have an obligation be good stewards of funds invested in our agencies by our community to serve our community.

I am excited about some of the partnerships that we are starting to develop in order to stream-line our efforts and improve services to our clients. Even more exciting are the ideas we will continue to develop as we talk and learn more about each other and how we can help each agency be the best it can be.

Please share your thoughts, tear apart mine, give your suggestions – get involved. We have a rapidly growing population in need and we need everyone’s time, talents and support to try to help them, which in turn will help our community.