Almostgotit.com

Almostgotit is going to get booted off BlogHer if she doesn’t shape up.  She understands this.

Thing is, how many posts can a person write about her kid getting hit by a car while getting off a school bus?  And how reporters and kid safety organizations suddenly want to make the Almostgotits their poster family for bus safety, and how can the Almostgotits say no when people HAVE to listen to them? 

Because, you know, OUR KID got HIT.  By a CAR.  While GETTING OFF A SCHOOL BUS.

Oh, blogging.  It’s always about obsessing over something, or promoting a book you wrote, or telling your whole boring life story which inevitably involves other people who may not want to get mentioned in your blog even if they deserve it, like the creepy Jason Mosier from Knoxville who stays up all night posting comments about children being hit by cars as they get off school busses and how natural selection should be allowed to take its course…

Not that I would ever mention that.

Anyway, my apologies to all my friends in blogdom who haven’t heard from me in a while… not so much on this blog, but on your own.  Cause I know how much it matters, Being Heard. 

Meanwhile, we’ve started woodstove season.  Pulled out the crockpot for warm, autumnal meals.  Become fascinated with stacking rock walls around new garden beds, and making hypertufa planters for next spring’s garden.  Been trying out a new volunteer gig, so long as the unemployment rate is 10.2% and still rising.  And on that subject, been clearing the air with some new ears about some old business. 

Had a birthday, too: 29 AGAIN!

My 13-yr-old daughter assures me that there’s a strong association between an increasing number of birthdays and longevity, though, so at least there’s that!

Ephesian Artemis: the multi-breasted woman (image:metahistory.org)

Last summer, a friend of mine agreed to do some professional work for the church where she is also a member. At that time, she told the church that she would also need to be paid for that work, and to her best understanding, the church agreed.

Her first check was late, and didn’t come until my friend asked for it. Her second check never came at all.

While last on the premises because of the work she was doing for the church, my friend was confronted in front of several other people by the church’s (salaried) budget director. “What’s this about your needing a check from us?” he demanded. “We don’t have that kind of money!”

My friend was both surprised and embarrassed by this encounter. Later, she was also angry.

So am I.

Why do churches and other non-profits so seldom understand that their business matters still need to be handled in a business-like fashion? Why should professionals be expected to work for free, especially those who have already entered into an agreement that they would be paid? The business manager himself is a full-time, paid employee of the church. Why did he fail to see any irony here, himself?

One wonders at the unexamined assumptions going on here. What additional rights do we all presume nonprofit organizations to have, including the organizations themselves? Is it relevant that my friend is a member of the church (as is the business manager?) Is it relevant that my friend is a woman, or that she used to be married to a fairly wealthy man?

My friend is also a highly-trained professional, is currently a full-time student who must carefully choose her commitments, had already negotiated terms with the church, had already heavily discounted her fee for them, and even had generated income for the church, through her work for them, which was more than adequate to cover her own fees.

What would you do, in her situation?