I called up the City Manager fully loaded with Margaret Wheatley’s views on chaos theory and the business place with the idea of serendipity in the matrix of the greater mind.

“Peter,” I said, “I have the craziest idea.”
“Sometimes those are the best ones,” he said.

I went on to explain to him how I saw the article and how I never look at that paper. He told me they were re-vamping the position. Changes needed to be made. And I replied that I could see a clear vision that would really connect the growing number of NFP application missions with City goals and at the same time exemplify and define the fund’s purpose. He directed me to Bob Marshall who supervises the position and I sent him my ideas in writing.

We met. I gave him my many ideas briefly. I acknowledged the ones they had previously tossed around, and mixed in new ones.

A city our size with additional growth on the horizon needs a Commission or a Board to over-see the process, I said. This Commission or Board should comprise the brightest and the most passionate in this area. They are the ones with the humanities at heart, and who are blind to their own self-interest but rather seeking the greater good.

***
The cynic, at this point, is cringing… because who on Earth is “blind to their own self interest and seeks the greater good”?!

Shame on you. I am. And you should be too. You are not a shark, no matter how hard you try the best you’ll get is an orange jumper, new friends named Bernard Ebbers and Jeffrey Skilling, and a planet covered in smog and litter.

Read Silent Alarm by our very own John Blumberg. Call Anderson’s to reserve you copy after reading this blog.

***
Two words: Syndication and Synergy. There is power in the positive numbers, my friends…
***

The City wanted to definitely keep the position’s role internal, but I could meet with the panel as an individual.

I prepared for the interview by looking up HUD and the CDBG regulations and Naperville’s history with disbursements. I mentally went over the hours it would take to go through the heaping piles of applications. I thought about the bureaucratic process required to bring a single simple idea to fruition. I thought about how much I would really enjoy talking with the directors of a variety of NFPs applying or seeking application, and how I would enjoy the personal rewards of finding solutions to their issues. And then I thought about the bureaucratic process again. But then I thought about reviewing applications and coming to clear conclusions knowing first hand the response would be honest and fair making the Council’s job so much easier and the meetings shorter. And then I wondered how much politics was really involved.

I didn’t care. I had seen part of the February 13th City Council workshop on the SECA fund disbursements. I watched the dissent. I watched the agreements.

I felt that This was Wonderful. It is a New and Exciting Sport: Who will get what they asked for and Why.

Maybe a fight will break out, I thought, like in one of those Great Canadian Hockey Games!

No such luck.

If I got the job, the first thing I would do would be eliminate the redundancy in the application itself. This department needed help. I had a plan.

But doubt lingered.

I just opened a Cultural Center. I need to raise $100,000 for it. How would I be able to hit the pavement, review the website, coordinate the programs, cut the checks, dust the shelves, rearrange the merchandise, make the flyers, develop the business, have the meetings, and build the relationships if I was buried in paperwork?

I tentatively parked and tiptoed into the Municipal Building. I met Regina. She gave me another form to fill out. It was the one where I allowed the release of all my closet skeletons. I happily signed it and gave it back. Then I waited.

What could they be doing for so long?

Maybe they were talking about my skeletons.

I looked at the flyers amassed upon the table. I looked at the plaques on the wall. I readjusted my skirt several times. And I thought about what I was doing there and the consequences thereof.

I didn’t get the job, needless to say. And I had a party at the end of the week.

The party had nothing to do with the fact I didn’t get the job. No, it was a party for Hinamatsuri: a Japanese Girl’s Day Celebration. We had about 40 participants, maybe more. It was colorful and vibrant and the reason I opened the Center in the first place.

March 4th we will celebrate Baba Marta, the Bulgarian holiday welcoming Spring. I certainly look forward to Spring, and I also look forward to the Welcoming of it.