The Weekend
Saturday, January 7 – Sunday, January 8, 2006
I held a long team meeting on Saturday – a mini version of the summit. We went through the Game Plan and the Playbook. The approach is to divide the issues up into five topical areas: Housing and Community Design, Economic Development, Transportation and Infrastructure, Human Services and Environment. To fully evaluate each of these areas we will need the assistance of all members of the team including the two National Guardsmen and the Administrative Assistant. I assigned the Housing and Economic Development areas to our planner Chris, Transportation and Infrastructure to our engineer Cliff, Environment to one of the National Guardsmen Terry and I split Human Services in two with the other National Guardsmen Garrick dealing with Public Health and Safety and the Administrative Assistant Pam with Education and Family Services.
We agree to a basic schedule for the Storefront Hours (Monday – Friday 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Saturday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Sunday Noon to 4:00 PM) and the minimum hours each person will work. The three outside professionals will work at least all of the hours Monday through Saturday and then rotate Sunday afternoons (we are authorized to work up to 70 hours without additional approval). The National Guardsmen and Administrative Assistant will work approximately 40 hours per week – I ask them to establish there own schedule with the only constraint being that at least one of the three of them be in the Storefront whenever it is open. We establish a regular Friday Staff meeting and I ask that everyone try not to schedule meetings between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM so we can have as needed staff meetings just before or after lunch.
We also created a January/February calendar. On it we write the dates of meetings with City Councils, organizations, etc. We also write the tentative dates for the major milestones on post it notes and attach them to the calendar. The Grand Opening of the Storefront will be next Saturday, the first Advisory Council meeting the following Thursday night and the Louisiana Planning Day Open house will be the following Saturday. A busy two weeks and we are ready to hit the ground running on Monday. Since the Storefront is not officially open and given the work a head of us I tell everyone to take Sunday off.
Sunday morning I slept in a bit late. I headed out mid-morning to use the golf gift certificate my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas. It is $65 for unlimited play and I hope to get 36 holes in. I don’t play enough to be at all good, but I enjoy getting outside and getting some exercise. As I head for the car the cell phone rings. It is my wife and she is upset. Given the poor cell phone connection, I tell her to call the room number and head back in.
It has snowed and it is supposed to snow some more. She has spent a lot of time trying to get fully on top of our expenses that has resulted in other things not getting done. She is unhappy about the bank fees and interest we ended up paying while waiting for the payment from my work in London. I have been gone less than a week and she is already feeling overwhelmed. We talk for about an hour. I think she feels a touch better but is far from happy.
I head out for the golf course – I need even more to clear my head. This is quite an upscale place for a public course. You pull up to the club unloading point and an attendant takes your clubs out of the trunk and places them on a cart. She then followed me to the parking lot and brought me around to the pro shop. The cart comes equipped with a computerized score card, computerized maps of the holes and a GPS system that lets you know how far from the hole you are. A few holes before the end of the round you can even order lunch and it will be waiting for you. I end up playing with a gentleman from Texas whose wife is busy in the casino. He needs to finish in time to catch the bus that will be leaving at 4:00 PM. Along the way we catch up to another single and become a threesome. He is a local. It is a very nice afternoon and I enjoy the company. They stop after 18 holes while I continue on and play another 9. After a salad in the beautiful clubhouse, I head back to the hotel ready to really get started on this project.
I held a long team meeting on Saturday – a mini version of the summit. We went through the Game Plan and the Playbook. The approach is to divide the issues up into five topical areas: Housing and Community Design, Economic Development, Transportation and Infrastructure, Human Services and Environment. To fully evaluate each of these areas we will need the assistance of all members of the team including the two National Guardsmen and the Administrative Assistant. I assigned the Housing and Economic Development areas to our planner Chris, Transportation and Infrastructure to our engineer Cliff, Environment to one of the National Guardsmen Terry and I split Human Services in two with the other National Guardsmen Garrick dealing with Public Health and Safety and the Administrative Assistant Pam with Education and Family Services.
We agree to a basic schedule for the Storefront Hours (Monday – Friday 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Saturday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Sunday Noon to 4:00 PM) and the minimum hours each person will work. The three outside professionals will work at least all of the hours Monday through Saturday and then rotate Sunday afternoons (we are authorized to work up to 70 hours without additional approval). The National Guardsmen and Administrative Assistant will work approximately 40 hours per week – I ask them to establish there own schedule with the only constraint being that at least one of the three of them be in the Storefront whenever it is open. We establish a regular Friday Staff meeting and I ask that everyone try not to schedule meetings between 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM so we can have as needed staff meetings just before or after lunch.
We also created a January/February calendar. On it we write the dates of meetings with City Councils, organizations, etc. We also write the tentative dates for the major milestones on post it notes and attach them to the calendar. The Grand Opening of the Storefront will be next Saturday, the first Advisory Council meeting the following Thursday night and the Louisiana Planning Day Open house will be the following Saturday. A busy two weeks and we are ready to hit the ground running on Monday. Since the Storefront is not officially open and given the work a head of us I tell everyone to take Sunday off.
Sunday morning I slept in a bit late. I headed out mid-morning to use the golf gift certificate my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas. It is $65 for unlimited play and I hope to get 36 holes in. I don’t play enough to be at all good, but I enjoy getting outside and getting some exercise. As I head for the car the cell phone rings. It is my wife and she is upset. Given the poor cell phone connection, I tell her to call the room number and head back in.
It has snowed and it is supposed to snow some more. She has spent a lot of time trying to get fully on top of our expenses that has resulted in other things not getting done. She is unhappy about the bank fees and interest we ended up paying while waiting for the payment from my work in London. I have been gone less than a week and she is already feeling overwhelmed. We talk for about an hour. I think she feels a touch better but is far from happy.
I head out for the golf course – I need even more to clear my head. This is quite an upscale place for a public course. You pull up to the club unloading point and an attendant takes your clubs out of the trunk and places them on a cart. She then followed me to the parking lot and brought me around to the pro shop. The cart comes equipped with a computerized score card, computerized maps of the holes and a GPS system that lets you know how far from the hole you are. A few holes before the end of the round you can even order lunch and it will be waiting for you. I end up playing with a gentleman from Texas whose wife is busy in the casino. He needs to finish in time to catch the bus that will be leaving at 4:00 PM. Along the way we catch up to another single and become a threesome. He is a local. It is a very nice afternoon and I enjoy the company. They stop after 18 holes while I continue on and play another 9. After a salad in the beautiful clubhouse, I head back to the hotel ready to really get started on this project.
posted by J Corlss at 8:13 PM
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