A Busy Body

I'm busy alright. Now to make some of it pay off! Here's what I'm involved in, which is partly due to the fact I am unemployed.
I belong to 4 committees or boards. One is the Langley Library Board. That's a quarterly meeting, mostly responsible for the building which the city owns. Not a tough row to hoe being on this board. I am also on the South Whidbey Fire/EMS Safety Committee. Another easy row to hoe for the most part, and also quarterly. I do however have more activity with that fire district than the library. During times of unemployment, I put in more duty shifts for example, and as I am at this very moment. The third committee I belong to is the Langley Emergency Planning Committee. We are reviewing and/or establishing the Emergency Plan for the city, which is tougher to do with the budget cuts that have affected many counties and cities over the last several years. The fourth board I belong to is the Board of Directors for the Whidbey Community Federal Credit Union. We are in the process of obtaining the charter and opening the doors for this credit union, which we suspect will happen near the last quarter of 2012. This board meets monthly, and lots of conversations in between. Right now we are studying by-laws so we can set those for the credit union. Then we will move to policies. 

I am also learning new things. I do have one job opportunity as a local reporter, so relative to that I am taking journalism courses from Poynter's NewsU. I do have another part time writing job for the American Blues Scene, and hopefully by extension, the NorthWest Music scene. So in those veins I am studying interviewing and reviews, as well as getting myself used to be in a whole new industry with a new vernacular. I am currently taking FEMA classes through their Emergency Management Institute, out of Emmitsburg, Maryland. And I am dipping into the MIT well of available courses. A lot of this variation has to do with the fact I am getting fairly certain my boss has no plans on bringing me back. My age means I'm not as fast at he twenty year olds. I also don't supply all my own tools like many of them do. So when my boss can get people to work for less, supply all their own tools, get less in benefits than what I was getting, I am no longer viewed as an asset. Never mind my good will and service to the community as a firefighter and EMT and other activities. Never mind the over a half million dollar job I brought in. I am viewed merely as a cost. And it isn't like construction is a hopping industry. Even here on the island, which is fairly high end, I am in a growing community of workless carpenters. So maybe it's time to move into something else.

Last, but by no means least, I am investigating what it takes to run a nonprofit corporation. There is an opportunity to take something developed here on Whidbey Island, and make it a national service organization. So if it all works out, meaning we promote and build it locally first, and research supports expanding the idea, and we get the incorporation, then i will become the national director of this organization, which will become my paying job.

The real issue I am running into is generating an income flow, managing all these other activities, and still getting my drum lessons and practice time in. Seems like it's time to create a rather full calendar.