Ugh.

Okay. That was a week from Hell. Seventh Level I think.

Among my other JackofallTrades skills, I'm also the president on the board of directors for Priarie Fire magazine. Our AGM was Wednesday night, and since we have not had a business meeting since January (the one in Feb had to be cancelled), we also had a "short" business meeting AFTER the AGM. Needless to say, Wednesday was a long day for me - in at 8am, out at 8:30pm. Bleh.

And then yesterday (Thursday for those at home keeping track), again another 12 hour day. Finished selling some advertising for the MWPA (yes, I do too much, as Chandra Mayor chided me on Wednesday), did some number crunching for our Ondaatje event for May 9, had a meeting, then met with the auditor for 3.5 hours. And also found out some "lovely" news.

The raffle which we (the Writers Festival) had been preparing for, which we were going to start selling in a week's time, can't go ahead. Even though we planned on making less than $4000, we still need a license!!! And this is mostly my fault because I had done the initial research in January, searching the manitoba gaming commissions website for 2.5 hours. What I found led me to believe that we only needed a licencse if we were anticipating net revenues of over $5000. Little did I know there was ANOTHER form for "community" raffles under $5000. And now we have to apply and wait a minimum of 3 weeks to get a license #.

Needless to say, I found this out in the middle of the audit. So the rest of the audit was kinda dreamlike. After he left I felt so sick that I thought I was either going to cry or vomit or both. I sat and brooded and refused to go home. Then I spent the next four hours getting everything ready for the application for next week, and examining a website for grants and foundations which I had planned on doing anyways, but this was as good excuse as any to make time now. I finally managed to make myself leave near 8:30pm or so. After some mindless tv and gorging on snacks and talking it out with Tanya, I felt a bit better, not so guilty. I know it isn't 100% my fault (heck, we don't even have all the prizes accounted for, and you need to list them on the application), and technically the raffle isn't even my responsibility - it's the board's (the Writers Festival). But I did some of the initial research on my own, and gave false info and for that I feel miserable.

My consolation is that we can still save this raffle - instead of having Ondaatje draw the winning ticket at our May 9 event (which was our plan) we can have the event as the raffle "kick off." Start selling tickets there. With luck, we'll have 300 people there, and we can sell 300 of our 450 tickets. That would be a great way to start. And then have the draw near the end of May or June to give us plenty of time to sell the rest of the tickets.

Also, we haven't printed any tickets yet, we don't have all the prizes, and we haven't even advertised this raffle, all of which make me feel a little better. But guilt is so very powerful sometimes, especially when you are seen as reliable and responsible. Ugh.

Okay. Ugly post, but I needed to say it. Apolgies for the angst.

Needless to say, Full Burn has been postponed yet again. My hopes is that next week will slow down quite a bit (although April is going to be busy all through).

And after all this, I still love my job. Heh. Weird.

Okay, off to play board games for the afternoon, and off to see an MTC play in the evening. I was assured by a reliable source that it was very good. The best in years, in fact. I'll let you know.

Later.