*Whew!*

Tucson Girls Chorus Auditions for May are over! Until August :-)

Wow! I basically feel like I've been in deadline crush mode since (well, really since I started...) two weeks after I started. The red tape in order to pass out Audition Flyers to schools (rolling of the eyes) -- fax the flyer w/ a form - the flyer has to have a disclaimer from most districts - fax it back approved. Districts have ways in which they want to received the flyers -- bundles of 20, for example. Tucson's largest school district is TUSD and they have over 8,000 elementary children -- I forget how many middle school... And we had 3 other districts besides that. And only 3 other districts because I knew time was an issue, there are really 7 districts we want to get information to! So I targeted a part of town kinda close to the TGC Music Center and we only sent out 1,500... (to one district) and 1,500 because I had put this flyer thing off for a couple weeks cuz I hadn't realized the magnitude of the job.

So, yesterday were the Auditions -- next time I'll ask to have my parent volunteers there 1/2 hour early -- cuz the two that I asked to be there 1/2 hour early were only 20 minutes early, and I had two girls show up to audition 10 minutes early. And of course I wasn't quite ready -- with all the other stuff I was doing -- printing out the enrollment forms and audition/TGC policy overviews... well, after the first 5 families arrived everyone was there and it was a well-oiled machine.

Our goal was 20 new girls (and some people thought this was overly optimistic, and I'm sure the director herself wasn't thinking we'd get that many...). I believe we have 24 or 25 new girls, plus 4 girls who haven't committed yet... and then there were 10 or so from the week before's "bring a buddy" day.

I love my job. I've never felt this passionate about something AND been given enough responsibility and trust to do things the way I see fit by those whom I answer to. I'm sure my enthusiasm will run its course, and the change of Board members coming at Monday's board meeting I have a bad feeling about... but there are enough 'mindless' kinds of tasks sandwiched between rush deadlines, long and short term projects and they all point to the end goal of enriching young girls' lives and increasing their musical and emotional maturity that I'm not easily bored; there is a lot of potential for growth of the organization and personal satisfaction in being an integral part of helping make it happen. The director makes a huge difference, she's awesome and I need her to stick around for a long long time.

A week ago Saturday was the Concert, and I was right in the middle of program ads for two weeks... the concert was fab, and the front-of-house parents volunteering went really well, too. The past couple of years have been rough for a variety of reasons, so I'm hoping things will continue to stay on track. I have a vested interest in this non-profit organization -- me doing good ensures me good paycheck!!