I’ve worked with a number of great educators, non-profit organizations, and school districts on developing proposals for government grants the past several years. State and federal grants are often very complex, requiring a lot of data and analysis, outside evaluation, and a tremendous amount of detail – all within a very limited number of pages. This can be a really stressful process for applicants, who often find that their good ideas are hard to translate into organized and compelling project designs and proposals.
Here are some tips I share with organizations, grant writers, and educators that can help make the design and development of proposals much more effective and efficient (and less stressful!): ok
Holy smokes! South by Southwest Interactive was an amazing, inspiring, and absolutely exhausting couple of days. I’m so glad I wore comfortable shoes. (For all you future/potential attendees, the most important piece of advice anyone can give you is to wear comfortable shoes. Do it!)
Now that I’ve finally had some time to sleep, finish up client projects that were out in orbit while I was in Austin, and sort through my notes, I’d like to share some highlights of the big adventure…
Festival Time at Fogo de Chao!
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I’m pretty darn excited to be heading to SXSW Interactive with Nokia this year, and I’ve been busy getting all scheduled up with our team of Nokians. Adventures on tap: a couple of great nights in the VIP lounge, panels galore, and even slinging some ice cream with Ice Cream Man. I’ll be posting updates and photos here and via Twitter. See ya soon, Austin!
Last night I was out with some friends at Superfine, one of my favorite restaurants in the whole of Brooklyn, and the jukebox was playing a pretty delightful blend of 80s alternative (remember “alternative?”). I was buzzing along with the conversation and occasionally tuning into the music when all of a sudden I realized the song playing was “Anchorage” by Michelle Shocked.
I had forgotten it existed. Completely. Until last night, I probably hadn’t heard it for a decade-and-a-half. But even though I hadn’t listened to it in ages, I found myself nodding my head and singing along to the chorus:
Hey Chel you know it’s kinda funny
Texas always seems so big
But you know you’re in the largest state in the Union
When you’re anchored down in Anchorage
In the singing along, I not only remembered “Anchorage,” I rediscovered it. This is a song about old friends reconnecting and reflecting. When I first heard this song in 1988, I was a thirteen-year-old dreaming of getting out and beyond (I didn’t know what that meant, exactly, but it meant something big) and an obsessive letter writer. I think could imagine “Anchorage” as a correspondence I would be having one day, when I was all grown up. Could it be I’m all grown up? Well, weirdly, yes.
Rediscovering it, now, feels like a musical hug from the universe.
I took time out to write to my old friend
I walked across that burning bridge
I mailed my letter off to Dallas but her reply came from Anchorage, Alaska
She said, Hey girl it’s about time you wrote
It’s been over two years, my old friend
Take me back to the days of the foreign telegrams
And the all night rock and rolling
Hey Chel we was wild then
I’ve had so many moments of reconnection the past two years, thanks to the internets. I’m no longer surprised when I get a Facebook invite out of the blue from someone I haven’t talked to in a decade. Rather than feel surprised these days, I mostly just think it’s about time you wrote.
And there’s something reflective and shy in all of our reintroductions. We’re almost always laughing at ourselves even as we’re seriously trying to make something of the words we send into each other’s orbits.
Leroy got a better job so we moved
Kevin lost a tooth, he’s started school
I’ve got a brand new eight month old baby girl
I sound like a housewife
Hey Chel, I think I’m a housewife
The bittersweetness of thinking about where we are and where we thought we would be. (Or maybe where we thought everyone else thought we would be?)
Hey girl what’s it like to be in New York?
New York City, imagine that
…
Leroy says send a picture
Leroy says hello
Leroy says keep on rocking, girl
Keep on rocking
(Here I am, in New York City. Did I know that would happen when I was thirteen? Imagine that.)
I came home last night and played the song for E. I dreamed through the chorus, and I’ve been singing it all day.
Keep on rocking, friends.
