Author: Melissa

On Tuesday this week I drove into Brisbane for a one-day grantseekers workshop organised through work. The slow drive each way in peak hour traffic was an ordeal, but was more than compensated by the knowledge gained from the workshop. It was a good complement to the one-day course attended late last year, and has spurred me to implement a grantseekers program at work.

Most of the work in grantseeking involves finding grants that are available and suitable for our organisation. A lot of grants will only fund a particular purpose or need. Very few will fund core operational costs of an organisation, they are usually project oriented. About the only thing grants all have in common is a requirement to demonstrate benefit to the community.

I shall be doing regular bouts of research, then posting lists of upcoming grants around the workplace. The idea is for everyone to help identify projects and opportunities in their particular area where we might apply for a relevant funding grant. I will then assist with the preparation of our submission, foster our relationship with the grantmaker and get things moving along.

Since mentioning this new program to a couple of my colleagues I have already learned of a couple of areas where grant funding would be ideal. It is quite exciting to envisage this approach helping with the development of various new programs and creatively finding ways to offset some of the costs with running the organisation.

My friend Lee-Ann won a couple of free tickets to the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art and very kindly invited me along. We were very lucky, the tickets didn’t cover the evening’s music event – but we took a chance, played dumb and were allowed through. Was great, Glenn A Baker was there, gave a presentation on Warhol’s influence on music (primarily through his backing/management of the band, Velvet Underground).

Warhol’s art and concepts were interesting – his originality is astounding; he seems to have had the ego to match – example Velvet Underground promotional posters had Warhol’s name plastered all over them, often in larger letters than the name of the band.

Warhol was fascinated with glamour and fame so celebrities were often the subject of his works of art (example the famous Marilyn Monroe prints). Saw a video of Warhol from 1981, he was doing a glam shoot of himself in drag! The resultant photos looked quite spectacular but in the video he did not come over as very appealing, a bit of a fuss-pot who wanted his eyebrows painted on just SO (well I guess he was the artist, not the make-up guy). He was also into social commentary – the Campbell’s Soups cans, mass production and marketing.

The evening was good for people watching too, interesting to hear some of the reactions – mainly in the realm of “he was weird!”. A diverse mix in the crowd, pretty young things, older people, family groups.

A couple of surprising things I discovered about Warhol, he collected children’s toys – creating an exhibition especially for kids, and he was a practicing Catholic who went to church almost daily. He was quite a private man and much of his private life (eg. sexuality) is speculation. He died in 1987, my final year at highschool.

Morning taken up with the work function; afterwards I made my way the short distance to Nan’s place for her birthday lunch. She is looking wonderful but I think we wore her out. Matter of fact I feel quite worn out too!

Jo and I gave Nan a joint gift, chosen out by Mum actually so we didn’t really have to do much – all I had to do was wrap it! Nice pink dressing gown and matching slippers.

The Hospice ran a special team building day this morning, a joint effort of staff and management to consider various organisational issues. We looked at five areas – Human Resource Management, Volunteers, Finances, Self-Care and Workplace Behaviour. I sat on the Volunteers table and narrowly avoided having to make the group presentation at the end – not sure why it was delegated to me, but convinced one of the managers to do it.

Was good but a little overwhelming – covered a lot of ground in a short space of time. Some very good points raised – among them a “gap review” of various roles in the organisation with a view to modifying or creating new roles. The organisation has undergone a lot of changes and this review would be well overdue. This one came up on the HRM table.

On the Volunteer table we looked at three main issues – recruitment, retention and increasing the volunteer co-ordinator position from a part-time to full-time role. Fairly predictable but a couple of good new ideas came up in our discussions.

The table I should have been on I suppose, was finance. I felt Gayle would have liked me to be there, oh well! They were looking at lobbying for government funding, seeking sponsorship for other areas of the organisation and looking at increasing our private health funding somehow (getting registered as an acute health service provider – gets the higher rates).

The other two tables were also quite interesting – Self-Care, all about dealing with the stress of the job, putting mechanisms in place to deal with that. Workplace behaviour covered confidentiality and ambassadorship.

Was a lot to cover in four hours – apparently all our suggestions will be taken up at a special executive meeting to be hashed out. Hopefully we’ll see some good changes happening.

Former PM Paul Keating told an ABC reporter “This is a day of open hearts”.

A friend on Facebook wrote – “Johnny Howard was a coward – GO RUDD!”

The historic apology read out at parliament today by PM Kevin Rudd was well supported and generally well received. The consensus seems to be that it marks a genuine new starting point from which aboriginal reconciliation can at last move forward.

Read more on smh.com.au.

“Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our national history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.”

– The “Sorry” speech by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd