Pain - of many sorts

So the pain is getting better.  What worked seems to be a combination of acupuncture and massage.  The more traditional medicine has not worked.  I had two painful tests from the regular doctor.  One, the MRI, wasn't too bad.  I kept my eyes closed and went to Cape Cod, particularly P-town and then went to Chelsea in NYC.  It was a nice 45 minute trip.  The only problem was not swallowing for that time.

The swallowing, or lack thereof, was like a pink elephant.  You don't see it (have to swallow) until you hear it ("don't swallow").  I almost made it too!!

The second test was excruciating.  It was an EMG which consists of two parts.  First is small electric shocks.  But then he puts in a needle and does an electric shock.  In my forearm he had to dig around.  5  days latter I have a hell of a bruise.  And the arm that is in pain/numb and back where he stuck me has reacted very badly - sort of an odd rash.

But I survived that.  And that is only physical pain.  The bigger pain is the Board. 

Nonprofit 101 - nonprofits in the US are "owned" by a board of directors (trustees, . . . ).  They have ultimate fiduciary responsibility (financial), assess and where necessary modify the overall goals, mission, and values of the organization, set up the broad themes/needs the nonprofit will address, and hire and fire the executive director (CEO) who puts the mission and broad themes into practice via the program(s) of the nonprofit.  The executive director (me) monitors the operations of the nonprofit and alerts the board to any issues in between board meetings.

My relationship with the leadership of the board has been strained for almost a year now for all sorts of reasons.  And yes some of the egg is on my face too. 

INCOMPREHENSIBLE

But, when one informs the board that cash flow is so tight that there is a chance of missing the next payroll, what is the appropriate response.  Well  for about a week now there has been no response.  Well to be honest I did get a request for some additional information - detailing of  accounts receivable and payable - that wasn't all that relevant.  And I've heard rumor that a decision about what to do was made - that it was made without my input into the discussion is very troubling.  That I don't know what the decision is  incomprehensible. 


In reality the situation is not too difficult.  We have enough in reasonably liquid assets to meet payroll for about 6 months!! We have money owed to us from state contracts (enough to meet payroll for 12 weeks) that should be in hand by the end of the year.  Also, this time of year has historically been tough in terms of cash flow.  Revenue from donations falls off radically in July and August, while expense continue.  And the situation is exacerbated by a successful and significant expansion of services and capital improvement project where our costs have run ahead of our income; a situation that is slowly rectifying itself.  So, it is likely a short term problem that certainly bears further analysis and continued scrutiny. 

So not all my issues have to do with the gay thing.  Phew!  Just when I thought I was becoming a drama queen.